aviva [dot] neff [at] gmail.com
Aviva Helena Neff
AVIVA HELENA NEFF
Columbus, OH
aviva [dot] neff [at] gmail [dot] com avivaneff.com
EDUCATION
Ph.D. Theatre 2021 (ABD, expected graduation May 8th) The Ohio State University
Columbus OH
M.A. Applied Theatre 2015 Goldsmiths College
London, England
B.A. in History / Theatre 2014 College of Wooster
Wooster, OH
RESEARCH INTERESTS AND SPECIALITIES
• Black American & Mixed Race Studies • Practice-as-Research • Archival Research• Playwriting • •Performance Studies• Directing • Applied Theatre • Pedagogy• Movement (informed by Viewpoints) • •Mixed Media Performance • Collective Creation • Adaptation•
TEACHING
Graduate Teaching Associate The Ohio State University Department of Theatre
Spring 2021 Theatre 2367.03 Criticizing Television
Fall 2020 Theatre 2367.02 African American Theatre History
Spring 2019 Theatre 2367.02 African American Theatre History
Fall 2018 Theatre 2367.03 Criticizing Television
Spring 2018 Theatre 2367.02 African American Theatre History
Fall 2017 Theatre 2367.02 African American Theatre History
GUEST LECTURES
February 2021 Skidmore College Theatre
"Blood, Earth, Water: The Tragic Mulatta in Literature and Performance"
November 2019 College of Wooster Dept. of Theatre and Dance
“Directing Devised Theatre”
October 2019 Gateway Film Center
“The Tethered of the Earth:” Post-colonial Readings of Jordan Peele’s Us
September 2019 Lewis and Clark College
“Theatricality and Thanatourism”
ACADEMIC AWARDS AND ACHIEVEMENTS
Ohio State University “Discovery Themes Initiative” Team Fellowship
2019-2020
Alumni Grants for Graduate Research and Scholarship
2019
HistoryMakers “Creative Fellowship Grant” Runner-Up
2019
Ohio State Sesquicentennial Scholar
2019-2020
HistoryMatters/Back To the Future “Sallie Bingham Grant”
2018
Ohio State University Writing Across the Curriculum “Outstanding Teacher Award: Honorable Mention,”
2018
“From Oppressed to Possessed: Performance Protest as a Means of Overcoming “Discovery” and Diaspora” Thesis and Degree awarded with Distinction, 2015
“A Better and Truer Self: the Harris Brothers in Reconstructed North Carolina” Thesis and Degree awarded with Honors, 2014
College of Wooster Allardice-Wise Scholarship Recipient, 2014
Clarence Beecher Allen Scholarship Recipient, 2010-2014
CONFERENCES
"Curating Inclusive Season Selection Practices"
Panel discussion at the American Society for Theatre Research, 2020
“Blood, Earth, Water,” Mixed Race Pedagogical Approaches”
Panel presented at the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, 2020
"Theatricality and Thanatourism: a Reflective Response on Autoethnography”
Paper presented at the American Society for Theatre Research, 2019
“Confronting an Aesthetics of Absence: Beyoncé Knowles, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, and Kara Walker’s Performative Remembrances”
Comparative Drama Conference, 2019
Paper presented at the American Society for Theatre Research conference, 2018
“Revolutionary Wake Work: a Response to Christna Sharpe”
Working group at the Association for Theatre in Higher Education conference, 2018
“Silence or violence: the choice is yours.” The Disruptive Power of Violence in Sarah Kane’s Crave”
Paper presented at the American Society for Theatre Research, 2017
“Experimental Collectivities Collaborations, and (Dis)embodied Digital Experiences”
Working group and performance making laboratory centered around digital theatre making.
Hemispheric Institute’s Graduate Student Initiative Convergence (HEMI GSI) 2017, Toronto, ON
“Dismantling with 21st Century Tools: #BlackLivesMatter and Livestreaming Trauma”
Paper presented at the Association for Theatre in Higher Education conference, 2017
PUBLICATIONS
"Lost Voices in Black History," Mint Theatre Company, monthly newsletter.
“What, to the Descendants of Enslaved Africans, is Juneteenth?” Interzine, June 19th, 2020.
https://www.interzine.org/post/what-to-the-descendants-of-enslaved-africans-is-juneteenth
"Black Squares, White Faces: Cancel Culture and Protest in the Age of Digital Blackface" (In print)
"Honi soit qui mal y pense:” Succession, Race, and Gender in the Demi-Monde of Storyville, New Orleans"
(In print)
SERVICE
The Ohio State University:
Council for Graduate Students (CGS) Representative (2019-2020), Committee Chair for the Council on Academic Affairs (2020)
Performance Studies Working Group
President (2018-2019)
Vice President (2017-18)
The Graduate Theatre Syndicate
Secretary (2017-18)
OSU Theatre Diversity Task Force (2017)
Black Theatre Association:
Graduate Representative (2016-2018)
Goldsmiths College:
Degree awarded with Distinction
Elected as a Student Representative for the Applied Theatre program
College of Wooster:
Alpha Psi Omega, the National Theatre Honor Society
Phi Alpha Theta, the National History Honor Society
SELECTED PRODUCTION CREDITS
As You Like It Director, 2020
Once Upon the Oval Dramaturg, 2020 (canceled due to COVID19)
A Midsummer Night’s Dream Lysander, 2019
The Women of Ciudad Juarez Actor (on tour since 2014)
Sunday Morning in the South
(white church version, black church version) Director, 2018
Gruesome Playground Injuries Director, 2017
PLAYWRITING CREDITS
Blood Earth Water 2020
The Annexation 2020 (Virtual Performance)
WORKSHOP FACILITATOR / DEVISOR
Creating Community Columbus College of Art and Design
Westside Stories Third Way Café, Columbus, OH
Be the Street The Ohio State University
Women of Ciudad Juarez Universite de Caldas, Missouri Southern State University
Turning a Little Further The Young Vic Theatre
Cops in the Head Eastern Michigan University
Nonverbal Clowning Goldsmiths College
List(less) Goldsmiths College
Devising with Personal Narratives Greenwich—Lewisham Young People’s Theatre
Theatre Half-Term Camp Greenwich—Lewisham Young People’s Theatre