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Stacy E. Wolf is Professor of Theater in the Lewis Center for the Arts and the Effron Center for the Study of America at Princeton University, where she also serves as Director of Fellowships and Founding Director of the Program in Music Theater. She will serve as Acting Chair of the Lewis Center for the Arts in fall 2025. Wolf is one of America's foremost scholars on musical theatre, with extensive publications exploring gender, sexuality, and American culture through the lens of musical performance.
Wolf's educational background includes a B.A. in English from Yale University, an M.A. in Drama from the University of Virginia, and a Ph.D. in Theater from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her academic journey has positioned her at the forefront of musical theatre scholarship, where she has helped establish this field as a legitimate area of academic study.
Her research interests focus on musical theatre as a cultural phenomenon, particularly examining gender and sexuality in the American musical, feminist approaches to performance, and the relationship between musical theatre and American history. Wolf investigates how musicals both shape and are shaped by larger cultural forces, challenging assumptions about musical theatre as merely entertainment rather than serious art. She explores the pleasure principle in musical theatre while analyzing its political and social dimensions, examining how this commercial art form can simultaneously be cutting-edge and culturally significant.
Wolf's publications reveal a consistent focus on feminist perspectives in musical theatre history, with particular attention to how women and LGBTQ+ communities engage with and reinterpret musicals. Her work spans from historical analysis of Broadway classics to contemporary examinations of how musicals function in community settings beyond professional theatre. Recent scholarship increasingly addresses diversity and inclusion in musical theatre, examining how productions in educational settings can empower students of color and create pathways for greater representation on professional stages.
- Guggenheim Fellow (2017)
- President's Award for Distinguished Teaching (2017)
- 2024 Distinguished Scholar by the American Society for Theatre Research
- Two Bogliasco Fellowships
As an educator, Wolf has mentored numerous students including Abigail Jean-Baptiste, with whom she collaborated on the course 'Sondheim's Musicals and the Making of America.' Her teaching philosophy emphasizes the integration of theory and practice, encouraging students to see no separation between art-making and scholarship. Wolf has received significant grant support for her research, including the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship that enabled deep exploration of musical theatre's cultural impact across America.
Wolf is actively involved in Princeton's artistic community as a faculty fellow at Wilson College and academic fellow for the women's basketball team. She regularly participates in student productions, attending rehearsals and leading talkbacks. Her current research includes a book on feminist approaches to musical theatre (co-written with Paige Allen) and an article examining composer Jeanine Tesori's contributions to the field.
