Biography

Jashodhara Sen is a Theatre and Performance Studies historian, director, and dramaturg specializing in South Asian theatre and performance. Her research focuses on the evolution of Bengali performance, Jatra, as a cultural enterprise and a provocative form of theatre both socially and politically charged to support grassroots engagement. Jashodhara's performance practice, scholarship, and teaching are informed by theatre history and performance, postcolonial and subaltern studies, and oral history and autoethnography. Her research and reviews have appeared in the Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, Ecumenica, Asian Theatre Journal, New England Theatre Journal, and Texas Theatre Journal. Her Ph.D. is in Theatre and Performance Studies from the University of Colorado Boulder, and currently, she is an Assistant Professor of Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Florida. 

Jashodhara is working on a digital storytelling project for South Asian immigrant women titled “Leaving Home, Finding Home” that redefines audience-participant relationships in alternative theatrical spaces. For this project, she has received the PAGE (Publicly Active Graduate Education) Award through Imagining America in 2017, Engaged Arts and Humanities scholarship (2018-2019), and Community-Based Research scholarship (2018-2019). Most recently, Jashodhara received an award in directing from KCACTF (The Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival) for the play Shakuntala (adaptation, 2020) produced by the Department of Theatre and Dance at CU Boulder.

Current Research Interests: South Asian diasporic theatre and performance, postcolonial and subaltern studies, and digital autobiographical performance.