Performance & Media
Scholar | Educator | Artist | Producer
Sammy Roth
As a mover and maker inside and outside academia, I study, teach, and produce community-engaged dance, performance, and digital media projects. Since completing my Ph.D. in Culture and Performance from UCLA in June 2026, I have begun a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Cincinnati’s Taft Research Center.
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About
I study, teach, and create work that combines performance, digital media, and cultural critique to build a more just society.
My career has been wide ranging, including performing in experimental concert dance for over a decade; producing performances for emerging and established choreographers; conducting qualitative, community-engaged research that engages critical race, decolonial, feminist, and performance theories; and teaching introductory arts, dance, and cultural theory courses. Across these endeavors, I challenge ahistorical mainstream discourses and practices to imagine and fight for liberatory futures for all.
My interdisciplinary work presently examines popular performance, white settler violence, and technologies of circulation through dance and digital humanities methodologies to identify far-right influences in joyful physical practices like competitive dance and yoga. My projects have been supported by major fellowships from UCLA’s Graduate Division, Humanities Division, School of the Arts and Architecture, Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance, and the Filson Historical Society. I have a B.F.A. in Dance from Ohio University, M.A. in Performance Studies from New York University, and a Ph.D. in Culture and Performance from UCLA. My research has been awarded the Dance Studies Association’s Selma Jeanne Cohen Award (2018) and Cultural Studies Association’s Randy Martin Prize (2026).
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