Dear Fine Arts Colleagues,
I’m delighted to share that I’ve appointed Lisa B. Thompson, the Bobby and Sherri Patton Endowed Professor of African and African Diaspora Studies, as the interim associate dean of graduate education and academic affairs. In this role, Lisa’s portfolio will include graduate studies and the expansive research and creative practice work that the college advances across our many disciplines. Lisa is a scholar-practitioner who is invested in the public impact of the arts and the pursuit of platforms where scholarship can reach broader audiences beyond the university, including radio and news media. She will step into this role Monday, Aug. 18.
Lisa is a playwright, librettist and scholar who examines how economic and social class influence racial representations in art and culture. Her expansive body of creative and scholarly contributions includes Beyond the Black Lady: Sexuality and the New African American Middle Class (University of Illinois Press, 2009), which received Honorable Mention for Gloria E. Anzaldúa Book Prize from the National Women’s Studies Association, and The Black Feminist Guide to the Human Body, which received UT Austin’s 2024 University Research Excellence Creative Endeavor Award and Honorable Mention for the 2024 Judith Royer Excellence in Playwriting Award from the Association for Theatre in Higher Education.
Her writing has appeared in Theatre Journal, Journal of American Drama, Theatre Survey, Criterion Collection, NPR, The Huffington Post and The Washington Post. Her plays have been produced off-Broadway, throughout the United States and internationally by Crossroads Theatre, the Vortex, Theatre Rhinoceros, Congo Square, Ensemble Theatre, Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, National Arts Festival, 1st Stage Theater, Austin Playhouse, Ground Floor Theatre, Soul Rep Theatre Company, Jubilee Theatre, Chiswick Playhouse and The National Black Theatre Festival, among others.
While her primary faculty appointment has been in the College of Liberal Arts, Lisa’s been a part of the fabric of the College of Fine Arts for many years, including her role as an affiliate faculty member in the Department of Theatre and Dance, where she has mentored graduate students in both the scholarship and the practice of the discipline. Since 2021, she has served as the College of Liberal Arts’ inaugural advisor to the dean for faculty mentoring and support.
Please join me in extending a warm welcome to Lisa as she steps into this important role on our leadership team.
Sincerely,
