Department Homepage
The College of Arts & Sciences
Join the Department of Performing and Media Arts for From the Arctic to Broadway and Back: A Conversation with Playwright Carson Kreitzer on Wednesday, April 22, at 5:00 pm, in the Film Forum, Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. This event is part of the Professional Directions series. Free and open to the public. Tickets are not required.
Join PMA for DJ Quinnette Presented by PMA 1183 FWS: Hip-Hop’s Global Vibrations (NYC, LA, Southeast Asia). This event will take place on Zoom on Wednesday, April 8, from 11:40 am - 12:55 pm. There will be a short DJ turntablist performance, followed by a Q&A session. Free and open to the public.
Join the Department of Performing and Media Arts for HomeBody: I'm Still Here: Transgressing the Borders of Disciplines and Dystopian World-Building in Performance. This Performance-Lecture with Ingrid Kapteyn will take place on Tuesday, March 24, from 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm, in the Class of ’56 Dance Studio Theatre (SB10), Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. Free and open to the public.
Cornell dance students will present “Penumbra: 2026 Annual Spring Dance Presenting Series,” a performance of original dance work hosted by the Department of Performing and Media Arts in the College of Arts & Sciences, March 20 and 21 at 7:30 p.m. in the Class of ’56 Flexible Theatre, Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. The show features work by visiting choreographer Babatunji Johnson and Cornell professor of the practice Danielle Russo.
Join the Department of Performing and Media Arts for Professional Directions: A Conversation with Keri Putnam, A.D. White Professor-at-Large on Thursday, March 19, at 2:00 pm, in the Film Forum, Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. Free and open to the public. Tickets are not required. The event will be moderated by Roger Moseley (Music, Milstein Program) and Sabine Haenni (Performing and Media Arts), and will include a Q&A with students.
Join the Department of Performing and Media Arts for Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night Auditions, on Tuesday, April 7, from 5:00 pm to 9:00 pm, and Tuesday, April 14, from 5:00 pm to 9:00 pm, in the Black Box Theatre, Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. Twelfth Night, one of Shakespeare’s most beloved plays, will be produced in the Fall 2026 semester with performances on October 23-24 and 30-31. All are welcome to audition!
Join PMA for An Evening with Nona Hendryx: A Conversation on Life, Music, and Creative Practice, on Thursday, March 19, from 5:15 pm to 6:30 pm, in the Milstein Auditorium, Milstein Hall. This event is part of the Black Sound Series, organized by Mendi Obadike and Keith Obadike. Co-sponsored by the Department of Performing and Media Arts, Sounds of Blackness, Milstein Program, Department of Music, Feminist, Gender & Sexuality Studies Program, American Studies Program, and the Department of Art.
Join the Department of Performing and Media Arts for PENUMBRA: 2026 ANNUAL SPRING DANCE PRESENTING SERIES, an evening of original dance work featuring choreography by Babatunji Johnson and Assistant Professor of the Practice Danielle Russo, on Friday, March 20, and Saturday March 21, from 7:30 pm - 8:30 pm, in the Class of ’56 Flexible Theatre, Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts.
Former PMA Faculty Carolyn Michelle Smith returns to Cornell to offer two on-camera workshops for student actors, March 12-13. Workshop #1: Building the Solo Scene On-Camera Thursday, March 12, 4:45-6:45 pm, Black Box Theatre, Schwartz Center Open to all students currently or previously enrolled in PMA 2800 and above Workshop #2: On-Camera Audition Technique Friday, March 13, 3:00-5:00 pm, SB10 Dance Theatre, Schwartz Center Open to all students who have completed PMA 2800, as well as students currently/formerly enrolled in PMA 3800 and above Please register using this link: https://forms.gle/2bFC9LDrAVL6tDyc8. Important additional information will be provided in advance of the workshop.
Join the Department of Performing and Media Arts for PMAPS Colloquium with AE Stevenson: “'Oh My Fucking God, She Fucking Dead': Time in a Vine,” on Friday, March 20, from 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm, in the Film Forum, Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. AE Stevenson is Assistant Professor of Cinema and Media Studies, University of Chicago. This event is free and open to the public.
Join the Department of Performing and Media Arts for Home and the Body: Multiplicities of Time and Memory, a Performance-Lecture with Kayla Farrish on Tuesday, March 3, from 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm, in the Class of ’56 Dance Studio Theatre (SB10), Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. Free and open to the public. Tickets are not required.
