Daphne Lei

Daphne Lei is a Professor at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), where she holds the title of Professor of Doctoral Studies and serves as Director of UCI Illuminations. She is affiliated with the Claire Trevor School of the Arts, contributing to interdisciplinary research in theatre and performance studies. Her roles include former president of the American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR, 2015-2018), where she advanced diversity initiatives and transnational dialogue. She is a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow (Stanford University), and has received the ASTR Distinguished Scholar Award (2022) for lifetime achievement, alongside a 2015 UCI Distinguished Scholar Award.

Lei’s education includes a Ph.D. from Tufts University, followed by postdoctoral work at Stanford. Her research focuses on Chinese opera, Asian American theatre, intercultural performance, and transpacific identity dynamics, particularly gendered nationalism and global-local cultural negotiations. Key themes include border-crossing, hybridity, and minoritarian resistance in performance, with emphasis on diasporic communities and decolonizing theatre historiography.

Her talks and publications consistently address transnational cultural intersections, such as ‘Boring! The Performative Invisibility’ (2022) and ‘Off-Yellow Time vs. Off-White Space’ (2022), which critique racialized academic spaces. She has pioneered programs like Multicultural Spring and Theatre Woks to promote diversity in performance. As an activist scholar, she co-authored Theatre Histories: An Introduction (2024) and co-edited groundbreaking works like The Methuen Drama Handbook of Interculturalism and Performance (2020).

• Advocacy & Grants: Founded Multicultural Spring (2007) and Theatre Woks; led the Dramatic Transformations project (2012-2015), archived in UCI’s University Archives. Her grants and service include ASTR leadership and collaborative research with institutions globally.
• Labs/Teams: Director of UCI Illuminations, a platform for transnational performance research. Collaborates with PhD students from UCI, UCSD, and UCR on projects like ‘Witches, Bitches, Britches’ (2008).