At the end of July, four theatre faculty members in the University of Notre Dame's Department of Film, Television, and Theatre were recognized at the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) annual conference in Baltimore.
Department chair and professor Anne García-Romero, won the Edited Works Award for her work on María Irene Fornés in Context, co-edited with Brian Eugenio Herrera. The award recognizes multi-authored edited projects in the fields of theatre and performance that demonstrate complex and critical engagement with dramatic texts, performances, histories, theories, practices, and/or pedagogies.
Patrick McKelvey, associate professor, won the Outstanding Article Award for his Theatre Journal article "'Honest Work Done by Honest Dogs': Canine Unemployment, Interspecies Rehabilitation, and Disability Performance." This award acknowledges scholarship marked by methodological sophistication, complex and critical engagement with dramatic texts and performances, focused inquiries, and possible directions for future scholarship.
Associate professor Tarryn Chun presented the Asian Theatre Journal (ATJ) Lecture on her book Revolutionary Stagecraft: New Methods for the Study of Modern Chinese Theatre. The lecture is a part of a long-standing tradition that invites a leading scholar to reflect on the development of the field, introduce new research methods, and offer perspectives on future directions in Asian theatre and performance studies. Chun was also the coordinator for a session on "Internationalizing ATHE," which highlighted challenges in the field and asked, "How can we more effectively engage scholars from across the globe to advance the study and visibility of non-Western theater?"
Sarah Gitenstein, assistant professor, presented 'The Body Onstage: Best Practices in Directing' for the Directing Debut Panel, a session for emerging scholars and directors presenting at ATHE for the first time, highlighting new research, practice, and pedagogy in theatre directing. She also joined a roundtable on Casting Queer Theatre, which brought academics and professionals together to discuss how the industry is changing in terms of casting. In conjunction with ATHE, Gitenstein also presented at the Association for Theatre Movement Educators pre-conference on "What the Body Carries: Sustainable Practice for Theatre Artists" with her collaborator Avi Wolf, exploring how centering the mind-body relationship in rehearsal can reduce harm.
An advocate for the field of theatre and performance in higher education, ATHE serves as an intellectual and artistic center for producing new knowledge about theatre and performance-related disciplines, cultivating vital alliances with other scholarly and creative disciplines, linking with professional and community-based theatres, and promoting access and equity.
Originally published by at ftt.nd.edu on August 26, 2026.
