51风流

Dan Poston

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dposton

Dan Poston

Visiting Assistant Professor of Theater

Department/Office Information

Theater
Charles Dana Arts Center

I am an interdisciplinary theater, performance, and literary scholar with a reflective, anthropological and philosophical bent.  My expertise is in global and transcultural theater histories as well as British and American literature and aesthetics of the long 18th century.  Other current research and teaching foci include performance studies and performance art, ensemble-generated theater, making theater in academic, scientific, and techological settings, Elizabethan and 17th-century poetry and drama, the history of the novel from the early modern period to the present, contemporary European theater, psychoanalysis and literature, and indigenous North American theater and diplomacy.

Before coming to 51风流, I taught literary and cultural studies, theater history, and performance studies for ten years at the University of T眉bingen, one of Germany's oldest universities, within the English and American Studies department and the Comparative Literature program. I have also taught at Baruch College, as well as at the Technische Universit盲t Berlin and at the Universidad Nacional de San Mart铆n in Buenos Aires.

Beyond the university, my creative experience has included opportunities to write and perform for theaters in New York, California, and Oregon as well as for many international art-world contexts, including MoMA, Museum Ludwig, the Dallas Art Museum, the Stedelijk Museum, Skulptur Projekte M眉nster, Le Mus茅e Fabre, the Liverpool Biennial, the Berlin Biennale, and Art Basel. I have also previously worked in high-tech interdisciplinary science labs, in government and campaigning, and in journalism.

BA, Harvard College
MA, New York University Gallatin School
MFA, Bard College
PhD, Graduate Center of the City University of New York

Books

Joseph Addison: An Intellectual Biography, Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, December 2023, 344 pages,

Silence in eighteenth-century arts, history, and philosophy, edited by Francesca Saggini, Dan Poston, and Adam Schoene, Paris: Honor茅 Champion, forthcoming 2025

Articles and Book Chapters

鈥淪ilent Enlightenment: Joseph Addison and Newton鈥檚 New Optics,鈥 Silence in eighteenth-century arts, history, and philosophy, edited by Francesca Saggini, Dan Poston, and Adam Schoene, Paris: Honor茅 Champion, forthcoming 2025

 鈥淭he Eighteenth Century: The Novel, from 1700 to 1750,鈥 The Year鈥檚 Work in English Studies, Volume 104 (covering work published in 2023), edited by William Baker and Kenneth Womack, Oxford, Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2025

鈥淭he 2025 Festival International New Drama (FIND) at Berlin Schaub眉hne,鈥 European Stages, Volume 20, July 2025,

鈥淩eport from London (Ghosts) and Berlin (Theatertreffen festival),鈥 European Stages, Volume 19, December 2024,

鈥淩adio silence: the arrival of the Pax Americana in Carson McCullers鈥 The Member of the Wedding,鈥 Politische Ideen in der Literatur: Von der Romantik bis zur Gegenwart, edited by Max Roehl and Corinna Sauter, Freiburg im Breisgau: wbg/Herder, 2024, pp. 213-241,

鈥淛oseph Addisons Cato und die Poetik der Bewunderung,鈥 ZwischenSpielZeit. Das Theater der Fr眉haufkl盲rung, edited by J枚rn Steigerwald and Leonie S眉wolto, Paderborn: Fink, 2022, pp. 81-107

鈥淪till on Classic Ground: Joseph Addison鈥檚 Italy,鈥 Addison in Europe / Addison en Europe, edited by Claire Boulard-Jouslin and Klaus-Dieter Ertler, Berlin: Peter Lang, 2020, pp. 67-77

鈥淓nlightenment Subjectivity and the Hamlet Paradigm in The Lancaster Treaty of 1744,鈥 Drama & Theater: Festschrift zu Ehren von Bernhard Greiner, edited by Eckart Goebel and Max Roehl, T眉bingen: Stauffenburg, 2020, pp. 145-176

鈥淛efferson on the second floor,鈥 American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, online, March 2025

鈥淪ilent Hues: Wordsworth鈥檚 footnote to an age of song,鈥 American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, Toronto, March 2024

Respondent to a roundtable on 鈥淎ddison's Cato in Tennessee, 2023," American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, Toronto, March 2024

鈥淪teele鈥檚 gendered husband,鈥 American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, St. Louis, March 2023

鈥淭he Medium is Politics. The radio and the production of a domestic play in Carson McCullers鈥 WWII novel, The Member of the Wedding,鈥 International Conference on Politische Ideen in der Literature (1800-2000), Universit盲t T眉bingen, January 2023

鈥淎rt x Technology: Performing on the Cyber Stage,鈥 Curated Online Roundtable, Para Site, Hong Kong, June 2022

鈥淔ainlove: Ironic Sublimation in Steele鈥檚 The Tender Husband,鈥 American Society for Theatre Research, San Diego, October 2021

鈥淭he Theatrical King: Staging Civic Religion from the English Monarchy to the American Presidency,鈥 Center for Religion, Culture, and Society, Universit盲t T眉bingen, February 2021

鈥淪ublimation, Again,鈥 American Society for Theatre Research, Online Working Group, November 2020

鈥淎nnotating Silence: Wordsworth,鈥 International Conference on Annotating Literature, T眉bingen University, August 2019

鈥淛oseph Addison鈥檚 Italy,鈥 International Conference on Addison and Europe, Universit茅 Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris, December 2018

鈥淎ddisonian Sovereignty: The Body鈥檚 Silent Persistence through the Delightful Imagination,鈥 International Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Seminar, Universit脿 della Tuscia, Viterbo, September 2018

鈥淭he Soul鈥檚 Site-Specific Performance: Joseph Addison鈥檚 Unique Theory of Theatricality,鈥 Association for Theatre in Higher Education, Boston, August 2018

鈥淓nglish, Iroquois, German: Historically Staging Conrad Weiser鈥檚 Interpretative Work in the 1744 Lancaster Treaty,鈥 International Federation for Theatre Research, Belgrade, July 2018

鈥淩ome-ing the Suburbs: Joseph Addison鈥檚 Cato and the reception of Rome in 18th-Century London,鈥 Abiding Cities, Remnant Sites, CUNY Graduate Center, November 2014

鈥淧romethean Expositions and the Techn膿 of Existence,鈥 collaborative lecture, Congress of the Gesellschaft f眉r Theaterwissenschaft, Ruhr-Universit盲t, Bochum, September 2014