Why Pursue an MA at UH Mānoa?

Hawaiʻi as a Place of Learning

Study within a unique cultural environment where Indigenous knowledge systems, performance traditions, and contemporary artistic practices intersect.

Theory and Practice

Explore performance through research, creative activity, fieldwork, and community engagement.

Faculty Mentorship

Work closely with faculty scholars, artists, and cultural practitioners in a collaborative graduate environment.

Global Perspectives

Examine performance traditions and cultural practices from Hawaiʻi, Asia, the Pacific, and beyond.

Choose Your Area of Concentration

Dance

Study dance as a cultural, historical, artistic, and embodied practice.

Students investigate movement traditions, choreography, performance, pedagogy, and dance studies while developing original research and creative projects.

Areas of Interest May Include:

• Dance Studies
• Choreography
• Dance History
• Indigenous Dance Practices
• Cultural Performance
• Dance Education
• Hawaiʻi, Asia & Pacific Dance Traditions

Learn More About the Dance Concentration →

Performance Studies

Examine performance as a social, cultural, political, embodied, and artistic practice.

Students explore performance as a way of understanding how people create meaning, identity, community, culture, and knowledge. Drawing from the interdisciplinary tradition of Performance Studies, students engage performance across dance, theatre, ritual, everyday life, cultural practices, and community contexts, while developing critical, creative, and embodied approaches to research.

The program includes a focus on Theory and Performance as Research (PaR), connecting scholarly inquiry with creative practice. Students may investigate questions through choreography, theatrical performance, embodied experimentation, improvisation, ethnography, community-based practices, screendance, and other artistic and interdisciplinary methodologies. This integration of research, performance, and creative practice encourages students to both analyze performance and generate new knowledge through making and doing.

Grounded in an interdisciplinary approach, students consider performance not simply as an artistic product, but as a dynamic mode of inquiry that can illuminate culture, history, politics, identity, embodiment, and social life.

Areas of Interest May Include:

• Performance Studies (Dance Focus)
• Performance Studies (Theatre Focus)
• Performance/Practice as Research (PaR)
• Asian Dance & Theatre
• Pacific Dance & Theatre
• Local and Global Cultural Contexts
• Dance & Choreographic Practice
• Theatre & Performance
• Performance Theory & Practice
• Indigenous Performance
• Intercultural Performance
• Queer & Feminist Performance
• Ritual, Ceremony & Everyday Life
• Cultural Performance
• Identity, Representation & Embodiment
• Performance & Society
• Indigenous Studies, Dance Studies, Theatre Studies
• Interdisciplinary Research
• Community-Based & Participatory Performance
• Performance Ethnography
• Interdisciplinary Research
• Screendance, Digital & Media Performance
• Creative Research & Artistic Practice
• Critical Theory

Learn More About Performance Studies →

Theatre

Investigate theatre through historical, cultural, artistic, and educational perspectives.

Students examine theatrical practices, dramatic literature, performance traditions, and pedagogical approaches while developing specialized research interests.

Areas of Interest May Include:

• Theatre History
• Dramatic Literature
• Theatre Education
• Hawaiian Theatre
• Asian Theatre
• Theatre for Young Audiences
• Performance Research

Learn More About the Theatre Concentration →

Research Pathways

Graduate students complete original research through one of the program's culminating options.

Thesis Option

Conduct in-depth scholarly research resulting in a written thesis that contributes to the field.

Project Option

Develop and present a substantial creative, scholarly, or applied research project supported by written documentation.

Student Opportunities

✓ Graduate Assistantships

✓ Teaching Experience

✓ Conference Presentations

✓ Creative Research Projects

✓ Community Engagement

✓ Interdisciplinary Collaboration

✓ Faculty Mentorship

✓ International Scholarship

Career Pathways

Graduates of the MA program pursue careers in:

• Higher Education
• Arts Administration
• Cultural Organizations
• Community Arts
• Theatre & Dance Education
• Research & Scholarship
• Museums & Cultural Institutions
• Nonprofit Leadership
• Doctoral Study

Admissions

Graduate Admissions →

Meet Our Faculty →

Apply to the MA Program →