Dr. Rena M. Heinrich

Artist/Scholar

Dr. Rena M. Heinrich Artist/ScholarDr. Rena M. Heinrich Artist/ScholarDr. Rena M. Heinrich Artist/Scholar
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    • Home
    • Teaching
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    • Directing
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Dr. Rena M. Heinrich

Artist/Scholar

Dr. Rena M. Heinrich Artist/ScholarDr. Rena M. Heinrich Artist/ScholarDr. Rena M. Heinrich Artist/Scholar
  • Home
  • Teaching
  • Publications
  • Directing
  • Public History
  • Contact

Teaching, Research, and Press

TEACHING AND RESEARCH

My teaching and areas of expertise include interculturalism; race, representation, and gender in performance; Asian American drama; acting; ethnography; and performance studies. I also explore social and cultural histories of race in America (and Asian America) in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and specialize in the shifting identities of mixed-race Asian figures in drama. I am a "Winnie" (Winnifred Eaton) scholar and an expert on Sadakichi Hartmann. 


I completed my doctoral work at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) in Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies with an interdisciplinary emphasis in History.  While at UCSB, I was a graduate fellow with the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center and the 2018 recipient of the prestigious Michael D. Young Award for successfully integrating scholarship with social activism in theater. 


I have taught in the departments of Theater and Dance and Asian American Studies at UCSB and in the MFA program in Television, Film, and Theatre at California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA).


My former graduate students include: Ashley DeMoville, Ed.D. (USC); Jeffrey Brem, M.A. (CSULA); and Marie-Françoise Theodore, M.F.A. (CSULA). Many of my undergraduate students like Eileen Chung (University of Pittsburgh and Texas Woman's University), Isabella Penagos (USC), Jessica O'Connor ( University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law ), and Grace Sallee (Pace University) are currently pursuing graduate degrees.


As a director at USC, you might see me directing graduate and undergraduate students in our season of theater practicums. I serve as the faculty liaison for Sobremesa Productions and ART/emis, an intersectional creative community.


Above: Black Sky by Amanda L. Andrei, Massman Theatre, USC, 2019.


Faculty Q&A with Dr. Heinrich:

FIND OUT MORE

MEDIA AND PRESS

 As a scholar, I have given on-camera interviews, offered perspectives in podcast roundtables, and presented research at conferences across the United States. 

My USC Press Page

I've been interviewed on PBS and MBC America. Here's an excerpt from A People's History of Asian America (PBS), discussing Orientalism and the hypersexualization of the Asian feminine body with co-hosts Dolly Li and Dr. Adrian De Leon.

I was a podcast guest for the Artists at Play (AAP) theatre collective. Here's a conversation about the play The Chinese Lady by Lloyd Suh, its connection to the history of Chinese in America, and what role the arts play in the interpretation and remembering of this history.

Podcast guests include Eugene Moy (Chinese American Museum board member) and Dr. Rebecca Wear (director of AAP's 2019 production of The Chinese Lady). This episode moderated by AAP Producing Artistic Leader Stefanie Lau.  

Listen Here

As a teacher, I'm committed to helping students explore larger social questions about our current cultural landscape. Here's an example of an interview with an undergraduate reporter at Iowa State University, discussing the representation of Asian Americans in the media.

IOWA STATE DAILY INTERVIEW

Rena M. Heinrich

Copyright © 2023 Rena Heinrich - All Rights Reserved.

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