Ph.D. student dissertation wins National Fellowship

Woodrow Wilson Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship in Women's Studies

The Department of Theatre and Dance is proud to announce that Je Hye Kim, a Ph.D. student in Performance as Public Practice, has been awarded the Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Fellowship in Women's Studies. This fellowship is awarded annually to seven Ph.D. candidates in institutions across the country to encourage original and significant research about women that crosses disciplinary, regional, or cultural boundaries.

Kim's dissertation abstract:

Performing Female Masculinities at the Intersections of Race, Class, Ethnicity, and Sexuality

My project explores how women and female to male transgenders (FTMs) perform their masculinities on stage. Focusing on the intersections of race, gender, class, ethnicity, and sexuality, I examine how they foreground the constructed nature of masculinity, and how they configure and embody female masculinities in their performances. I hope to demonstrate diverse variations and a wide range of female masculinities across different venues and genres. My case studies include lesbian performance artists Peggy Shaw and Carmelita Tropicana, Asian American performance artists kt shorb and D'Lo, drag king shows, and the Showtime cable TV lesbian drama the L Word. By offering complex illustrations of how women and FTMs inhabit masculine genders within the female body or the gender-ambiguous body, I will shed light on gender fluidity, mutability and indeterminacy. Especially, with an emphasis on performances of women of color and gender-queers including FTMs, my dissertation will elaborate critical thinking on gender differences within women in relation to other social vectors and offer an advanced research concerning gender performativity in women's studies.

http://www.woodrow.org/womens-studies