Karin Waidley

Ann Arbor, MI / Oak Creek, CO

Karin Waidley is a teacher, artist, and scholar who focuses on the use of theatre to prevent violence.

Waidley spent 12 years as a Professor and the Director of the Theatre program at Western Colorado University, specializing in devising theatre for social justice. Before that she founded a theatre program for adjudicated youth outside of Boulder, Colorado. She has been awarded multiple grants and awards for developing new work with students.

Waidley was a Fulbright Scholar and a Fulbright Specialist, both in Kenya. She has been the Director of Education for a gender-based violence prevention organization, a visiting professor at Bucknell University, and now is the Resident Dramaturg for University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theatre and Dance. Waidley directs and dramaturgs regularly in both academic and professional settings, recently for a devised piece at the Kenya International Theatre Festival.

Her research links storytelling and embodied performance with the neurobiology of trauma. She has published in Theatre/Practice, Texas Theatre Journal, Multilingual Margins, Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, and the Kenya International Theatre Journal. She is the Editor for Theatre/Practice and is currently working on a book about Kenyan Theatre History and Contemporary Performance.