K. Frances Lieder

K. Frances Lieder is a third-year PhD student in the department of Theater and Drama. Her research interests include postcolonial theory, performance studies, gender studies, and South Asian languages and literature. An honored two-year recipient of a Foreign Language and Area Studies fellowship, she is proficient in both Hindi and Bengali and intends to conduct her dissertation research on representations of violence against women in the urban milieux of Kolkata and New Delhi, India. K. Frances is also a practicing choreographer and theater director; her most recent productions include Lights Out, the inaugural production of In-House Theatre of which she is the co-artistic director, and Phere[crates]: Scraps—A Collage, which appeared as a new work in the Department of Theater and Drama’s annual Ten Minute Play Festival. K. Frances looks forward to conducting pre-dissertation research in India this summer: meeting practicing theater artists, watching rehearsals and performances, and analyzing the ways in which representations of violence against women are circulating in India after the highly publicized Nirbhaya rape in Delhi in December 2012.