Catherine Cole

Catherine Cole is a Professor of Dance and English at the University of Washington, where she served as Divisional Dean of the Arts from 2016 to 2022. Her research focuses on African disability drama, performance studies, theater history, transatlantic and transnational cultural dynamics, and global Black cultural studies. She has authored seminal works such as Performance and the Afterlives of Injustice (2020), Performing South Africa’s Truth Commission: Stages of Transition (2010), and Ghana's Concert Party Theatre (2001), which explored West African theatrical traditions. Her current project, "Difference, Differently: Tejumola Olaniyan and the Practice of Global Black Cultural Studies", is supported by a 2024-25 UW Royalty Research Fund Grant.

Dr. Cole’s awards include the UCSB Distinguished Teaching Award and fellowships from the National Humanities Center and Harvard Theatre Collection. She has also received grants from the Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Her creative work includes the disability dance theater piece Five Foot Feat (2002-2005) and co-creation of the documentary Stageshakers on Ghanaian concert party theatre.

Her academic contributions span interdisciplinary collaborations, including editing Africa After Gender? (2007) and delivering keynote lectures such as the UW Katz Distinguished Lecture (2022). She actively engages with global cultural studies through teaching, research grants, and public presentations on performance’s role in addressing historical injustices.