Jennifer Joan Thompson
| Phone |
214-768-6184 |
Jennifer Joan Thompson’s research and teaching interests include theatre history, performance studies, Latin American theatre, cultural policy, theatre as social practice, and actor training. Her first book, Performing Citizenship in Post Dictatorship Chile: Cultural Policy and the Making of Political Dramaturgies, has received numerous recognitions including the 2026 ATHE Outstanding Book Award. In it she explores how the production and aesthetics of theater are intertwined in processes of democratization, enactments of citizenship and the development of cultural policy. She is currently at work on a project exploring archival performance, care, and transnational solidarity movements in the Americas. Her research has been funded by Fulbright-Hays and Social Science Research Council grants.
In addition to her research, Thompson has extensive professional experience as an actor and has performed on and off Broadway and regionally, at theatres including Lincoln Center, The Public, Roundabout, Manhattan Theatre Club, MCC, Classic Stage Company and Ensemble Studio Theatre.
Prior to SMU, Thompson was on the theatre arts faculty at the University of Pennsylvania and has taught at Webster University, Brooklyn College and City College.
Education
Ph.D., Theatre and Performance, CUNY Graduate Center
M.F.A., Acting, NYU/TISCH School of the Arts
B.A., History and Theatre Studies, Yale University
Recent Work
Books
Performing Citizenship in Post Dictatorship Chile: Cultural Policy and the Making of Political Dramaturgies.
(Northwestern University Press, forthcoming March 2025)
Articles and Book Chapters
“An Explosion of Feminism: Dramaturgies of Excess and Revolution in Chile’s New Feminist Vanguard,” in Bodies on the Front Lines: Performance, Gender, and Sexuality in Latin America and the Caribbean, ed. Brenda Werth and Katherine Zien (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2024).
“Three Acts of Care in Performance and Beyond: A non-linear testimony,” with Özgül Akinci and Konstantina Georgelou, Performance Research 26, 6-7 (2022).
“Guillermo Calderón,” Fifty Key Figures in Latinx and Latin American Theatre, ed. Paola S. Hernández and Analola Santana (London: Routledge, 2022).
“Horizons of (Im)possibility: The Political Imperative and the Dramaturgy of Guillermo Calderón,” Theatre Journal 73, no. 2 (2021).
“Each/Every: CADA’s Radically Democratic Dramaturgy of Dissent,” Theatre Survey 61.1 (2020).
Guest Editor, “Global Voices in the Time of Corona,” PAJ 42.3 (2020)
“Post-dictatorship Chilean theatre and the political imperative: Ictus’ Esto (no) es un testament,” in The Routledge Companion to Theatre and Politics, eds. Peter Eckersall and Helena Grehan (London: Routledge, 2019).
Distinctions:
Excellence in Mentorship, SMU Office of Engaged Learning, 2026
Outstanding Book Award (Distinction in Scholarly Achievement), Association for Theatre in Higher Education, 2026
Honorable Mention, John Frick Book Award, 2026
Honorable Mention, Best Book in the Humanities, Southern Cone Section of the Latin American Studies Association, 2026
Best New Play (Romeo & Zooliet), St. Louis Theatre Critics Circle Awards, 2026
Fulbright-Hays, Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship, 2018
Social Science Research Council, DPDF Fellowship, 2016.
Course list
| Theatre History I & II | |
| Text Analysis for Performance | |
| Latin American Theatre & Performance | |
| Performance Studies for Artistic Practice |
