Teaching
Dr. Herrera is an Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Richmond.
She is also affiliate faculty in the American Studies and Women, Gender, and Sexualities Studies Programs; she researches U.S. Latinx cultural, including visual art, performance, and museum exhibitions.
Below are some featured courses—click the buttons to see how these classes relate back to other projects and work.
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Gender, Race and Performance Across the Americas
Co-Taught with Mariela Méndez
Drawing from critical race studies, feminist and queer theory, and performance studies, this bilingual class examines how bodies throughout the Americas articulate race, class, sexuality, ethnicity, and gender through performance—both on-stage and off.
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Collaborative Arts Lab: Dance, Humanities and Technology
Gravesites are constant reminders of people’s living stories. When we deny the existence of a cemetery, we deny the existence of people. In this course we honor the lives of indigenous people and black Richmonders who stewarded the land that UR inhabits by collaboratively creating a commemorative act. It is in the process of embodying this history that we can collectively grapple with a racial past that still haunts us today.
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Modern and Contemporary Theatre History
Using texts, events, and people from around the world as case studies in the history of performance, this course examines how colonization and racism have shaped the history of theatrical theory and practice from the 19th century through the present. Our ongoing discussions throughout the semester will focus on the ways colonial and racist structures manifest in our theatre spaces, processes, and histories then and now.
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Theatre History II
This course was a survey of the history of theatrical theory and practice from the 18th century through the present. Our ongoing discussions throughout the semester focused on how social, cultural, political and economic factors inform the theatre productions of a specific era. In this course, we focused on texts, events, and people from around the world as case studies in the history of performance and the relationship between the past and present. We worked with Irina Rogova, the UR Race and Racism Project archivist, to explore the archives of the University Players.
Watch Now —
An interview with Professor Herrera that highlights how these areas intersect.
Select Courses
A selection of courses taught by Dr. Herrera at UR over the last decade.
If you’d like to see a syllabus for one of the courses listed, please reach out to Dr. Herrera directly.
Modern & Contemporary Theatre History
Fall 2021 —
Using texts, events, and people from around the world as case studies in the history of performance, this course examines how colonization and racism have shaped the history of theatrical theory and practice from the 19th century through the present. Our ongoing discussions throughout the semester will focus on the ways colonial and racist structures manifest in our theatre spaces, processes, and histories then and now.
Also taught Fall 2011, Spring 2016, Spring 2018, Fall 2019
Civil Rights & Education, Richmond, VA: A Documentary Theatre Project
Fall 2021 —
Co-Taught with Laura Browder
This community-based learning course examines the long-lasting impact of enslavement that still haunts Richmond today and the work of civil right activists and community members fighting for equity in Richmond. Students do archival research, conduct interviews, collectively write a script based on raw materials gathers and then perform it and/or create an exhibition.
Also taught Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2014, Fall 2014, Spring 2016, Fall 2017, Fall 2018, Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019
Latinxs On Stage: From the Barrios to Broadway
Spring 2021 —
This course provides students with a historical and theoretical framework to understand the politics of representing Latinxs on stage with special attention to feminism, globalization, migration, and transculturation.
Also taught Fall 2009, Fall 2011, Fall 2013, Spring 2015, Spring 2018
Classical Theatre History
Fall 2020 —
This course uses a dramaturgical approach to examine the history of World Theater during the Classical, Medieval, and Renaissance times. The goal of this course is to implement our understanding of theater history and dramatic criticism to the process of making theatre.
Also taught Fall 2010, Spring 2015, Spring 2019
Representing Civil Rights in Richmond
Fall 2020 —
Freshman Year Seminar
Taking the city of Richmond as its point of departure, this course examines various sites of memory production and contestation within the city. Through an analysis of places, people, and events from before the city’s founding to the present day, we come to understand current social and racial inequities in the context of the city’s fraught history with slavery and racism. We spend time studying memorialization and its role in preserving (or eradicating) the city’s history.
Also taught 2018
Gender, Race & Performance Across the Americas
Spring 2020 —
Co-taught with Mariela Méndez
Drawing from critical race studies, feminist and queer theory, and performance studies, this bilingual class examines how bodies throughout the Americas articulate race, class, sexuality, ethnicity, and gender through performance—both on-stage and off.
Collaborative Arts Lab: Dance, Humanities & Technology
Spring 2020 —
Co-taught with Alicia Díaz
Gravesites are constant reminders of people’s living stories. When we deny the existence of a cemetery, we deny the existence of people. In this course we honor the lives of indigenous people and black Richmonders who stewarded the land that UR inhabits by collaboratively creating a commemorative act. It is in the process of embodying this history that we can collectively grapple with a racial past that still haunts us today.
Going Solo: The Politics of Identity in Contemporary Solo Performance
Fall 2017 —
This course examines the ways solo practitioners use the body to highlight specific cultural, social, and political histories encountered by urban poor, people of color, lesbians, and gays. We engage with a multitude of solo performance styles including autobiographical forms, spoken word, stand-up comedy, and hip-hop performance.
Also taught Fall 2009, Spring 2014
Hip Hop Theater
Fall 2015 —
Freshman Year Seminar
This course explores the ways hip hop has permeated the world of theatre. We will consider how practitioners use hip hop theatre to advocate social justice issues including racial, sexual, gender, and socioeconomic equity, anti-consumerism, anti-militarization, and anti-corruption.
Also taught Fall 2011, Spring 2011, Fall 2012
The Sixties: Culture, Politics & Theater
Spring 2014—
From the Civil Rights Movement to the Anti-War Movement, to second-wave feminism, the Sixties was a time of radical change and experimentation. This class investigates how the political, social, and cultural environment of the turbulent and psychedelic decade in America, informed the work of theater and performance artists and yielded new theories about art making, cultural forms, notions of identity, and corporeal aesthetics.
Global Hip Hop
Spring 2012 —
Tocqueville Seminar
This course examines how artist-activists from around the world engage, represent, reproduce, critique, and change hip hop culture. We will explore how hip hop, in its various manifestation, is a local and global network of exchanges that impacts culture, politics, and the arts. Larger themes to be explored include globalization, post-colonialism, migration, race, citizenship, and nation.
Theatre Appreciation
Spring 2010 —
This course explores theatre: as an art form, as a humanistic pursuit, and as a dramatic experience. We investigate what theatre is, who makes it, and how practitioners collaborate in the process of making theatre.
Also taught Fall 2009, Fall 2010
“For over 15 years, I have worked to bring about social and cultural transformation through long-term partnerships with cultural producers, academic institutions and community organizations.”
Dr. Patricia Herrera