Seriousplay

Melissa Blanco Borelli

The writer, dancer, cultural critic, and associate professor of theatre is also the director of the dance program at Northwestern. Her work focuses on Blackness in Latin America, critical dance studies, performance studies/performative writing, popular dance on screen, feminist (auto)ethnography, historiography, and the digital humanities.

“We want our students to be the best they can be, but I don't have an ideal of dance perfection,” she said. “I have an ideal of dance, which means to be fully present to your body and its capabilities, to really give everything—your emotions, your physicality, your intellectual and emotional curiosity—and be open to discovery as well.”

Blanco Borelli is working toward bringing in more BIPOC guest faculty, strengthening the connections between devising and choreography, and enhancing the rigor of the program. 

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Greg Berlanti ('94)

The Emmy-nominated film and television screenwriter and director is also Hollywood’s most prolific TV producer—he holds the record for most live-action scripted series airing concurrently. Credits include The Flight Attendant, Love, Simon, Dawson’s Creek, Brothers & Sisters, You, and many more.

“I often say that Northwestern is the first period of my life that I would repeat—not to change anything, but I loved it so much I’d do it all over again,” he said. “I found my calling at Northwestern.” 

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Vivianna White, Human Communications Sciences Major

Vivianna White became interested in human communication sciences as a babysitter for a child with a hearing impairment in her hometown of Seattle. In accompanying the child on speech-language pathology and audiology appointments, White determined that Northwestern and its small-but-rigorous communication sciences and disorders program would allow her to keep working on behalf of the deaf and hearing-impaired community.  

As a first-year, White earned an Early Research Experience Award, in which students are matched with an SoC faculty member to get an out-of-the-gate taste of careers in the social and basic sciences through mentorship, extensive research opportunities (more than 100 required hours within the year), and a monetary award. White was one of seven first-year scholars paired with labs in CSD and communication studies; she is working alongside CSD assistant professor Elizabeth Norton in her Language, Education, and Reading Neuroscience (LEARN) lab.  

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