Dr. Jessica Friedman

headshot of Dr. Jessica Friedman

Lecturer
School of Music and Dance
College of Professional Studies and Fine Arts

SDSU

Email

Primary Email: [email protected]

Building/Location

5500 Campanile Drive
San Diego, CA 92182

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Bio

Dr. Jessica Friedman, PhD, is a dance and theatre scholar and curator. She received a PhD in Interdisciplinary Theatre and Drama at Northwestern University. Her scholarship has been published in venues including Theatre Survey, Dance Chronicle, and Border Crossings: Exile and American Dance, 1900 – 1955 (New York Public Library; ed. Ninotchka Bennahum and Rena Heinrich) and recognized by awards from the Dance Studies Association, American Society for Theatre Research, and International Federation for Theatre Research. Her book project, Modern Dance in Crisis, examines women choreographers’ negotiations of transnational crisis during the mid-twentieth century. Friedman’s recent curated exhibition, Dance to Belong: A History of Dance at 92NY, in New York City shows a history of activist modern dance.
 

Education

  • Ph.D. Interdisciplinary Theatre and Drama, Northwestern University, Evanston IL.
  • M.A. Interdisciplinary Theatre and Drama, Northwestern University, Evanston IL.
  • B.A. Ethnic Studies. Columbia University, New York, NY.

Areas of Specialization

  • Dance theory
  • Dance historiography
    Race and gender in modern dance
 

Awards & Honors

  • American Society for Theatre Research Cambridge University Press Prize Honorable Mention, 2024.
  • American Theatre and Drama Society Contingent Faculty Research and Travel Grant Award Runner Up, 2024.
  • University of California, Santa Barbara, Non-Senate Faculty Professional Development Grant, 2023.
  • American Society for Theatre Research Jessica Berson Dance Research Assistance Fund Grant, 2023.
  • American Society for Theatre Research David Keller Travel Grant Award, 2023.
  • American Society for Theatre Research Selma Jeanne Cohen Presentation Award, 2022.
  • International Federation for Theatre Research New Scholar Award Runner Up, 2022.
  • Northwestern University Fellowship in Leadership, 2022.
  • Renate Voris Fellowship, 2021.
  • New York Public Library Short-Term Research Fellowship, 2021.
  • 92nd Street YM-YWHA Archival Research Fellowship, 2019.
  • Dance Studies Association Selma Jeanne Cohen Award, 2018.

Courses

  • Dance 481W: Performance Writing

Publications

  • Friedman, Jessica. “Recruiting Places: Pearl Primus’s Plans for Global Activism through Community-Engaged Dance Theatre.” Theatre Survey 65, no. 3 (September 2024): 208–26. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0040557424000231.
  • Friedman, Jessica. “Dancing Sharecroppers: Jane Dudley’s and Pearl Primus’s Border Crossing Blues.” In Border Crossings: Exile and American Dance, 1900 - 1955, edited by Ninotchka Bennahum and Rena Heinrich. New York: New York Public Library Press, 2023.
  • Friedman, Jessica, and Elizabeth W. Son. “Developing Graduate Courses Focused on Training Community-Engaged Scholars, How It Works and Best Practices.” In Preparing Community-Engaged Scholars: A Toolkit. New York: American Council for Learned Societies, 2023.
  • Friedman, Jessica. “Universalizing the Specific: Janet Collins’s Spirituals and Genesis.” Dance Chronicle 45, no. 3 (September 2, 2022): 187–206. https://doi.org/10.1080/01472526.2022.2106098.
  • Friedman, Jessica. “Modern Dance at the Arts Club: Merce Cunningham, Jean Erdman, and the Chicago Avant-Garde.” In Dancing on the Third Coast, edited by Susan Manning and Lizzie Leopold. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, expected 2026.