about

Dr. Kristyl D. Tift is a scholar, artist, and educator. She holds a PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies (Theory, History, and Criticism) and an Advanced Certificate in Women’s and Gender Studies (University of Georgia); an MFA in Acting (The New School); and a BA in Theatre with a Music Minor (Georgia Southern University). She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of 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; and Applied Dramaturgy. She has published articles and book reviews in Frontiers: A Journal of Women’s Studies, The Black Theatre Review, New England Theatre Journal, Theatre Journal, and the Journal of American Drama and Theatre with forthcoming articles in Theatre History Studies and the Journal of American Drama and Theatre. Her book, A Conditional Embrace: Black Queer Feminism in Performance, is being published by The Ohio State University Press in its Black Performance and Cultural Criticism series (edited by E. Patrick Johnson). This research has been recognized by the Princeton Society of Fellows and The Ford Foundation, and supported through grants from the American Theatre and Drama Society, the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Georgia.

With 14 years of experience teaching in higher education, Tift has taught courses in Women’s and Gender Studies, Theatre Studies, Performance Studies, and Communication Arts. For excellence in teaching, she has received awards from Vanderbilt University and the University of Georgia.

A multitalented performing artist, Tift (as Kristyl Dawn Tift) has acted, sang, and danced in theatre productions in New York and the southeast. She acts professionally in union film, television, and voiceover projects. Represented by Houghton Talent since 2010, she has booked roles on acclaimed series including “Genius:MLK/X”, “Black Lightning,” and “Greenleaf”. She won an Audiofile Earphones Award for her narration of Brandy Colbert’s award-winning book, Black Birds In the Sky: The Story and Legacy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, produced by HarperAudio. She has also narrated books by journalist and activist, Ida B. Wells-Barnett (Mob Rule in New Orleans and Southern Horrors & The Red Record) for the Amazon Classics series.