Christin Essin

Professor of Theatre, Theatre History

Christin Essin is a Professor of Theatre History and 2019 Chancellor’s Faculty Fellow. She received her doctoral degree from the University of Texas at Austin, M.A from Northwestern University and B.A from Wake Forest University. Her forthcoming book, Working Backstage: A Cultural History and Ethnography will be released by the University of Michigan Press in 2021. Her first book, Stage Designers in Early Twentieth Century America: Artists, Activists, Cultural Critics, received the 2015 Golden Pen Award from USITT. Essays in Theatre Journal, Theatre Topics, and Theatre History Studies demonstrate her research focus in histories of stage design and backstage labor. In the Theatre Department, she teaches THTR 1010, Fundamentals of Theatre; THTR 2201, Rituals and World Performance; THTR 2202W, The European Stage; THTR 2204, The U.S. Stage; THTR 3207, Storytelling as Performance; and THTR 3333, Cultural Identity and the American Musical.