This course introduces students to the field of performance studies through recent theory and practice by Black, Indigenous, and Latine writers and performers. Reading performance and theory, we explore how foundational concepts in the field—presence, embodiment, ephemerality, performativity—can help us better understand contemporary struggles around structural inequality, racism and coloniality, environmental and gender justice. At the end of this course, you will have developed the necessary vocabulary and research skills to conduct close readings and informed arguments on performance practice, and to continue to navigate recent scholarship in performance studies and the many artistic and academic fields it intersects with.