Hi! I’m Lee. I am a critical cultural scholar, educator, and theatre artist living in Baltimore.
Popular culture and art are the things I like to get real nerdy about, so that’s mostly what you’ll see me writing about in this blog. During my M.S. studies in Communications at Towson University, I wrote my master’s thesis on the presentation of masculinity in the Tinder dating app. I went to Princeton for undergrad, where I studied English and Theatre and directed my first full-length play as part of my Senior Thesis—John Lyly’s Gallathea, presented as a glam rock spectacle. I do critical analysis of performance, theatre, and pop culture texts through a feminist lens. I am particularly interested in intersectional representations of gender, race, and ethnicity, and I love to do close readings and dig into the details of everything from Romeo and Juliet to The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
I completed my Ph.D. in English at the University of Delaware, and my dissertation project, Performing (With) Care: Theatre for Survivors of Gender-based Violence, introduces what I term “survivor-centered theatre.” Grounded in intersectional feminism and an ethics of care, this practice creates theatrical experiences for an intended audience of survivors of sexual and gender-based violence. The project incorporates guiding principles and intentions for making survivor-centered theatre, and it shows examples of how this kind of theatre can take shape– including a discussion of a play I directed in Baltimore in 2022.
I am dedicated to imagining new ways of using theatre and the arts to bring people together, and to uplift and support those who have been silenced. I am working to cultivate communities of care, critical thinking, and courageous creativity—in the theatre and beyond.
Thank you for joining me!