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As the semester ended, 45 students from the Humanities Scholars Program (HSP) in the College of Arts & Sciences (A&S) presented their work May 2 at the annual Humanities Scholars Spring Research Conference.
Rejoice Abutsa, a Ph.D. candidate in Performing and Media Arts, is the winner of a 2024 Gertrude Spencer Prize for Students and Instructors at Cornell University. She is awarded this prize for her joint work with student Itunu Adejare, called "Igwebuike: The Idea of Sisterhood and Women's Narratives in Nollywood.” The prize recognizes excellence in writing and is awarded by the John S. Knight Institute for Writing in the Disciplines.
PMA Professors J. Ellen Gainor, Aoise Stratford, Kristen Warner, and Danielle Russo participated in the Smart is Strong Foundation spring conference on the theme of "Feminism in the Arts & Media," as part of International Women's Day.
Roger Moseley, associate professor of music, will begin in the new role July 1.
Awardees were recognized for the significant impacts they have made to advance access, engagement and belonging through their service and leadership.
Among those being recognized for exceptional teaching and mentorship this year are faculty members Begüm Adalet, Claudia Verhoeven, and Marcelo Aguiar.
Hira Mahmood, a PMA Ph.D. student, has won a 2025 Russell Family Teaching Award in Performing and Media Arts. Mahmood’s research focus includes aesthetics, affect (shame, disgust, embarrassment), psychoanalysis (abjection, desire, language), visual and material cultures, and subjectivity. In Fall 2025, she will be teaching the course PMA 1175: FWS: Hell is a Teenage Girl: Terror and Turmoil of Girlhood in Horror Films.
Tess Lovell is majoring in English and performing and media arts.
Davis Ouriel is majoring in performing and media arts & feminist, gender and sexuality studies
Visiting Lecturer Carolyn Michelle Smith recently had the U.S. premiere of her film, “Familiar Touch” at the New Directors/New Films Film Festival at Lincoln Center in early April. The film stars Kathleen Chalfant, Carolyn Michelle, H. John Benjamin, Andy McQueen, and London Garcia. It was written and directed by Sarah Friedland.
In this episode, we met with Bixby Piccolo Hill to discuss his work on Milkshake Kiss, the premier film project for PMA Studios. PMA Studios is a new collaboration of students, faculty, staff and guest artists to write, produce and direct professional movies.
Join the Department of Performing and Media Arts for the Student Film Screening, on Friday, May 9, at 5:00 p.m., in the Kiplinger Theatre, Schwartz Center for Performing Arts. The Student Film Screening will feature unique, empathetic, and collaborative works from students in PMA 3570: Film and Video Production I and PMA 1410: Media Production Laboratory.
Cornell Music & Sound Studies Ph.D. Candidate Nic Vigilante has won the 2025 Marvin Carlson Award for Best Student Essay for Theatre or Performance for their essay “Salty, Sweet, and Spicy: Ingestion and Immersion in Queer Asian American Nightlife.”
PMA Podcast Episode 68 - Top of My School w/Katherine Lynn-Rose
Join PMA for Sub-Basement Docs on Thursday, May 8, at 6:30 p.m. in the Kiplinger Theatre, Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. This showcase of student films from Advanced Documentary Production (ANTHR/PMA 4401/7401) will feature “Women’s Court” by Can Cao, “The Milking Parlor” by Gus Dupin, and “Radical Ritual” by Jacob Berman. The student directors will participate in a Q&A session following the event. Free and open to the public. First come, first served.
Join PMA for the Honors Thesis Screening on Thursday, May 8, at 5:00 p.m. in the Kiplinger Theatre, Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. This exciting showcase of honors film projects by the Cornell Senior Class will feature “Top of My School” by Katherine Lynn-Rose ‘25. Experience outstanding storytelling and gain insight directly from the student director during a Q&A session following the event. Free and open to the public. Tickets are not required.
A new play called Rift, or White Lies features scenic design by PMA Visiting Associate Professor Nick Embree. Written by Gabriel Jason Dean and directed by Seth Rozin, Rift, or White Lies opened on April 4 at the InterAct Theatre Company’s Drake Proscenium Theater in Philadelphia and will run until April 27.
Voices of Our Nations Arts (VONA), a foundation recognized as "the premier multi-genre workshop for BIPOC Writers," has selected PMA/LSP Associate Professor Karen Jaime as a 2025 VONA Fellow. As a Fellow, Jaime will be participating in their summer poetry workshop.
PMA/LSP Associate Professor Karen Jaime was recently invited to the University of Miami's Center for the Humanities to discuss her research during a luncheon and public lecture on March 27, organized by the Queer Studies Interdisciplinary Research Group.
