<p>DeRon S. Williams is a scholar, director-dramaturg, and Assistant Professor of Theatre at Loyola University Chicago. Before joining Loyola's faculty, he taught in Connecticut, Tennessee, and Georgia.</p>
<p>As a scholar of African American theatre, drama, performance, and directing techniques and pedagogies, Williams is co-editing the forthcoming anthology Contemporary Black Theatre & Performance: Acts of Rebellion, Activism, and Solidarity for Methuen Drama's "Agitations: Politics, Text, Performance" series that accentuates the expansiveness of Black theatre and performance and the ways in which the usage of conventional and nonconventional performance techniques persist to function as a vehicle of activism. He is also working on a project inspired by Arthur Bartow's The Director's Voice. He has published in The Journal of American Drama and Theatre and Continuum: The Journal of African Diaspora Drama. </p>
<p>Williams is an Associate Member of the Stage Directors & Choreographers Society (SDC). He has staged new and canonical works, including Crowns by Regina Taylor, The Brothers Size by Tarell Alvin McCraney, and Africa to America: A Celebration of Who We Are by Wendy R. Coleman. Dr. Williams is also a freelance dramaturg who has worked across the U.S.</p>
<p>In addition to his research and creative scholarship, Williams is an active member of several organizations. He serves on ATHE's Leadership in Community-Based Theatre and Civic Engagement Award Committee and Black Theatre Association focus group.</p>
<p>Williams received his B.A. from Albany State University, his M.A. from Eastern Michigan University, and his Ph.D. in Fine Arts from Texas Tech University.DeRon S. Williams is a scholar, director-dramaturg, and Assistant Professor of Theatre at Loyola University Chicago. Before joining Loyola's faculty, he taught in Connecticut, Tennessee, and Georgia. As a scholar of African American theatre, drama, performance, and directing techniques and pedagogies, Williams is co-editing the forthcoming anthology Contemporary Black Theatre & Performance: Acts of Rebellion, Activism, and Solidarity for Methuen Drama's "Agitations: Politics, Text, Performance" series that accentuates the expansiveness of Black theatre and performance and the ways in which the usage of conventional and nonconventional performance techniques persist to function as a vehicle of activism. He is also working on a project inspired by Arthur Bartow's The Director's Voice. He has published in The Journal of American Drama and Theatre and Continuum: The Journal of African Diaspora Drama. Williams is an Associate Member of the Stage Directors & Choreographers Society (SDC). He has staged new and canonical works, including Crowns by Regina Taylor, The Brothers Size by Tarell Alvin McCraney, and Africa to America: A Celebration of Who We Are by Wendy R. Coleman. Dr. Williams is also a freelance dramaturg who has worked across the U.S. In addition to his research and creative scholarship, Williams is an active member of several organizations. He serves on ATHE's Leadership in Community-Based Theatre and Civic Engagement Award Committee and Black Theatre Association focus group. Williams received his B.A. from Albany State University, his M.A. from Eastern Michigan University, and his Ph.D. in Fine Arts from Texas Tech University.</p>
<p>Dr. Khalid Y. Long is a scholar, dramaturg, and director specializing in African American/Black diasporic theatre, performance, and literature through the lenses of Black feminist/womanist thought, queer studies, and performance studies. Accordingly, his work pays close attention to the intersections of race, class, gender, and sexuality within marginalized and oppressed communities.</p>
<p>Dr. Long has published scholarly essays in The Black Theatre Review (tBTR), Continuum: The Journal of African Diaspora Drama, Theatre and Performance, the Journal of American Drama and Theatre, and the Routledge Companion to African American Theatre and Performance. His forthcoming scholarship includes essays in The Cambridge Companion to African American Theatre (2nd edition) edited by Harvey Young, Zora Neale Hurston in Context edited by Christopher Varlack, Theatre Design & Technology, Theater: Yale’s Journal of Criticism, Plays, Reportage, and the edited collection Critical Essays on the Politics of Oscar Hammerstein II, edited by Donald Gagnon. Dr. Long is also a regular contributor to Black Masks and Performance Response Journal 2.0.</p>
<p>Dr. Long is working on his manuscript, An Architect of Black Feminist Theatre: Glenda Dickerson, Transnational Feminism, and The Kitchen Prayer Series (University of Iowa Press). Dr. Long is co-editor of two forthcoming critical anthologies, including Contemporary Black Theatre and Performance: Acts of Rebellion, Activism, and Solidarity (co-edited with Dr. DeRon S. Williams and Dr. Martine Kei Green-Rogers) with Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, Agitations: Politics, Text, Performance Series). The second anthology is August Wilson in Context (co-edited with Dr. Isaiah M. Wooden) with Cambridge University Press.</p>
<p>Dr. Long is the newly elected Vice President and Conference Planner for the Black Theatre Association, a focus group of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE). Dr. Long is also the Vice President for Advocacy for ATHE. Dr. Long also served as the August Wilson Society's Vice President and Conference Planner (2018-2020). </p>
<p>A freelance dramaturg specializing in production dramaturgy, new play development, and audience engagement, Dr. Long is a regular dramaturg with the Great Plains Theatre Commons (Omaha, Nebraska).</p>
