Dr. Hesam Sharifian

Assistant Professor

Education:

Ph. D. Tufts University (Theatre and Performance Studies)

M.A. University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (Theatre History and Criticism)

B.A. Tehran University (Dramatic Literature)

Hesam Sharifian is an Assistant Professor of Theatre and Performance Studies in the Division of Humanities at New College of Florida. A theatre historian, educator, and dramaturg, his research focuses on visual performances on the page, particularly in illustrations, drawings, paintings, and other visual ephemera pertaining to the theatre.

He is currently working on his first manuscript, tentatively entitled, Iranian Theatre between Two Revolutions: The Formations of a Modern (A)Political Theatre (1905-1979). His scholarly publications have appeared or are forthcoming in Theatre Survey, Asian Theatre Journal, New England Theatre Journal, Ecumenica, Academic Theatre Journal of Iran, and HowlRound.

He is the recipient of several awards, fellowships, and grants from professional associations of the field and research libraries, including the American Society for Theatre Research (Helen Krich Chinoy and Thomas Marshal Awards), the American Antiquarian Society (Jay and Deborah Last Fellowship in American Visual Arts), and the Mellon Foundation (seed grant for Public Humanities projects).

Hesam served as a guest editor for a special issue of Ecumenica on Theatre and Performance of Muslim Worlds, published in Fall 2018. His area of scholarly expertise is the intersection of theatre and visual arts, with case studies as varied as American Commercial Theatre in the Nineteenth Century, German Modernist Opera, Middle-Eastern Theatre and Performance, and Global Blackface/Black Mask Performances.