Joanna Dee Das

Joanna Dee Das received her PhD in History from Columbia University and is now an Associate Professor of Dance in the Performing Arts Department at Washington University in St. Louis. She is also affiliated with Washington University's American Culture Studies Program and the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity, and Equity. Her research interests include dance in the African diaspora, musical theater dance, and the politics of performance in the twentieth century. She is the author of Katherine Dunham: Dance and the African Diaspora (Oxford 2017), which won the 2018 de la Torre Bueno Best First Book Award from the Dance Studies Association and an honorable mention Errol Hill Award for outstanding scholarship in African American theatre and performance from the American Society for Theatre Research. She has also published articles in Journal of Urban History, Dance Research Journal, Studies in Musical Theatre, Theatre History Studies, TDR, and ARTS, as well as authored or co-authored book chapters in The Futures of Dance Studies, The Routledge Companion to the Contemporary Musical, and A Critical Companion to the American Stage Musical. Her current book project examines the history of the Branson, Missouri entertainment industry.