Christina Hurtado-Pierson

PhD Student

Interests: Theatre History, Dramatic Literature, Dramaturgy, 19th-Century American Cultural History.

I am interested in the ways in which 19th- and early 20th-century touring entertainment (melodrama, vaudeville, wild west shows, medicine shows, etc.) was both a product of and influential in the development of an “American” identity that continues to impact performance today. As performers from diverse backgrounds found their way onto the selectively egalitarian touring circuits, the question of what passed for American culture loomed large. The Gilded Age was a unique moment in American history for the intersection of performance, identity, and infrastructure, leading to the mass distribution of popular culture on a previously unfathomable scale.

Office: S-322
Email: christina.hurtado-pierson@stonybrook.edu
Advisor: April Masten