PMA Professor J. Ellen Gainor has been invited as a guest speaker for Syracuse University’s Goldring Arts, Style, and Culture Journalism Program on April 23. She will discuss the history of female theatre critics, as reflected in her co-edited volume, The Routledge Anthology of Women's Theatre Theory & Dramatic Criticism, and also be speaking about contemporary critics who are recent winners of the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism.
PMA Assistant Professor Juan Manuel Aldape Muñoz spoke at the University of Pittsburgh’s Latinx Connect Conference on Friday, April 4. Aldape Muñoz was part of a panel of leading critical dance studies scholars that included Jade Power Sotomayor, Irvin Gonzalez, and Manuel Cuellar.
PMA Department Chair Samantha Noelle Sheppard has won the 2025 Faculty Champion Award for Advanced Career Faculty, from the Graduate School Office of Inclusion & Student Engagement. The award ceremony will take place on Wednesday, May 14 from 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM at the Graduate Diversity and Inclusion Award and Recognition Celebration in G10 Biotech.
The documentary Human Again, created by PMA Professor Bruce Levitt, will screen at Cinemapolis on Sunday, April 27 at 2:30 p.m. The film, which earned Best Documentary Feature at the International Independent Film Awards, follows the five original founders of the Phoenix Players Theatre Group (PPTG) as they strive to reconnect with their repressed humanity at a maximum-security prison in Auburn, NY.
On April 25, seven Society for the Humanities’ Fellows will present their projects in progress during the annual Spring Fellows’ conference, highlighting the various ways that the theme of silence has been explored –
Join the Department of Performing and Media Arts for a screening of Milkshake Kiss presented by PMA Studios, on Friday, May 2, at 5:00 pm, in the Kiplinger Theatre, Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts.
The culmination of a year-long study of “New/Futurism: Installation, Intermedia, Interactive & Immersive Dance,” the April 25-26 performance also features the work of influential choreographer Merce Cunningham and highlights collaboration among art forms.
A recipient of the Martin and Bernice Rosenzweig Scholarship, in addition to Cornell grant aid, Bixby is grateful for the generous financial support of his studies in Performing and Media Arts.
PMA Associate Professor Austin Bunn will be hosting a screening and panel discussion at the Parkway Theatre in Baltimore on Tuesday, April 15 called "The Short & Story." The screening will include seven films by Maryland filmmakers across the genres of animation, documentary, experimental and narrative film, and Bunn will also discuss his recently released book, Short Film Screenwriting.
In this episode we met with PMA and FGSS Senior Davis Norma Ouriel to discuss her time here at Cornell, her work as an intimacy coordinator and performer in the Schwartz Center, as well as her future plans post graduation
Join the Department of Performing and Media Arts for Voices & Visions in Black Media: A Book Talk by Beretta E. Smith-Shomade, on Tuesday, April 29, at 5:00 pm, in the Film Forum, Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. Smith-Shomade will be discussing her book Finding God in All the Black Places: Sacred Imaginings in Black Popular Culture. Moderated by PMA Chair Samantha N. Sheppard.
The Department of Performing and Media Arts is pleased to announce SHED: An Evening of Intermedia Dance in Three Episodes in culmination of its yearlong initiative, New/Futurism: Installation, Intermedia, Interactive & Immersive Dance and the 2025 Annual Spring Dance Presenting Series. This event will take place on Friday and Saturday, April 25-26 at 7:30 PM, in the Kiplinger Theatre, Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. Get your free tickets here.
PMA Associate Professor Austin Bunn's new guide to short film screenwriting has drawn high praise from Filmmaker Magazine. His book Short Film Screenwriting: A Craft Guide and Anthology, published by Bloomsbury in October 2024, combines 10 essays about screenwriting with a curated, diverse anthology, including revealing interviews with the writers and directors.
Love to dance? Love dance history? Curious about choreography or minoring in Dance at Cornell? Join the Department of Performing and Media Arts for a campus-wide community gathering!
The national organization, The Women and Theatre Program (WTP), will be hosting virtual conference sessions on April 4 devoted to The Routledge Anthology of Women's Theatre Theory & Dramatic Criticism, co-edited by PMA Professor J. Ellen Gainor. A part of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) Spring Symposium, the conference sessions are titled “Learn, Share, Teach: Critical Responses to The Routledge Anthology of Women's Theatre Theory and Dramatic Criticism.”
