Education
PhD, Theatre Studies, University of Warwick
BFA, Drama, University of Calgary
Recent Publications
Davis’ most recent books are Uncle Tom’s Cabins: The Transnational Histories of America’s Most Mutable Book (University of Michigan Press, 2018), the six-volume Cultural History of Theatre (Bloomsbury UK, 2017), The Broadview Anthology of Nineteenth-Century British Performance (Broadview, 2012), The Cambridge Companion to Performance Studies (Cambridge University Press, 2008), Stages of Emergency: Cold War Nuclear Civil Defense (Duke), The Performing Society: Nineteenth-Century Theatre’s History (co-edited with Peter Holland, Palgrave), and Considering Calamity: Methods for Performance Research (co-edited with Linda Ben-Zvi, Assaph) all in 2007. She has also authored Actresses as Working Women: Their Society Identity in Victorian Culture (1991), George Bernard Shaw and the Socialist Theatre (1994), The Economics of the British Stage (2000), and co-edited Women and Playwrighting in Nineteenth-Century Britain (with Ellen Donkin, 1999), and Theatricality (with Thomas Postlewait, 2004). Forthcoming Book: The Broadview Anthology of Nineteenth-Century British Performance (Broadview Press, 2011).
Work in Progress
(Author) Studies in Liberal Subjectivity
(Co-editor) Routledge Companion to Theatre and Performance Historiography
(Series editor) Cambridge Studies in Theatre and Performance Theory (Cambridge UP)
(Series co-editor) Transnational Theatre Histories (Palgrave)
Awards and Honors
| 1990-91 | Andrew W. Mellon Faculty Fellowship, Harvard University |
| 1994-95 | Kathleen Barker Research Award, Society for Theatre Research |
| 1994-95 | American Philosophical Society Research Grant |
| 1995 | National Endowment for the Humanities Research Fellowship |
| 1997 | Folger Library Short-Term Fellowship |
| 2001 | George Freedley Memorial Award (Theatre Library Association) |
| 2003 | Eisenhower Presidential Foundation Travel Grant |
| 2004 | Clarence Ver Steeg Graduate Faculty Award (Northwestern University) |
| 2004 | White House Historical Foundation Grant |
| 2005 | Distinguished Scholar’s Prize (American Society for Theatre Research) |
| 2007 | Lane Humanities Institute Teaching Professor |
| 2008 | Stanley J. Kahrl Fellowship in Theatre History, Houghton Library (Harvard) |
| 2009 | Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellow, Huntington Library |
| 2016-18 | Alexander von Humboldt Research Award, Köln Univerität |
Recent Grants
2008-09 Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellow, Huntington Library
2008-09 Stanley J. Kahrl Fellowship in Theatre History, Houghton Library
Editorial Boards
Associate Editor, Theatre Journal
Editorial Board, Theatre Research in Canada
Editorial Board, Theatre Survey
Contributing Editor, TDR: The Drama Review
Honorary Advisory Editor, New Theatre Quarterly
Research Boards (selected)
Social Science Research Council, University Advisory Committee, Dissertation Proposal Development
Advisory Board, Shanghai Theatre Academy
Advisory Board, Gate Theatre Research Network
Courses
Recent graduate courses:
- Cultural History of Theatre
- Historical Ethnography
- Nineteenth-Century Repertoire
- The 1850s
- Theatre Research Methodology
- Victorian Liberalism
Recent undergraduate courses:
- Caryl Churchill
- Museums and Exhibiting
- Nineteenth-Century Repertoire
- Strategic Blackface
- Transnational Histories of Uncle Tom’s Cabin
- Women Characters and Characterizations in Contemporary Drama
