Theresa May

Theresa May is Professor of Theatre Arts and allied faculty of Indigenous and environmental studies at the University of Oregon. She received the Thomas F. Herman Distinguished Teaching Award in 2021, and the 2022 Sustainability Award for Research. She is co-founder of the EMOS Ecodrama Festival, and co-founder (with Marta Clifford and Lori Tapahonso) of illioo Native Theatre.  She teaches Native theatre, Latinx dramatic literature, ecotheatre, as well as devising and performance courses. Her publications include: Earth Matters on Stage: Ecology, Environment and American Theatre (Routledge 2021) and Salmon Is Everything: Community-based Theatre in the Klamath Watershed (OSU Press 2019); an edited volume, Readings in Performance and Ecology (with Wendy Arons) (Palgrave 2014); as well as articles and chapters that bridge performance studies and environmental humanities, most recently, “Kinship and Community in Climate Change” (Journal of Contemporary Drama 2022);  “Tú ers mi otro yo ~ the Ecodramaturgy of José Cruz González” (Routledge Companion to Latinx Theatre, 2024), and “Prefiguring the Environmental Justice Movement in Hansberry’s Raisin in the Sun” (Black Theatre Review 2024), “Beyond Bambi: Towards a Dangerous Ecocriticism in Theatre Studies” (Theatre Topics, 2014), and many others.  Her plays include Salmon Is Everything, The Home Planet, and BlueJay’ Canoe in collaboration with Marta Lu Clifford (Chinook, Cree, Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde), and The Home Planet. 

For a full list of publications and projects, see Dr. May’s website: https://theresajmay.com/

MFA, U of Southern California; PhD, U of Washington.