Tracy Stephenson Shaffer
Professor & Department Chair
PhD: Southern Illinois University (Performance Studies)
Phone: (225) 578-6685
E-mail: tsteph3@lsu.edu
Office: 136A Coates Hall
Area of Interest
Performance Methodologies, Popular Culture, Performing/Theorizing Icons, The Horror Genre, Performance Art/Solo Performance, Gender Studies, Ethnography/Oral History
Teaching
Undergraduate Courses:
- Introduction to Film
- Topics in Film Genres (Horror Genre)
- Performance and Everyday Life
- Performance and Popular Culture
- Performance of Southern Fiction
- Performance Art
Graduate Seminars:
- Ethnography
- Performance: Presence and Absence
Awards & Honors
Southern States Communication Association Performance Studies Scholar of the Year, 2009
College of Arts and Sciences Tiger Athletic Foundation Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching, 2009.
Outstanding Teacher Award given by the Department of Academic Affairs and the LSU Student Government Association, 2004.
Notable Activities
Producing Director, The HopKins Black Box, LSU, 2008-2009
Producing Director (with Michael Bowman), The HopKins Black Box, LSU, 2007-2008
Created/Directed the ensemble performance The Life and Times of King Kong in the HopKins Black Box on October 31 - November 4, 2007 and at the Patricia Pace Performance Festival in January 2008
Chair, Performance Studies Division, Southern States Communication Association, 2007-2008
Participating Scholar, Women's Week, adapted and directed (with Elizabeth Dent) an original production entitled "Louisiana's Leading Ladies," based on a history of women in Louisiana written by Phyllis Mayo. Performed at The Louisiana State Archives, September 15, 20, and 21, 2006 and at the Old Governor's Mansion on March 7, 2007.
Participating Scholar, Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Grant, The Smithsonian Exhibit: Key Ingredients: American by Food, compiled, wrote, and directed the performance "Comfort Food" based on the collected oral histories of senior residents of Point Coupee Parish. Performed at the Julien Poydras Museum and Arts Center, July 8, 2006.
Adapted/Directed/Performed a one-person show based on Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees in the HopKins Black Box on October 20-22, 2004.
Invited Performance. The Secret Life of Bees. Patricia Pace Performance Festival, New Orleans, Louisiana, March 18, 2005.
Invited Performance. The Secret Life of Bees. The Red Shoes, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, June 17 & 19, 2005.
Selected Publications
Tracy Stephenson Shaffer and co-author Ronald J. Pelias published the second edition
of Performance Studies: The Interpretation of Aesthetic Texts in the fall of 2007.
The practice-based text functions as a bridge between the long respected tradition
of oral interpretation and trends in contemporary performance studies research. The
edition includes new chapters on everyday storytelling and performance art as well
as a DVD featuring sample solo performances by many of LSU's current graduate students.
Mapping Mediatization in The Life and Times of King Kong. Limialities: A Journal of Performance Studies 4:3 (2008): http://liminalities.net/4-3/
(with Joshua Gunn) "A Change is Gonna Come": On the Haunting of Music and Whiteness in Performances Studies. Theatre Annual 59 (2006): 39-62.
Busted Flat in Baton Rouge. Text and Performance Quarterly 25 (January 2005): 57-69.
The Indeterminate Third-Person in Busted Flat in Baton Rouge. Text and Performance Quarterly 25 (January 2005): 70-74.
Performing Backpacking: Constructing Authenticity Every Step of the Way. Text and Performance Quarterly 24 (October 2004): 139-160.
My Silence Speaks Volumes: Mickey Mouse and the Ideology of an Icon. Theatre Annual 51 (1998): 54-70.
Selected Editorial Experience
Reviewer: Text and Performance Quarterly, Theatre Annual, Tourist Studies, Southern communication Journal, Symbolic Interaction
Editorial Board: Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies