Program: Performance Studies Graduate Certificate - University of Southern California

Apr 02, 2025

USC Catalogue 2023-2024

This 16-unit graduate certificate program is meant to complement PhD and MA studies in related areas such as English, Comparative Literature, Art History, Cinema Studies, etc., by affording students interested in live and time-based art media, courses and a specialization based on studying these modes of creative work.

With a focus on the deep history of discourse and media relating to performance, screen imagery, embodied and visual art work, the program intersects with ethnic studies, gender/sexuality studies, cinema studies, drama, dance and broad concerns addressing how bodies in performance or in visual images construct or resist identifications.

Application for the certificate is open to all USC graduate students in fall and spring semesters, and must be submitted by the end of the first year of a graduate program. The minimum GPA requirement is 3.0.

Required Courses (8 units)

The required core courses are intended to supply both a horizontal and a vertical understanding of performance studies. Emphasis will be placed on the student putting her or his practice (whether artistic or scholarly) in the context of both an overview of the field and deep examples of performance practices, approached either through a scholarly framework or via hands on and practice-based strategies.

CRIT 500 provides a broad historical chronology and an understanding of the histories of theory and practice; CRIT 560 and CRIT 570 provide deep analysis and hands-on research skills.

Note: If desired a student may take both CRIT 560 and CRIT 570 with the second counting as a Roski elective.

CRIT 500 Theory and History of Performance Studies Units: 4
and
CRIT 560 Visual Theory/Performance Theory Units: 4 or
CRIT 570 Performance Theory and Praxis Units: 4

Electives (8 units)

Electives include courses in Roski and those ratified courses by affiliate faculty beyond Roski, or courses approved by the Graduate Program Director. Participating programs currently include Cinema Studies, Architecture, Dramatic Arts, Dance, Music, American Studies and Ethnicity, Sexuality and Women’s Studies, Communication, East Asian Languages and Cultures, Art History, English and Philosophy. All these courses are 4 units unless otherwise noted. In all cases students must get approval from the Graduate Program Director based on current content of the class.

Some suggested elective courses include the following:

AHIS 505 Seminar in Feminist Theory and Visual Culture Units: 4
AMST 552 Archives and Subcultures Units: 4
ARCH 535 Landscape Construction: Performance Approaches Units: 3
COMM 563 Black Popular Culture: Theory and Central Debates Units: 4
CTCS 518 Seminar: Avant-Garde Film/Video Units: 4
THTR 578 Theatre of the Oppressed: Theory, Games, and Techniques Units: 4