bpt conversations series 

BPT CONVERSATIONS SERIES SPRING 2026  

SLIPPAGE proudly presented a series of public humanities conversations that brought together six Northwestern researchers who each invited an interlocutor to share 90 minutes of discourse. The researchers tussled over concerns they decided upon in advance, possibly recent publications, synergies in respective work or methodological approaches, or emerging ideas that each are engaging now. The Northwestern researchers were Thomas F. DeFrantz, SLIPPAGE director and Performance Studies; Melissa Blanco-Borelli, Associate Professor, Theater; Bimbola Akinbola, Assistant Professor, Performance Studies; Cristal Truscott, Associate Professor, Theater; Danielle Bainbridge, Assistant Professor, Theater; and Henry Castillo, Mancoff Postdoctoral Associate, Theater. The participating interlocutors were Miriam Petty, Associate Professor, Radio Film and Television, Northwestern University; Jessica Kenyatta Walker, Assistant Professor, Afroamerican and African Studies, University of Michigan; Rhaisa Williams, Assistant Professor, Theater, Princeton University; Luis C Rincón Alba, Assistant Professor, Art and Public Policy, New York University; Tanya L. Shields, Associate Professor, Women’s and Gender Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and Kevin E. Quashie, Professor, English, Brown University.

The BPT Conversations series extends the work of the long-standing Black Performance Theory Working Group, begun twenty years ago by DeFrantz at MIT. A larger format BPT conference will be convened at Georgetown University and Howard University in Septmeber, 2026, hosted by Raquel Monroe, Dean, Chadwick Boseman School of the Arts, Anita Gonzalez, Professor, Georgetown University, and La Marr Jurelle Bruce, Associate Professor, University of Maryland.