Theresa Carilli, Ph.D.

Professor Carilli@calumet.purdue.edu
Phone: (219)989-2628
Fax: (219) 989-2008

Biography

Theresa Carilli’s scholarly and creative work explores the connection between culture and the creative process.  Her major areas of research are Performance Studies and Media Studies.

Carilli is the author of Scripting Identity: Writing Cultural Experience  (University Press of America, 2008); two books of plays, Familial Circles (Guernica, 2001), and Women As Lovers (Guernica, 1996) and the co-editor of Women and the Media: Diverse Perspectives (University Press of America, 2005) and Cultural Diversity in the U.S. Media (SUNY, 1998).  She has co-edited a special volume of the Global Media Journal on Women in the Media and edited a special theatre issue of the journal Voices in Italian Americana.

Some of her articles and performance texts include:

“Locating italianita in the work of Nancy Savoca and Penny Marshall,”

Women and the Media: Diverse Perspectives (University Press of America, 2005)

“Big Boy,” Ultimate Performance Monologues (Smith and Krause, 2001)

“Aftershocks,” Women on the Verge (St. Martin’s Press, 1999)

“Verbal Promiscuity or Healing Art: Writing the Creative/Performative Personal Narrative,” The Future of Performance Studies   (NCA Press, 1998)

“Still Crazy After All These Years: Italian Americans in Mainstream Film,” Cultural Diversity and the U.S. Media (SUNY Press, 1998)

Theresa Carilli’s plays have been produced in San Francisco, San Diego, Melbourne, Australia, Athens, Greece, and Victoria, B.C.  She was the scriptwriter for the award-winning videos Without Due Process: A Family’s Account of the Japanese American Internment  (2001), The Mastery of Teaching: A Profile of Yjean Staples Chambers (2000), and Tales from the Classroom (1999). 

She is a member of the editorial board of Voices in Italian Americana and The Journal of Communication Studies. Carilli has presented over 100 conference papers at international, national, and regional conventions. Currently, she is working on a book of monologues, A Close Brush With Death, and a volume of plays. 

Education
Ph.D., Southern Illinois University, Performance Studies
M.A., University of Connecticut, Communication Sciences
B.A., University of Connecticut, English Literature

Courses Taught
Oral Interpretation
Advanced Oral Interpretation
Theories of Oral Interpretation
Qualitative Research Methods
Focus Group Research
Introduction to Ethnic Studies
Ethnicity and Communication
Ethnicity and Film
Women in the Media
Primary Research Areas
Theater and Performance
Ethnography and Autoethnography
Ethnic Studies
Women's Studies
Personal Narrative