Biography
Katherine Zien is a Ph.D. candidate in Northwestern University’s
Interdisciplinary Program in Theatre and Drama (IPTD). She received her B.A. in
English literature in 2004 from Columbia University. Her research addresses
themes of migration, spatial semiotics and politics, and cultural and racial
identity in Latin American and Caribbean theatre history. Her dissertation,
“Claiming the Canal: Performances of Race, Labor, and Citizenship in Panama,
1904-1999,” explores the history of U.S.-Panama relations up to the Panama
Canal's handover through a site-specific historical analysis of theatre and
performance in and around the former Panama Canal Zone. Katherine’s work has
been published in The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic
Studies, The Journal of Popular Music Studies, the online journal E-misférica (http://hemisphericinstitute.org/hemi/en/e-misferica),
and Contemporary Theatre Review (forthcoming).
While a 2009-2010 Fulbright Scholar in Panama, Katherine organized and
produced the performance residency Agua/Tierra: Una Propuesta Para Escuchar
(Groundwater: A Listening Project) with teaching artists Baraka de Soleil,
Tanisha Christie, and Awilda Rodríguez Lora in Panama (August 2010). Currently,
she is assistant producer of the Colectivo El Pozo, a Latina/o theatre group
based in Chicago. Katherine Zien may be contacted at kazien@gmail.com.
