Opportunity at Tufts PhD program in Theatre and Performance Studies

Hello all undergraduates and MA students,

I’m passing along news of a well-funded PhD program in Theater and Performance Studies at Tufts:

 Dear Colleagues in English,

I’m writing as Director of Graduate Study for Tufts PhD program in Theatre and Performance Studies. We are now accepting applications for a Fall 2026 cohort and I could use your help. Would you please forward this to your English undergraduate or MA students who may be interested in an interdisciplinary PhD and invite them to consider Tufts? Our application deadline is Dec. 1, 2025.

Our PhD curriculum is especially strong in supporting research in theatre history, 20th century Black performance, ethnography, globalization, gender and sexuality studies, religion, race, and Indigeneity in the Americas. Many of our students come from interdisciplinary backgrounds in American Studies, Ethnic Studies, English, Theatre Studies, History, Gender/Sexuality Studies, Sociology, Anthropology, and Art History. We provide an education that prepares students for jobs in and outside of academia, and we have an impressive recent track record of placing students in university faculty positions. We are especially proud to have developed a signature “Pedagogy and Professional Development” seminar that prepares students to imagine careers in and beyond the university.

We are proud of our graduate faculty, who together cover a broad area of methods and subject matter, and who work together to shepherd cutting-edge research projects. Barbara Wallace Grossman, Kareem Khubchandani, Paige McGinley, Lily Mengesha, Heather Nathans and myself are all actively involved in teaching and mentoring our PhD students.

Our program incorporates a variety of creative and production opportunities, and we facilitate engagement with arts and arts advocacy organizations in greater Boston. Current students work as playwrights, directors, designers, dramaturgs, and performance curators.

Best of all, each of the qualified PhD students admitted into the program receives five years of fellowships and teaching assistantships with an annual stipend of $34,500, secured through the graduate student union collective bargaining agreement. In addition, Tufts offers dissertation fellowships, student health insurance, annual travel support, and tuition remission for a total financial package valued at over $250,000.

If your students are interested in learning more, please encourage them to reach out to me directly, at jcamp03@tufts.edu. I am of course happy to answer your questions as well.

I look forward to hearing more about your brilliant students with the hope that they might consider applying to Tufts’ PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies.

Sincerely,

Pannill Camp