Brian Herrera, Assistant Professor of Theater in the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University. Photo by Kip Malone.
Brian Herrera, Assistant Professor of Theatre in the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton, has received a 2014-15 Donald D. Harrington Faculty Fellowship, a research fellowship awarded by the University of Texas at Austin.
The Fellowship is awarded annually to as many as five qualified young professionals from universities around the world. Harrington Fellows visit the University of Texas at Austin for the duration of the academic year to pursue their research and collaborate with colleagues.
Herrera’s work examines the formation of gender, sexual and racial identities in and through U.S. popular performance and has been published in many journals, including Theatre Journal, Modern Drama, The Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism and TDR: The Drama Review. He is particularly interested in how the labor of performers moves among industries, disciplines and media in ways that document not only the general importance of performance within American life, but also the particular work that performers are asked to do in times of cultural, demographic, and political upheaval.
His scholarly work has also been recognized by the Ford Foundation, the Smithsonian Institute, and the John Randolph & Dora Haynes Foundation. From 2007 to 2012, Herrera taught undergraduate and graduate courses in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of New Mexico, where he was recognized four times by The Project For New Mexico Graduates of Color as an Outstanding Faculty Member and, in 2010, the Weekly Alibi annual reader’s poll named Herrera Albuquerque’s “Best Post-Secondary School Professor or Instructor.” In 2012, Herrera joined the theater faculty of the Lewis Center. He holds degrees from Brown University, the University of New Mexico and Yale University, where he earned his Ph.D. in American Studies.
“It’s an honor to be recognized for my work through the Harrington Fellowship,” notes Herrera, “and it’s wonderful to be rewarded for that work with the time and space to jumpstart new projects.”
Herrera will primarily conduct research on, and work towards the completion of, his forthcoming book, “Casting: A History.” Rooted in the theoretics of performance studies and the archival methods of cultural history, the book presents a narrative survey of the material practices through which actors have been assigned particular roles within U.S. entertainment industries since the late nineteenth century. This book aims to document the shifting value attached to creative, intellectual, and expressive work in the United States in the twentieth century.
Herrera will also use his time to develop a book entitled “Starring Miss Virginia Calhoun” as well as several essays on the casting of Latina/o actors and the history of New Mexican theater.
To learn more about the Lewis Center for the Arts visit arts.princeton.edu.
