Laura Edmondson

Laura Edmondson is the Helman Family Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Theater at Dartmouth College. She holds affiliations with the African and African American Studies Program and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program. Her work bridges postcolonial African drama, feminist/queer performance studies, and transnational theater historiography.

Education: B.A. Indiana University, M.A./Ph.D. University of Texas at Austin. Her research examines Eastern/Central African performance through lenses of empire, trauma, and humanitarianism. Recent projects include a NEH-funded book on contagion and care in Central Africa.

Notable publications include Performing Trauma in Central Africa: Shadows of Empire (IU Press, 2018) and articles in GLQ, Theatre Journal, and Journal of the African Literature Association. She received the 2021 Oscar Brockett Prize for her analysis of Faustin Linyekula's work.

Service includes editing Theatre Journal, leading Dartmouth's Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program, and mentoring through awards from the Dean of the Faculty. Her collaborative theater project Forged in Fire (2015) explored South Sudanese refugee narratives.