Carla Della Gatta, PhD
Carla Della Gatta is a theatre historian and performance theorist whose research focuses on ethnicity and aurality. Her primary fields are Shakespeare, Latinx theatre, LGBTQ theatre, and critical theory. She is Associate Professor of Theatre Scholarship and Performance Studies at University of Maryland.​
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Her work has been published in academic journals and collections, and her public scholarship can be found online through Chicago Shakespeare Theater, HowlRound, Victory Gardens Theater, the Shakespeare Theatre Company, and more. She is an active Steering Committee member of the Latinx Theatre Commons and serves on the boards for Shakespeare Survey and the Arden series Shakespeare and Social Justice.
She co-edited the collection, Shakespeare and Latinidad, published with Edinburgh University Press (2021), and her monograph, Latinx Shakespeares: Staging U.S. Intracultural Theater is open access with University of Michigan Press (January 2023).
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Prior to graduate school, Carla spent nine and a half years in the corporate sector in finance, strategic planning, and sales planning for GAP, Disney, Skechers, and Williams Sonoma. She has extensive experience in process and project management and change implementation.
Carla is Colombian and Jewish, born and raised in Los Angeles, and her scholarship is rooted in her lived experience living between languages.
Employment & Education
Employment:
2023-present: Associate Professor of Theatre and Performance Studies, University of Maryland
2019-2023: Assistant Professor of English, Florida State University
2015-19: Assistant Professor of Critical Studies - Theatre, University of Southern California
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Invited Affiliations:
2022-present: Tsikinya-Chaka Centre (TCC), Wits University of Johannesburg
2018-present: Bedrosian Center, Price School of Public Policy, USC
2017-19: Race and Equity Center, USC
2015-19: Center for 17th and 18th Century Studies, UCLA
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Education:
PhD - Theatre and Drama, Northwestern University
Certificate in Gender and Sexuality Studies
MA - Theatre and Drama, Northwestern University
MA - Literature in English, San Francisco State University
BA - English, University of California, Berkeley
Arts & Academic Boards and Service
Latinx Theatre Commons
2017 - present: Steering Committee
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The Fornés Institute
2022 - present: Digital Humanities Editor
2018 - present: Member
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Shakespeare and Social Justice series, Arden Shakespeare
2021 - present: Advisory Board
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Shakespeare Survey
2021-present: Advisory Board
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Teatro Magazine
2021-23: Performance Review Editor (English)
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Teatro: Revista de Estudios Culturales / A Journal of Cultural Studies
2021-23: Editorial Board
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Expand the Canon Initiative, Hedgepig Theatre Ensemble
2020-21: Board Member
Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE)
2022: Member, Awards Adhoc Committee, Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE)
2019-21: Member-At-Large / Liaison to the Operations Committee, Governing Council
American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR)
2021-23: Chair (2023), Member (2021-22), committee for three research and publishing awards
2018–20: Chair (2020), Member (2018-19), Collaborative Research Award Committee
Shakespeare Association of America (SAA)
2020-21: SAA Publics Award Committee
2016: NextGenPlen Selection Committee
Awards & Fellowships
2023: Wallace Foundation Planning Grant, Project Lead. Co-PI with Jacqueline Flores, Jorge Huerta, and Lillian Manzor
2023: Digital Humanities Summer Institute (DHSI) Online Scholarship, Renaissance Society of America
2023: Nominated, Undergraduate Teaching Award, FSU
2023: Conference Travel Grant, Shakespeare Association of America
2022-23: Susan Snyder Fellow, Folger Shakespeare Library Fellowship
2022: College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Faculty Travel Award, Florida State University
2022: Provost's Faculty Travel Grant, Florida State University
2022: Renaissance Society of America (RSA) Diversity Grant
2022: Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) Materials Grant (declined), Florida State University
2020: Robert B. Bradley Library Research Grant, co-received with Aaron C. Thomas, Florida State University
2020: First Year Assistant Professor (FYAP) Grant, Florida State University
2020: College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Faculty Travel Award, FSU, declined due to Covid-19
2018–19: Woodrow Wilson Career Enhancement Fellowship, The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation
2018–19: Folger Shakespeare Library Short-Term Fellowship
2018: The Mellon School of Theater & Performance Research, Harvard University Summer Session
2017: New York Public Library Short Term Fellowship
2017: USC Advancing Scholarship in the Humanities and Social Sciences (ASHSS) Grant Writing Fellowship
2016: American Society for Theatre Research Targeted Area Research Award
2016: J. Leeds Barroll Dissertation Prize, Shakespeare Association of America
2015: Summer Institute Cologne [sic!] at Cologne University, Sound Studies seminar, declined
2015: Finalist, Northwestern Presidential Fellowship, Northwestern University
2014–15: Gender & Sexuality Studies Graduate Assistantship, Northwestern University
2014: Graduate Student Travel Award, Shakespeare Association of America
2013: Visiting Scholar, Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham
2013: Graduate Research Grant, Northwestern University
2011: Ignition Grant, Northwestern University
2011: Summer Language Grant, Northwestern University
2008: Shakespeare in the Classroom, scholarship, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ashland
Courses Taught
Graduate
Introduction to Graduate Studies
Issues in Literary and Cultural Studies
Shakespeare, Race, and Ethnicity
Performing the Hyphen: American Drama after 1960
Shakespeare and Aurality
Queer Theatre / Queer Theory
Contemporary Latinx Theatre & Performance
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Undergraduate
Literature of Human Rights
Shakespeare
Shakespeare's Comedies and Romances
American Drama after 1970
LGBTQ Drama and Theatre
Latinx Drama and Theatre
Latina Theatre and Feminisms
Jewish American Playwrights
Greek and Roman Theatre
Theatre Across Histories and Cultures
Text Studies for Production
Theory and Practice of World Theatre I
Introduction to Theatre
The Theatre Scene
DEIA
2023: Leveraging the Arts to Achieve Equity, Justice, and Inclusion Goals, ArtsU Learning, Americans for the Arts
2022: Finding the Keys: Anti-Racist Approaches to Radical Recruitment in the Arts, ArtEquity
2021: Unconscious Bias Training, The Nova Collective
2020: Anti-Racist Theatre Workshop, Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE)
2019: Safe Zone Training, Allies & Safe Zones, FSU
2019-2021: Connections, FSU
2018: Anti-Racism Training, The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond (PISAB), Denver
2017: Safe Zone Training, LGBT Center, USC
2015–16: Member, Inclusion & Equity Committee, USC
2014–15: Humanities Officer, Ethnic Studies Graduate Student Colloquium, Northwestern
2014, 2010: Safe Space Training, LGBTQA Center, Northwestern
2014: Member, Diversity & Inclusion Initiatives, Office of Multicultural Affairs, Northwestern
2012–14: Member, Presidential University Diversity Council, Northwestern
2012–14: Member, Graduate Leadership Council, Northwestern
2012–13: Advocacy Co-Chair, Graduate Student Association, Northwestern
2012–13: Member, Campus Coalition on Sexual Violence, Northwestern
2011–12: Founding Member, Latina/o Studies Mentorship Program, Northwestern
2012: Recruiting Representative, Office of Multicultural Affairs, Northwestern