The Center for World Performance Studies (CWPS) has awarded six awards to U-M faculty conducting innovative performance studies research across the globe.

Grant awards of $5,000 are available annually to individual faculty members to pursue research projects, both domestic and international, which employ performance studies research methods, including ethnography, performance as research, archival research, and performance analysis.

The 2020 Faculty Fellows grants were awarded to the following faculty projects:

Kwasi Ampene
Associate Professor, Department of Afroamerican and African Studies

Musical Expressions and Traditions in the Borderlands: Collaborative Field Research at Aflao-Ghana
Collaborative field research with Kofi Kudonu of the University of Ghana, to study the impact of ambience and soundscape on Yeve religious rites at Aflao in Ghana.

Larry La Fountain-Stokes
Professor, Departments of American Culture, Romance Language & Literatures and Women’s Studies

Performing an Archipelago: Contemporary Performance Arts in Puerto Rico
To research contemporary alternative, black, queer, and women's performance in Puerto Rico.

Joseph Lam
Professor, Musicology

Kunqu performance and reception in Japan (2000-2020)
To conduct interviews with Japanese kunqu practitioners, and examine documents in theatre archives.

Alaina Lemon
Professor, Anthropology

Tremors: Stanislavsky Rests
To complete "Tremors: Stanislavsky Rests," a documentary/art film set in an international theatrical academy in Moscow.

Katherine Mendeloff
Lecturer, Residential College 

Collaborative development of "Wangari"s Prayer"
To support the collaboration of Kenyan playwright Rogers (Aroji) Otieno and Kate Mendeloff on environmental staging of a play about Nobel prize winning eco-activist Wangari Maathai.

Tiffany Ng
Assistant Professor, Music 

Activating Local Opportunities to Decolonize Carillons in Southern Africa
Research/performance and coalition-building work at post-colonial carillons in Cape Town (South Africa) and Réunion, followed by campus concert and panel at U-M.