Humanities talk to examine 'Latinos and Broadway in the 21st Century'

David Román, professor of English and American Studies and Ethnicity, and a Dornsife Faculty Fellow at the University of Southern California, will introduce the 2012-2013 Institute for Humanities Research Faculty Seminar Series with a talk titled “'The Hydrants are Open:’ Latinos and Broadway in the 21st Century.”

Román will examine Lin Manuel Miranda's Tony-award winning musical "In the Heights" within the shifting cultural politics of race and ethnicity in the 21st century, offering a historical context for the success of the musical and, by extension, the growing opportunities for Latinos on Broadway.

The talk is scheduled to take place from noon-1:30 p.m., Sept. 25, in the Social Sciences building, room 109, on the Tempe campus. RSVP for the talk here: ihr.asu.edu/node/1070/register.

Román is visiting campus as a guest of Comparative Border Studies and to speak in the Border-to-Border: Mexico-U.S.-Canada Colloquia Series. He is author of several books, including "Performance in America: Contemporary U.S. Culture and the Performing Arts" (2005) and "Acts of Intervention: Performance, Gay Culture, and Aids" (1998), which won the 1999 ATHE Outstanding Book Award in Theatre Studies. His current projects include a book on the cultural politics of Broadway form the 1930s to the present, and a historical project on AIDS and cultural production in the 1980s and early 1990s.

This year’s Faculty Seminar Series is centered on “The Humanities and the Value of Performance.” From notions of mediated performance within literary, filmic, musical and dramatic discourse, to ideas about the ethics, politics and the rhetoric of performance, and the cultural, historical and religious impact and implication of performance, the humanities contributes important and compelling research for understanding one of the root endeavors that makes us human.

Following Román’s talk, six ASU faculty members, over three dates, will discuss their research which encompasses aspects of performance within artistic and creative practice and cultural theoretical discourse.

The first seminar is scheduled to take place on Oct. 2 and features Rachel Bowditch, assistant professor of Theatre and Film at the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, and Kevin Sandler, associate professor and director of internships in the Film and Media Studies Program, presenting on “Performance and the Ritual of Consumption.”

For more information, contact the IHR at 480-965-3000 or ihr@asu.edu.

The Institute for Humanities Research is a unit of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.