Lauren Bakst | The Program in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s StudiesThe Center for Research in Feminist, Queer, and Transgender Studies

Graduate Instructor, The Program in Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies

Email

lbakst@sas.upenn.edu

Office Location

BENN 302

I am a PhD candidate in English at the University of Pennsylvania. My research interests include performance studies, poetics, Black feminisms, queer theory, and critical pedagogies. My dissertation focuses on experimental scenes of lesbian and queer performance from the 1990s into the present.

At Penn, I co-organized the Poetry & Poetics Working Group from 2021-23. I was a recipient of a 2022 Sachs Grant for Arts Innovation, which supported Vol. 3 of the School for Temporary Liveness. I am also pursuing a graduate certificate in gender and sexuality studies.

As an artist working in experimental performance, my work has been presented throughout NYC by the Kitchen, Danspace Project, the Chocolate Factory, Pioneer Works, Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery, SculptureCenter, and the Drawing Center, among other spaces. My chapbook, more problems with form or, desire notes or, still woman was published by Wendy's Subway. I was previously Managing Editor of the Movement Research Performance Journal and an R&D Fellow at the New Museum. My writing has appeared in BOMB Magazine, Women & Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory, and the Brooklyn Rail. I teach in the Dance MFA at University of the Arts and have previously taught undergraduate courses at University of the Arts and the Cooper Union. I organize and curate the School for Temporary Liveness—a para-site for collective study and experiments in performance, practice, and pedagogy.

I have a B.A./B.F.A. in Dance & Gender Studies from Hollins University (2011) and an M.A. in English from the University of Pennsylvania (2022).