Teaching
Future-oriented and collaborative practices of knowing and learning
I approach teaching as a participatory practice for global community building, and I craft my lessons by placing my students’ agency at the forefront of that project. My classroom is a laboratory of the world, and as such it is constantly at the intersection of flows of information that enrich the global experience of my students. I craft scenarios and identify teachable moments where my students, and myself, can experience the practice of producing, discovering, and transferring performance knowledge as a naturally collaborative practice that although immediate to our situation, is extensive to and from the world. I invite my students to think about the big and small scales, about the front and backstage, about the past and the future, and to place their work as a contribution to this planet’s shared histories.
I have been a theatre and performance teacher since 2004. Below are key moments of my teaching career.
University of California, Los Angeles
Currently, I am an Assistant Professor in Theatre and Performance Studies at UCLA School of Theatre, Film, and Television. At UCLA TFT, I teach undergraduate courses on global theatre & performance histories, as well as graduate seminars in the PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies program—where my teaching is mostly focused.
LASALLE College of the Arts, University of the Arts Singapore
BA (Hons) Acting and BA (Hons) Musical Theatre Class of 2021
Between 2018 and 2023, I was a full-time (permanent) Lecturer in Theatre at LASALLE College of the Arts, in Singapore. At LASALLE, I served as Co-ordinator of Research, and oversaw Contextual Studies in the School of Dance and Theatre. I taught and Dramatic Literature, Interpreting Dance, History of Theatre and Performance, Practice Research, various research seminars, and oversaw all graduating students within the School of Dance and Theatre in their dissertation-writing/making process. I also directed student productions regularly and taught graduate seminars on research methodologies.
Teaching at LASALLE was a key moment in my teaching practice. Here, I consolidated my teaching philosophy and ethics, as well as grew comfortable in my own identity as an educator.
National University of Singapore
TS4221 Performance Research laboratory session (AY 2017-18)
From 2012 to 2017, I taught at the Theatre Studies Programme of the English Language and Literature Department as part of my scholarship bond obligations during my doctoral studies. I taught introductory modules to theatre and performance, performance research, and directed the graduating show for the 2015 cohort.
Although this was not my first time teaching in higher education, this period was paramount in the formation of my identity as an educator. At NUS I developed a keen awareness of multicultural learning scenarios, and acquired a deep interest in experimenting with various forms of delivery that can, in themselves, be considered practice-as-research.
Singapore National Library Board
Between 2012 and 2016, I conducted regular workshops about devised theatre at the library@esplanade. These workshops were open to the public. I considered these opportunities as a space where I could connect with learning communities outside of formal education settings. These workshops were always rewarding experiences, and some students returned every year.
Photo credit: Syahirah Karim
United Nations Alliance of Civilisations
In 2013, I was invited by the United Nations to lead two workshops at the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations Summer School, in New York, USA. The workshops were focused on applying theatre-making techniques to peace processes and intercultural negotiations. An incredible experience that seeded my interest in thinking of education, formal or otherwise, as a practice that is performative of new and better ways of making global communities.
Photo credit: Aisha Habli
Universidad National Autónoma de México
From 2010 to 2011, I was the founding academic head of the Artistic Outreach Unit at Tlatelolco, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). I was in charge of designing the entire curriculum for this new arts school. The school was planned as an interdisciplinary arts centre, with a semi-formal academic offer of the highest artistic quality. The school was located in one of the zones with higher crime rate in Mexico City. Its mission was to contribute to the social recovery of that area.
Doubtless, this experience is the cornerstone of my teaching ethos. As a socially-oriented educational project, the Artistic Outreach Unit embodies an example where education in the arts has can have a direct and positive impact in the betterment of situations of extreme violence and poverty, without sacrificing the freedom that is intrinsic to artistic work.
