Dirk Gindt Professor

I have taught numerous courses in performance theories and methodologies, theatre history, cultural representations, gender theory and queer studies, performance activism, feminist and LGBTQ+ theatre, performance and performativity, sexual representations in the performing arts, fashion theory, Tennessee Williams, postcolonial and intercultural performance, and contemporary theatre and performance in Canada. I have a rich experience as supervisor of MA and PhD theses and serve as director of the International Master's Programme in Performance Studies.

Circumpolar Performance Cultures: Transnational and Intercultural Perspectives on Contemporary Indigenous Performing Arts in Sweden, Canada and Greenland

My most recent research, Circumpolar Performance Cultures, was a four-year project financed by the Swedish Research Council (2020-2024). It concentrates of the intersectional and decolonial labour performed by the Indigenous ensemble Giron Sámi Teáhter in Kiruna/Giron (Sweden). The project has two core aims. First, I study processes of production and reception of selected historical and contemporary plays and performances and analyse their artistic form and political content as well as their critical reception in order to demonstrate how Sámi performing artists deal with the manifold legacies of colonialism. I analyze the history of Sámi performing arts since 1971 when the independent ensemble Dálvadis started protesting the exploitation of land and natural resources in Sápmi, all the way to the contemporary efforts of Giron Sámi Teáhter to become officially recognized as Sweden’s national stage for Indigenous performing arts.

Rather than conceptualizing Sámi performance cultures as nationally isolated or structured along geopolitical borders, I analyse them as unfolding along transnational and intercultural processes and exchanges that circulate across the Arctic. As a result, my second aim is to theorize and argue for the concept of ‘circumpolar performance processes’ as an innovative methodological framework and analytical tool to situate these contemporary performance cultures in a transnational context and argue for an intercultural understanding of Sámi and Arctic performances that respects the historical context and is culturally sensitive, but defies the confines of national boundaries.

The project is theoretically informed by decolonial performance theories and the methodology builds on ethically responsible principles, including informed and voluntary consent by all participants, and actively supports the Sámi people's right for cultural self-determination.

Tennessee Williams in Sweden and France, 1945-1965: Cultural Translations, Sexual Anxieties and Racial Fantasies

Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2019

The immediate post-war period marks a pivotal moment in the internationalisation of American theatre when Tennessee Williams’ plays became some of Broadway’s most critically acclaimed and financially lucrative exports. Dirk Gindt offers a detailed study of the production and reception of Williams’ work on Swedish and French stages at the height of his popularity between 1945 and 1965. Analysing the national openings of seminal plays, including The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Orpheus Descending and Suddenly Last Summer, Gindt provides rich and nuanced insights into Williams’ transnational impact. In the process, he charts a network of fascinating and influential directors, actors, designers, producers and critics, all of whom left distinctive marks on mid-twentieth-century European theatre and culture. Gindt further demonstrates how Williams’ work foregrounded cultural apprehensions, racial fantasies and sexual anxieties, which resulted in heated debates in the critical and popular media.

Lest We Forget: HIV and AIDS in Performance in Sweden and Canada

The project ‘Lest We Forget’ has two core objectives—a research component and an intercontinental network—which are intrinsically linked and designed to have an international outreach and impact. The first objective is to write the first comprehensive critical history of HIV and AIDS and queer theatre and performance in Sweden and Canada. The second objective is to implement an intercontinental working group of scholars working on HIV and AIDS in theatre and performance.

As part of this project, I have co-edited a volume with Dr Alyson Campbell (University of Melbourne), Viral Dramaturgies: HIV and AIDS in Performance in the Twenty-First Century (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018). The volume is the first study that analyses the impact of HIV and AIDS on theatre and performance in the twenty-first century from an international perspective and includes contributions from Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Papua New Guinea, Puerto Rico, South Africa, Sweden, Tanzania, the United Kingdom and United States. It serves as a necessary reaffirmation of the productive power of theatre and performance, as both a social process and creative practice, to respond to a public health crisis and act as modes of resistance against cultural amnesia and discrimination. The book reflects the current intellectual and methodological state of the discipline of theatre and performance studies by incorporating a wide range of theatrical expressions that range from traditional plays and spoken drama, dance, performance and installation art, documentary and community-based theatre to cultural performances in the public sphere.

                                                             (photo: Henrik Bengtsson, Memoria Photo)