Karen Jean Martinson is an Assistant Professor of Dramaturgy at Arizona State University. She explores the intersection of contemporary USAmerican Performance, consumer culture, and the processes of identification through her scholarly and creative work. She focuses her scholarly research on El Vez, The Mexican Elvis/Robert Lopez, interrogating how his performances cross separating lines of difference such as race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality. Her monograph, Make the Dream Real: World-Building Performance by El Vez, The Mexican Elvis, will be published in May 2025. Creatively, she works as both a dramaturg and director, staging and devising works of social import and engagement. She currently serves as the co-VP University Relations for LMDA, and was the VP Advocacy from 2020-2024. She served as Secretary of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) from 2016-2020, after having served the Dramaturgy Focus Group for many years. Martinson was awarded her Ph.D. in Theatre History, Literature, and Critical Theory from the University of Minnesota in 2008.

El Vez, The Mexican Elvis; Contemporary USAmerican Subject Formation; Dramaturgy: Theory, Practice, and Pedagogy; Devised Theatre; Neoliberalism and Consumer Culture Theory; American Girl Dolls, Products, Environments, and Theatre

Yes