Biography

Lucy Burns is an Associate Professor at UCLA’s Asian American Studies Department. She is the author of Puro Arte: On the Filipino Performing Body, is published by NYU Press. Current inquiries include representations of the future in performance through the figure of the robot, and “commonwealth” as an American identity.

Areas of Interest

Burns’s research interests include theater and performance, Filipino Studies, cultures of/against empireBrief Bio: Lucy Burns is an Associate Professor at UCLA’s Asian American Studies Department. She is the author of Puro Arte: On the Filipino Performing Body, is published by NYU Press. Current inquiries include representations of the future in performance through the figure of the robot, and “commonwealth” as an American identity.Burns is also a dramaturg, whose recent collaborations include David Rousseve’s Stardust, and R. Zamora Linmark’s But, Beautiful, and TeAda Productions’ Global Taxi Drivers’ Project. She has participated in several projects focusing on Asian American theater and performance, including attending the 2007 World Social Forum as a member of a U.S. artist delegation and as a reviewer for the National Asian American Theater Festival (2009, 2011).

Selected Books and Publications

Book:

• Puro Arte: Filipinos on the Stages of Empire (NYU Press, 2012),

Essays:

• “Eartha Kitt’s Waray Waray: The Filipina in Black Feminist Performance.” In Filipino Studies: Palimpsests of Nation and Diaspora. NYU Press.
• “Imagining a ‘New WORLD’: Asian American Women Playwrights Archives in Western Massachusetts.” New WORLD Theater. Edited by Chinua Thelwell. University of Massachusetts Press.
• “The Art of the Asian American Movement’s Social Protest Performance.” Cambridge History of Asian American Literature. Eds. Min Song and Rajini Srikanth.
• “there was a boy: David Rousseve’s Stardust.” “Queer and Now Special Issue.” The Writing Instructor. Eds. Aneil Rallin, et al.
• “Your Terno’s Draggin’: Costuming Filipino American Performance (Women & Performance Journal 21.2)
• “New WORLD” Archives in Western Massachusetts: Asian American Women Playwrights.” Asian Americans in New England. Edited by Monica Chiu. UPNE Press. 150-166
• “Woman and the Changing World on Alternative Global Stage: Sixth Women Playwright International Conference.” Asian Theater Journal32.2. Fall 2005. 324-333.
• “Cosmopolitanism.” Entry. Keywords for Asian American Studies (NYU Press; eds Cathy Schlund-Vials, K. Scott Wong, and Linda Vo). Under Contract.
• “Theater.” Entry. Encyclopedia of Undocumented Immigrants (ABC-CLIO; edited by Anna O’Choa Oleary). Under contract.

Anthology:

• California Dreaming: Movement & Place in the Asian American Imaginary. With Dr. Christine Bacareza Balance. under contract with the University of Hawai’i Press.

Dramaturgy:

• Halfway to Dawn: A Strayhorn Project. A multi-media piece on musician Billy Strayhorn. Created, Choreographed, and Written by David Rousseve. Premiering at the Redcat in Los Angeles, CA. October 2018.
• But, Beautiful by R. Zamora Linmark.
• Stardust. Created, Choreographed, and Written by David Rousseve. Premiered at the University of Maryland’s the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. Presented at Los Angeles Redcat (2013), University of Washington Meany Hall for Performing Arts (2014).
• Humanities Consultant. Global Taxi Drivers by TeAda Productions.
• How to Make it to the Dance Floor: A Salsa Guide for Women (Based on Actual Experiences by Cyndi Garcia.

Awards

Woodrow Wilson/Andrew Mellon National Foundation Career Enhancement Fellowship (2008-2009)
The UC President's Postdoctoral Fellowship (2003-2005)