UCLA Drama Professor Haiping Yan to Speak

Haiping Yan, associate professor of drama and performance studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, will present a lecture titled “ ‘Sphere of Feelings’: Theatricality in Chinese Aesthetics and Beyond” at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 6 in Carleton’s Gould Library Athenaeum. The event is free and open to the public.

Yan, who teaches in the school of theater, film and television at UCLA, received her Ph.D. in modern European drama and critical theory from Cornell University. Before joining the faculty at UCLA in 2003, she taught at Oberlin College, the University of Colorado, Boulder, and the University of Michigan. She has been professor of humanities at Tsinghua University in Beijing since 1997 and Zijiang Chair Professor of Humanistic Studies at East China Normal University in Shanghai since 2002.

A specialist in 20th century Asian (primarily Chinese), European, and sub-Saharan African dramas, critical theory, and transnational performance studies, Yan is the author of numerous essays and several books in both English and Chinese.

Yan’s honors include China’s 1980-1981 First Prize for Excellence in Drama (the equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize in the U.S.) for her 10-act historical play titled “Li Shimin, Prince of Qin,” and CNN’s 1999 selection as one of “six most influential Chinese cultural figures” for her scholarly and creative works. She is currently the president-elect for the Women and Theatre Association and an elected member of the executive committee of the American Society for Theatre Research.

For more information and disability accommodations, call the Carleton Department of Asian Languages and Literatures at (507) 646-5437.