Video
Performing Arts Scholarship in the Digital Age:
A Conversation with James Wilson and Polly Thistlethwaite
On October 18, 2013, at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Theatre Library Association sponsored this discussion on digital access and performing arts research, from the alternate perspectives of a researcher and a librarian; focusing on the ways in which performing arts scholarship changes when previously hidden or unknown collections become digitally accessible.
James Wilson is Professor of English and Theatre at LaGuardia Community College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and he is currently the Executive Director of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies (CLAGS). Areas of research include queer theatre and performance, African American theatre, and pedagogy. His articles and reviews have appeared in Urban Education, Teaching English in the Two-Year College, Ecumenica, Theatre History Studies, and several essay anthologies. He is co-editor of The Journal of American Drama and Theatre, which is published by the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center (CUNY Graduate Center), and he serves on the nominating committee for the Drama Desk Awards. His book,Bulldaggers, Pansies, and Chocolate Babies: Race, Performance, and Sexuality in the Harlem Renaissance, was published by University of Michigan Press in 2010, and a paperback version was released in 2011.
Polly Thistlethwaite is Chief Librarian at the CUNY Graduate Center, joining the Graduate Center’s library faculty in 2002 as the Associate Librarian for Public Services. Before that, she served in libraries at Colorado State University, Hunter College, New York University, and Yale University; she has also held positions with the CUNY Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies, the Lesbian Herstory Archives, the Alternative Press index, and several local and national library organizations.