ANN ARBOR—A curriculum that examines the role of the performing arts and artists within a variety of cultural contexts and from numerous disciplinary perspectives will form the corps of the University of Michigan’s new Center for World Performance Studies (CWPS).

A pilot program—under the direction of Judith Becker, an ethnomusicologist and U-M professor of music; program associate Frank Gunderson, a specialist on East African music; and a steering committee of faculty members—has been serving the needs of faculty and students interested in the growing discipline of performance studies, actively contrasting and comparing the similarity and difference in world performing arts.

“Performance and performance styles are crossing borders and traveling at a rate and with a freedom that is unprecedented in history,” says Becker. “From the intensely local to the transnational, performers enact the reality of a changed global situation for the performing arts. This contemporary and fluid situation is an example of one of the many relevant issues we wish to address.”

With confirmation from U-M’s Rackham School of Graduate Studies, the CWPS will offer a free-standing, non-degree Graduate Certificate Program in World Performance Studies that can be combined with either a master’s or doctoral degree, serving students who seek a stronger interdisciplinary and cross-cultural approach. The Program will draw on faculty from throughout the University and from disciplines such as ethnomusicology, dance, film, theater, anthropology, languages and area studies.

The new Center will celebrate its founding March 30 from 2:30 p.m.-2 a.m. with a series of simultaneous performances and lectures at the International Institute.

Center for World Performance StudiesJudith BeckerRackham School of Graduate Studiescelebrate its founding