Thursday, March 24, 2022

Emeritus Faculty Lecture Series

Centennial Tensions: A Wider Reckoning
with the History of the University of Iowa’s Theatre Arts Department

Kim Marra

Kim Marra, PhD

Professor Emeritus of Theatre Arts and American Studies

4:00 pm
Thursday, March 24, 2022

Kollros Auditorium (101 BBE)

Refreshments @ 3:30 pm

Video of lecture

Actors performing on replica Fortune Theater set in the Natural Sciences Auditorium (UI MacBride Hall, 1934). Kent Collection, University of Iowa Libraries  Special Collections, reprinted with permission.
Actors performing on replica Fortune Theater set in the Natural Sciences Auditorium (UI MacBride Hall, 1934). Kent Collection, University of Iowa Libraries Special Collections, reprinted with permission

How does an academic department commemorate its history amid this world-changing time of COVID-19 and ever more urgent need for greater diversity, equity, and inclusion? How can it muster remembrance to account for its past at a predominately white, Midwestern land-grant institution while engaging current perspectives and future challenges? This presentation reconsiders the historical record to mark the Centennial of the UI Theatre Arts Department dating from 1920-21. Given that theatre in the department’s early decades was a more socially prominent as well as quintessentially in-person public activity, and theatre classes and play productions happened in the heart of campus, the department’s history offers an especially resonant case study of commemorative reckoning for the wider university community. 

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all University of Iowa sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires a reasonable accommodation in to participate in this program, please contact
Minnetta Gardinier in advance at 319-331-6235 or m-gardinier@uiowa.edu.

~ Sponsored by the Emeritus Faculty Council and the Office of the Provost ~


Photo credits: Speaker photo: Jill Tobin; Theatre scene: UI digital archives (https://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/islandora/object/ui%3Aictcs_11408)