about

Dr. Kristyl D. Tift is a performing artist, educator, and scholar. She holds a PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies (Theory, History, and Criticism) and an Advanced Certificate in Women’s and Gender Studies from the University of Georgia; an MFA in Acting from The New School (Actors Studio Drama School); and a BA in Theatre with a Music Minor from Georgia Southern University. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Cinema, Media Arts, and Theatre at Vanderbilt University.

An interdisciplinary historian, theorist, and critic, Tift’s areas of research include African Diaspora Performance, Black Queer Feminist Performance; Art for Social Change; Performance Theory; and Applied Dramaturgy. Her book, A Conditional Embrace: Black Queer Feminism in Performance, published by The Ohio State University Press, is featured in its Black Performance and Cultural Criticism series (edited by E. Patrick Johnson).

She has published articles in Frontiers: A Journal of Women’s Studies, The Black Theatre Review, New England Theatre Journal, and the Journal of American Drama and Theatre. Her forthcoming article about Anna Deavere Smith’s Notes from the Field will be published in the next issue of Theatre History Studies.

With 14 years of experience teaching in higher education, Tift has taught courses in Gender and Sexuality Studies, Theatre Studies, Performance Studies, and Communication Arts. For excellence in teaching, she has received honors and awards from Vanderbilt University and the University of Georgia including an Innovative Teaching Award, Outstanding Teaching Award, and Dean’s Distinguished Teaching Fellowship.

As a performing artist, Tift (credited as Kristyl Dawn Tift) has performed in theatre, film, and television, and voiceover in New York and the southeast. Represented by Houghton Talent since 2010, she has booked roles on acclaimed series including the Emmy Award-winning series DTF: St. Louis, Genius: MLK/X, Black Lightning, and Greenleaf. She was awarded a Kirkus Reviews Earphones Award for narrating Brandy Colbert’s award-winning book, Black Birds In the Sky: The Story and Legacy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, produced by HarperAudio.