POSTPONED: NYU professor Diana Taylor to speak on ‘The Politics of Passion’

Due to Hurricane Sandy, Diana Taylor, University Professor of performance studies and Spanish at the Tisch School of the Arts of New York University in New York City, will not be presenting "The Politics of Passion" at the College of Saint Benedict or Saint John's University this week. Her presentation will be rescheduled for a later date.

The lecture, which is free and open to the public, will discuss the options people have for political and economic justice when the electoral process has been violated or corrupted, the media has been sequestered in the hands of power-brokers and political parties may be failing to represent their constituencies.

Taylor's visit is part of the Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar Program, a program which makes about 12 distinguished scholars available each year to visit colleges and universities with chapters of Phi Beta Kappa.  This is the first year that the Theta of Minnesota Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa at the College of Saint Benedict/Saint John's University has taken part in the program. The CSB/SJU chapter of Phi Beta Kappa was founded in 2009.

Taylor serves as founding director of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics. She has edited over 12 books and has authored numerous award-winning works such as "Theatre of Crisis:  Drama and Politics in Latin America," "Disappearing Acts:  Spectacles of Gender and Nationalism in Argentina's 'Dirty War'" and "The Archive and the Repertoire:  Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas." Taylor recently had two books published in Spanish: "Performance" and "Acciones de Memoria," which means "actions of memory." She has lectured across the globe and has received many fellowships and awards, including a Guggenheim in 2005.

After receiving her bachelor of arts degree in creative writing from the University of the Americas in Mexico in 1971, Taylor went on to earn her master of arts degree in comparative literature from the National Autonomous University of Mexico in 1974 and her doctorate in comparative literature from the University of Washington in 1981.  

Taylor's lecture is co-sponsored by the College of Saint Benedict/Saint John's University Latino/Latin-American Studies and the Theta of Minnesota Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa at CSB/SJU.