Interview with Catherine Cole, conducted by Diana Taylor, founding director of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics. This interview is a part of a series curated by the Hemispheric Institute, articulated around the question 'What is Performance Studies?' The series aims to provide a multifaceted approach to the often difficult task of defining the coordinates of both a field of academic study as well as a lens through which to assess and document cultural practice and embodied behavior. The contingent definitions documented in this series are based on the groundbreaking experiences and the scholarly endeavors of renowned figures in contemporary performance studies and practice.

Catherine M. Cole is Professor and Chair of the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of Performing South Africa’s Truth Commission: Stages of Transition (2010) and Ghana’s Concert Party Theatre (2001). Cole has co-edited the book Africa After Gender?, a special issue of Theatre Survey on ‘African and Afro-Caribbean Performance,’ a special issue of TDR: The Drama Review entitled ‘Routes of Blackface’ (2013) and she recently served as the editor of the journal Theatre Survey.