Join the Department of Performing and Media Arts for Professional Directions: A Conversation with Kyle Abraham on Thursday, March 5, from 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm, in Reading Room 124, Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. Free and open to the public. Tickets are not required. The guest will join virtually on Zoom.
Join the Department of Performing and Media Arts for Professional Directions: Expand Your Scope: Working as a Creative in Entertainment with Carolyn Michelle Smith on Friday, March 13, from 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm, in Room 220, Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. Open to all Cornell students. Lunch will be provided. RSVP to pma@cornell.edu by Wednesday, March 11.
PMA Chair and Associate Professor Samantha Noelle Sheppard has written a review for The Guardian about the documentary Natchez, called “Plantation weddings and pre-civil war fashion: the film that critiques the historical fantasy of Natchez.”
Named for Cornell’s first president, the program sponsors scholars and public intellectuals in the life sciences, physical sciences, humanities, social sciences and the arts and this semester features several connections with the College of Arts and Sciences.
Join PMA for Ladies of Manila Sound Presented by PMA 1183 FWS: Hip-Hop’s Global Vibrations (NYC, LA, Southeast Asia). This event will take place on Zoom on Monday, March 9, from 11:40 am - 12:55 pm. There will be a short DJ turntablist performance, followed by a Q&A session. Join on Zoom: https://cornell.zoom.us/j/97871338956?pwd=jkVtNRwYV9DOw8MtoeQ9Sf5vYgyLQY.1
PMA/LSP Associate Professor Karen Jaime has completed a set of media appearances discussing Bad Bunny's Super Bowl halftime performance. Jaime was featured in a televised broadcast on WNYW’s local Fox 5 News station, during a segment titled "Halftime Show Audience Estimated to be More Than 135 Million Viewers." Jaime was also quoted in the article “Bad Bunny's Ford pickup a nod to automaker's relevance in Puerto Rico” by Jamie L. LaReau, originally published in the Detroit Free Press.
On Wednesday, February 18, at 6:00 pm, Cornell Cinema will host a screening of Memories of Love Returned, a documentary by filmmaker Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine. PMA Ph.D. Candidate Rejoice Abutsa will join Mwine for a post-screening conversation.
PMA Senior Lecturer Theo Black will be participating in two environmental storytelling events this month. First, he will be hosting a panel called “Changed Waters,” on February 20, at the South Yuba River Citizens League’s (SYRCL) Wild & Scenic Film Festival, in Nevada City, California. Black will also be participating in a BIOphelia event on February 22, at the New Swan Shakespeare Center, in Irvine, California.
PMA Ph.D. Student Isabel Padilla Carlo has published a paper called ““Si Tu No Sabe Kokobalé” and The Reclamation of Collective Memory as a Praxis of Liberation” in Conversations Across the Field of Dance Studies, a journal published by the Dance Studies Association. The paper is included in Volume 44 of the journal, entitled “The Caribbean as a Pole of the African Diaspora.”
PMA Professor Mendi Obadike and AAP Professor Keith Obadike gave an artist talk in the Sound Arts Lecture Series for the London College of Communications' program CRiSAP (Creative Research in Sound Arts Practice) on January 22. The event took place over Zoom.
Events include film screenings, panel discussions and a concert by the Barbara & Richard T. Silver Wind Symphony.
Kimi Takesue is the 2025 Carol B. Epstein Visiting Artist in the Department of Performing and Media Arts. Join the Department of Performing and Media Arts for Professional Directions: 95 and 6 To Go with Filmmaker Kimi Takesue on Wednesday, February 25, at 5:00 pm, in the Film Forum, Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. After the screening of 95 and 6 To Go, Kimi Takesue will participate in a talkback. The event will be moderated by PMA Associate Professor Jeffrey Palmer and Associate Professor Kelly Gallagher, Film and Media, Syracuse University, and is free and open to the public.
This spring, PMA will be holding open auditions in preparation for the 2026-27 academic year's theatre productions. Join us on February 24, from 5:30 pm – 8:00 pm, in the Black Box Theatre, Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. Additional auditions and callbacks will be held on February 26 at the same time and location.
