NICOLE HODGES PERSLEY
- CLAS Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Department of Theatre
- Associate Professor
- CLAS Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Department of Theatre
Contact Info
Office Phone:
Murphy Hall, room #317
Murphy Hall
Biography —
Dr. Hodges Persley is an Associate Professor of Theatre She teaches courses on Hip-hop, acting, auditioning, African American theater, critical race theory, improvisation, and transnational performance. Dr. Hodges Persley is a professional actor and director with credits in theater, film, and television. She is a member of SAG/AFTRA, AEA Equity, SDC (Stage Directors and Choreographers Society), and the NTC (National Theatre Conference). Notable directing credits include Kristoffer Diaz's Welcome to Arroyo's, Angelina W. Grimke's Rachel, Amiri Baraka's Dutchman, and Dominique Morisseau's Sunset Baby. Hodges Persley creates intentional bridges between the entertainment industry and academia as an artist-scholar. In her work as the Co-Artistic Director of the KC Melting Pot Theater, she helped KCMPT become the primary incubator for black talent in the regional theater scene in Kansas City. She has received numerous awards for teaching and mentoring including KU Center for Sexuality and Gender Diversity Pride Award in 2017, The McNair Scholars Mentoring Award in 2016, KU's Byron T. Shutz Excellence in Teaching Award in 2015, and The Mellon Foundation's Undergraduate Teaching and Mentoring Award in 2008.
Dr. Hodges Persley is one of the founding Program Directors for the Hip-hop Archive at Harvard University at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Studies. She completed her Ph.D. in American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California and is an alumna of Spelman College. She has published articles and book chapters on Hip-hop Theatre, African American Theater, Sampling, Jay-Z, Suzan-Lori Parks with forthcoming work on Black
Lives Matter, Drake, and Idris Elba. Her upcoming book, Sampling and Remixing Blackness investigates the influence of Hip-hop on the artistic practices of non-African American theater and dance artists in the United States and England.
Publications Link: http://kansas.academia.edu/NicoleHodgesPersley
Research —
Screen Actors Guild/American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG- AFTRA)
Actors' Equity Association (AEA)
Stage Directors and Choreographers Society member (SDC)
National Theatre Council Board Member
IMDB credits: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1502330/
Publications link:http://kansas.academia.edu/NicoleHodgesPersley
Website:www.hodgespersley.com
Research interests:
- African-American Theatre and Performance
- American Studies
- African Diaspora Performance
- American Popular Culture
- Acting
- Hip-hop Studies
- Gender Studies
- Solo Performance
- Transnationalism.
Teaching —
Teaching interests:
- Hip-hop Performance
- African-American Theatre
- Acting
- Directing
- Transnationalism
- Improvisation
- Theatre for Social Change
- Critical Race Theory.
Selected Publications —
Persley, N. (2021). PERSLEY, NICOLE HODGES. Sampling and Remixing Hip-hop in Contemporary Theater and Performance.
Persley, N. (2015). PERSLEY, NICOLE HODGES. Sampling as Theatricality. Reading Contemporary Performance: Theatricality Across Genres. Routledge.
Persley, N. (2015). PERSLEY, NICOLE HODGES. The Cambridge Companion to Hip-hop.
Persley, N. (2014). American Theatre.
Persley, N. (2014). Bruised and Misunderstood: Translating Feminist Acts in the Work of Tyler Perry. Palimpsest Journal.