Dasha Chapman

Dasha A. Chapman is an interdisciplinary dancer-scholar whose research, teaching, curation, and performances interweave a nexus of Haitian, Caribbean, and Black studies, critical dance and performance studies, ethnography, queer/gender studies, and embodied practice. Dr. Chapman’s current monograph, Grounding Practice: Dancing Haiti on Tè Glise, is a multi-sited ethnography that follows the artistry of six Haitian dance pedagogues to show how, with them, the teaching and learning of Haitian dance became a powerful counter-hegemonic placemaking practice after the 2010 earthquake. Dr. Chapman’s solo and co-authored writing also appears in Americas: a Hemispheric Music Journal, The Black Scholar, The Dancer-Citizen, Dance Chronicle, Journal of Haitian Studies, Kalfou: A Journal of Comparative and Relational Ethnic Studies, Performance Matters, Radical Teacher, Theatre Journal, and Women & Performance. 

Dr. Chapman’s artistic work is collaborative and place-based. Since 2015, she has devised multidisciplinary performances with Haitian and American artists to activate hxstories, places, and dis/orientations. Dr. Chapman also co-convenes three transdisciplinary initiatives: the Haitian Studies Association’s Sexualities Working Group, Afro-Feminist Performance Routes, and Un/Commoning Pedagogies Collective. Dr. Chapman received a Ph.D. in Performance Studies and an M.A. in Humanities and Social Thought from New York University. She previously held positions at Duke University, Hampshire College/Five Colleges, Davidson College, and Kennesaw State University.