The first artist to win Album of the Year with a Spanish‑language album, Bad Bunny reflects the mainstreaming of Spanish language music and artistry, says professor Karen Jaime.
Veteran actor Carla Gallo ’97 has a long list of credits on TV and in movies — and now, she’s co-starring in the hit comedy "Platonic."
The Department of Performing and Media Arts is proud to present PMA Studios. A multi-discipline collaboration, bringing together strength and resources of talented students across Cornell, PMA faculty, PMA staff, and local guest media artists/mentors to write, produce, and direct a professional movie production. PMA Studios is a project-based course, listed as PMA 1611. Please join us on this exciting journey to movie magic.
PMA Chair Samantha Noelle Sheppard was interviewed by Mike Herbstreuth on Deutschlandradio in an interview called “Why Basketball Works So Well in Pop.” The conversation is part of the program “Corso – Art and Pop.” In the interview, Sheppard talked about basketball in popular culture and the intersection of race and basketball film conventions.
PMA Ph.D. Alum Stephen Low ‘16 has written a new book called Theatricality as a Practice of Gay Culture. The book, published by Cambridge Scholars in December, 2025, argues that theatricality, not identity, is what defines gay culture. Gay culture is a practice, accessible to anyone with a flair for the theatrical.
PMA Professor Austin Bunn will screen his new short documentary about an upstate burlesque academy, Getting Almost Naked, at Liquid State Brewing on January 29, from 7:30 pm to 8:30 pm. The screening will be followed by a post-show discussion with the film's subjects and stars. The film is produced and edited by Austin Bunn, with cinematography by Karen Rodriguez and Fabio Morelli and created in collaboration with the students of Cornell's Spring 2025 Rural Humanities Seminar, "Documenting Local Lives".
From midcentury melodramas to speculative visions of technology and the human body—and even a French coming of age story about crafting world class cheese—Cornell Cinema’s spring season offers a varied plate.
The Obadikes have exhibited and performed their interdisciplinary work at The New Museum, The Studio Museum in Harlem, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The Museum of Modern Art. Their projects include four books, two albums, and a series of large-scale public sound artworks.
Join the Department of Performing and Media Arts for the 13th Annual Aster Film Festival on Saturday and Sunday, February 21-22, from 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM on each day, in the Film Forum, Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. Screenings will take place at 1:00 PM and 3:30 PM on each day. This ticketed event is free and open to the public. Get Your Free Tickets Here: https://cornell.campusgroups.com/dka/rsvp_boot?id=2296582
"Chats with the Chair" invites PMA majors, minors, and those interested in the department to join the chair for food and fellowship. Come learn more about the department, give feedback, and talk about everything performing and media arts at Cornell and beyond! Lunch provided!
Internationally acclaimed Dancer, Choreographer & Princess Grace Awardee Babatunji Johnson began as a hip-hop dancer in Hilo, Hawai‘i, before dancing over a decade with Alonzo King LINES Ballet. His signature movement language blends ballet, contemporary, breaking, and hip-hop for live performance and multimedia, with film credits that include Rafael Casal and Daveed Diggs’ Blindspotting, and Flower with Misty Copeland. By enrolling in PMA 1611, participating students will have the opportunity to learn, rehearse, and perform original choreography by Babatunji and PMA Faculty for the Annual Spring Dance Presenting Series, taking March 21-22 on a PMA mainstage.
During her Yaddo residency, Danielle Russo developed a dance piece, enriching the work by drawing on ideas of ritual movement, personal memories and family history, and more.
In Spring 2023, PMA produced a 65-minute play titled ‘Mine.’ Set in Russia, the play is a family drama exploring themes of the past and the future, technology and humanity, and authorship in a time of catastrophe. ‘Mine’ cannot be staged in Russia due to strict censorship laws. Determined to make the story accessible, both to a general audience and to people in Russia, writer-director Anna Evtushenko (PhD '24) recorded the live performances. More than two years later, after extensive effort, a fully realized pro-shot is now available on YouTube. The Cornell Daily Sun called it "a harrowing exploration of personal collapse and societal decay.
Find out your role in PMA's vibrant projects and collaborations! Mark your calendar for Projects & Participation Kick-off on Wednesday, January 21 at 7:30 p.m. in the Kiplinger Theatre, Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts.
