Interdisciplinary Cluster Program Brings Asian American Theatre Expert to UMD

This fall, one of the nation’s most highly regarded experts in Asian American theatre, Dr. Esther Kim Lee joins the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies (TDPS) faculty as Associate Professor in Theatre and Performance Studies. Dr. Lee, who specializes in theatre history, Asian American theatre, and globalization of theatre, will work with TDPS doctoral students on immigration studies and its relationship to the development of American theatre.

Dr. Lee joins the TDPS faculty as part of UMD’s Cluster Hire program, an innovative interdisciplinary teaching initiative that supports academic programs related to important social issues, and contributes to the University’s global and local community initiatives. In addition to her work in TDPS, the Cluster Program enables Dr. Lee to teach related subjects to students in UMD’s School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, Department of American Studies, Department of Sociology and Department of Anthropology.

Professor Lee is the author of A History of Asian American Theatre, which received the 2007 Award for Outstanding Book given by the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, and the editor of Seven Contemporary Plays from the Korean Diaspora in the Americas. She is currently the Editor of Theatre Survey, the flagship journal of the American Society for Theatre Research, and is currently working on a book project on the Chinese American playwright David Henry Hwang.