Rebecca Rossen (Ph.D., Northwestern University) is a choreographer and dance scholar whose research focuses on 20th and 21st century American dance, theatrical stagings of identity, and the relationship between scholarship and performance. Professor Rossen teaches dance history as well as courses on identity, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality in physical performance. She is currently completing a book, Dancing Jewish: Jewish Identity in American Modern and Postmodern Dance (under contract with Oxford University Press). Additional publications include “Uneasy Duets: Contemporary American Dances about Israel and the Mideast Crisis” (TDR: The Drama Review, Fall 2011), “Chassidic Drag: Jewishness, Cross-Dressing, and Ethnic Ambiguity in the Modern Dances of Pauline Koner and Hadassah” (Feminist Studies, Summer 2011), “The Jewish Man and His Dancing Shtick: Stock Characterization and Masculinity in Postmodern Dance” (in “You Should See Yourself!”: Jewish Identity and Postmodern American Culture, Rutgers 2006), and “Moving through the Interspace: Emio Greco/PC's Orfeo ed Euridice” (Opera Quarterly, Winter 2007). She has also written articles on dance history for Dance Teacher Magazine.
As a dancer, Rebecca has performed with numerous companies and choreographers, including the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, Hedwig Dances, the Cook County Theatre Department, Loop Troop, XSight! Performance Group, Ishmael Houston-Jones, Audio Gruppe (Germany), Annat Shamgar (Israel), and Baldanza (Italy). Her choreography has been presented internationally at the HaBama Theater in Jerusalem, Israel; nationally at the Society of Dance History Scholars, Cleveland Experimental Dance Festival, the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, and the American College Dance Festival; and at venues throughout her hometown of Chicago. She has been awarded choreography grants from the City of Chicago, the Illinois Arts Council, and Northwestern University's Center for Interdisciplinary Research in the Arts, as well as an artist's residency from the Arad Arts Project in Arad, Israel.
Prior to joining UT 's faculty in 2008 as an assistant professor, Rebecca taught dance history and performance at Northwestern University, the University of Chicago, George Mason University, the Dance Center of Columbia College, and numerous Chicago-area dance studios.
In addition to her work in Performance as Public Practice and Theatre and Dance, Professor Rossen is a faculty affiliate in the Center for Women’s and Gender Studies, the Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies, and the American Studies Department.