It's that time of the semester again... Festival 24! Festival 24 is a once-per-semester festival where Cornell students write, direct, and perform a compilation of 15-minute plays and films all within 24 hours! Join the Department of Performing and Media Arts on Saturday, January 24 at 7:30 p.m. in the Flex Theatre, Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. This event is free and open to the public.
On December 14, PMA Ph.D. Alum Joshua Bastian Cole-Kurz ’22 participated in the virtual book launch for The Methuen Drama Book of Trans Plays, Volume 2. Cole-Kurz contributed a dramaturgical introduction and participated in a live Q&A conversation with one of the anthology editors, Lindsey Mantoan.
PMA Assistant Professor Juan Manuel Aldape Muñoz performed a new work entitled Fugitivity on October 25-26, presented by the Dance Mission Theater. Fugitivity is the latest iteration in the performance series “Dismantling: Tactic X" convened and directed by NAKA Dance Theater co-founders Jose Ome Navarrete Mazatl and Debby Kajiyama. Aldape Muñoz devised the work in collaboration with Amelia Uzategui Bonilla, Cristina Lopez Suarez, Krhistina Giles, Music Research Strategies (Marshall Trammell), Oka Ver, Jose Ome Navarrete Mazatl and Debby Kajiyama, with video and object design by Ian Winters, and lighting design by Jose Maria Francos.
PMA faculty members Mendi Obadike, Bruce Levitt, and Austin Bunn have proposed media projects in the Summer 2026 Nexus Scholar Program and are looking for undergraduate researchers to apply. With a deadline of January 12, 2026, The Nexus Scholars Program in the College of Arts & Sciences (A&S) provides undergraduate students with paid, full-time summer research opportunities under the mentorship of faculty from all across the college (humanities, social sciences, and STEM). The program also includes a professional development course, career exploration opportunities, social events, and the chance to join a cohort of 100 students with diverse interests who are passionate about learning.
PMA Professor Mendi Obadike and AAP Professor Keith Obadike will participate in a marathon reading of the book Studies into Darkness: The Perils and Promise of Freedom of Speech, along with other contributors to the book. The event, organized by the Vera List Center for Art and Politics, will take place virtually from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm EST on November 21. Studies into Darkness was originally released in 2022, edited by Carin Kuoni and Laura Raicovich, and co-published by Amherst College Press and the Vera List Center. Mendi + Keith Obadike will read their work In the Mouth of This Dragon from 8:05 pm to 8:45 pm EST.
The David M. Einhorn Center for Community Engagement has released a new video series highlighting a decade of progress and impact in community-engaged learning across the university.
Cornell Alums Cynthia He ’20 and Matthew Campanella ’17 have received distinctions at this year’s Austin Film Festival. He, a Computer Science major with a minor in French studies, and Campanella, an Applied Economics & Management Major with a minor in Theater, were both former screenwriting students of PMA Professor Austin Bunn.
The program will place students in Hollywood for a semester of coursework, networking, and cultural immersion.
Applications for Cornell in Los Angeles Spring 2027 semester will open in April 2026. Applications will be accepted April 1-May 1, 2026. Students from all Cornell colleges and majors are welcome to apply! Join PMA for one of the following information sessions to find out more about the program and the applications details. • Wednesday, March 25, 2026, 5pm, on Zoom • Wednesday, April 8, 2026, 5pm, Room 220, Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts
Join the Department of Performing and Media Arts to celebrate Jane Austen's 250th Birthday, on Friday, November 21st! The event will include a regency dance workshop beginning at 5:45, refreshments, and card games. All are welcome to attend! 🕰5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. 📍Room 322, Schwartz Center for Performing Arts Co-sponsored by the Departments of Literatures in English and Performing and Media Arts.
Join the Department of Performing and Media Arts for Share In/Share Out: End-of-Semester PMA Dance Showcase. The showcase will take place in the Class of ’56 Dance Studio Theatre, Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts, on Friday, November 21, at 7:30 pm, and on Saturday, November 22, at 2:00 pm. Both performances are free and open to the public. Get your free tickets at pma.cornell.edu/tickets.
Ecology & Performance Event – Cornell Climate Action Month “Eco-Performance: Harnessing Dynamic Communication Skills to Meet the Times” Tue Nov 18th, 5:15-7pm in Fernow Hall G24