09 Aug IHC Research Fellow: Andrew J Henkes
Andrew J. Henkes is both a research fellow at the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center and a research associate at the University Art Museum at the University of California, Santa Barbara, as well as a lecturer at the University of Southern California’s School of Dramatic Art.
His research focuses on the history of theater, popular entertainment and LGBTQ performance in the United States. His article, “A Party for the ‘Freaks’: Performance, Deviance and Communitas at Club Fuck!, 1989-1993,” is forthcoming in The Journal of American Culture. His first book will examine the delineation of gay and lesbian identities in Los Angeles nightlife through theater, dance, drag and fetish performances.
His dissertation, “The Golden Age of Gay Nightlife: Performing Glamour and Deviance in Los Angeles and West Hollywood, 1966-2013,” was supported by funding from the IHC.
His master’s thesis, “Performing the Acts of the Apostles: A Case Study on Efficacy and Legitimacy in the Theater in Sixteenth Century Paris,” explored the rhetoric surrounding public performance in late medieval France.
Research interests:
Nightlife and live popular entertainment
American studies
Gay and lesbian history
Phenomenology of performance & spectatorship
Environmental theater
Historical intersections between theater, religion and revelry