Paige McGinley

Paige McGinley, Ph.D., Brown University, 2007, is Assistant Professor of Theater Studies, American Studies, and African American Studies. She is currently completing a manuscript, Walking Blues: Theatricality at the Crossroads, which examines extra-musical qualities of blues performance: the mise en scène of sets, costumes, and choreographies that are theatrically deployed by musicians and their producers. These representations of blues' travels, she argues, are haunted by the legacy of the minstrel stage and work both to "stage the south," and to make black migration visible and audible. Her second project, Rehearsing Civil Rights: Practicing the Law, 1938-1964, examines legal performance during the civil rights era, and places paradigms of practice and rehearsal at the center of a study of civil rights court cases, nonviolent direct action, and theatrical performance. Her research has been published by TDR, Performance Research, and Theater Survey. Courses taught at Yale include “African American Theater and Performance,” “Survey of Theater and Drama,” “Performing American Identities,” and “Site Specific Theater and Performance.”