PMA Associate Professor Christine Bacareza Balance was interviewed on Faculti, a research-driven platform that offers over 8,000 expert-led videos annually. Her interview centers around researching and revisiting the production history of Francis Ford Coppola's film Apocalypse Now within the historical context of the Marcos regime and Philippine martial law in the 1970s. This interview builds upon research and writing for Balance’s current book project, Making Sense: Poetics, Performance, and Philippine Martial Law.
“The Family Copoli," a “post-apocalyptic burlesque and re-population play,” is the brainchild of playwright Andy Colpitts ’26, a doctoral candidate in PMA, and composer Michael Wookey and the production involves more than a dozen Cornell alumni and students.
Join the Department of Performing and Media Arts for Professional Directions: Production Design for Film & TV and Accessibility with Michael Fitzgerald on Wednesday, April 9, from 2:30 PM to 4:10 PM, in Conference Room 220, Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. The event will be moderated by Visiting Associate Professor Nick Embree, and is sponsored by Student Disability Services.
Join the Department of Performing and Media Arts for PMAPS: Movement and Creation Workshop with Merián Soto on Wednesday, April 9, at 7:30 p.m. in the Ballet Studio (Room 320), Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. Students in PMA 3350: Technology and the Moving Body I "Body and Tech" and "PMA 2300: Dance Compositions will take part in the workshop with Soto. The event is free and open to the public. Join the Department of Performing and Media Arts for PMAPS: "¡Fenomenal! Rompeforma 1989-1996" Film Screening on Thursday, April 10, at 5:00 p.m. in the Film Forum, Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. The screening will be following by a Q&A with Merián Soto and Viveca Vázquez. The event is free and open to the public.
Members of Cornell's Department of Performing and Media Arts are participating in the Shakespeare Association of America conference this week.
In this episode, Jessie and Chris met with Cornell senior Liv Licursi, PMA graduate student Andy Colpitts, and singer-songwriter and composer Michael Wookey, to discuss their upcoming production of The Family Copoli, A New Post-Apocalyptic Burlesque Musical scheduled to take place this August at the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Are you a student looking to break into film, TV, and media, or an alum working in the industry? Connect through PMA's CORNELL IN HOLLYWOOD Group on CUeLINKS, Cornell's exclusive networking platform that bridges current students with alums. While this group highlights film, TV, and media connections, participants from ALL majors are welcome!
The new Broadway musical “Redwood” features set design by Cornell Alum Jason Ardizzone-West ’95, a former AAP student who participated in many PMA productions. The show stars Tony Award-winner Idina Menzel who co-conceived the show alongside director Tina Landau. “Redwood” opened at the Nederlander Theatre on Broadway on February 13.
Assistant Professor of the Practice Danielle Russo has been selected as a 2025 New York State Choreographers Initiative Award Recipient, administered by the New York State Council on the Arts and NYS DanceForce. This award will support the research and development of her new intermedia dance and community archival project, with emphasis on its community engagement in Central New York in Spring and Fall 2025.
On Friday, March 14, at 7:30 PM PST, Wa Na Wari will present "GuideStar" at the Space Needle: A Spectacular Light and Sound Installation by PMA Professor Mendi Obadike and AAP Professor Keith Obadike. “GuideStar” will feature an array of light shining from the top of the Space Needle for an evening of cosmic reflection and wonder.
PMA Assistant Professor Juan Manuel Aldape Muñoz will be speaking at Harvard University’s Theater and Performance Studies Colloquium on Friday, March 7, from 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM. The event is coordinated by Eunice Lee and Sarah Gonzalez.
Join the Department of Performing and Media Arts for the 12th Annual Aster Film Festival on Saturday and Sunday, April 12-13, from 10:45 AM - 6:45 PM on each day, in the Film Forum, Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts.
PMA Alum Gloria Majule ‘17 has received a MacDowell Fellowship in Theatre Arts for the Spring-Summer 2025 season. Majule, along with the other fellowship recipients will arrive at MacDowell’s historic campus in Peterborough, NH from March through August 2025 for an average stay of four weeks.
From his formative years at Cornell as a dual Government/PMA Theatre major to his time at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business with many pursuits in between, Jorge Silva ’12 reflects on his dynamic career trajectory and the professional roles that have shaped his journey.
PMA Lecturer and A&S Advising Dean Aoise Stratford’s play The Unfortunates just completed its run with the Spirit Gum Theatre Company, at the Mountcastle Forum in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Performances for the season took place on January 31 – February 2 and from February 7 – February 9. The play, written by Stratford, and directed by Ashley Pearson, is published by TRW and was a Time Out New York Critics Pick.
Join the Department of Performing and Media Arts for a Free Screening of Assemblage (1968, 59 minutes) on Wednesday, March 5, at 7:30 PM in the Film Forum, Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts.