History of Women & Performance

Women & Performance was launched in 1983 by a group of graduate students in the Department of Performance Studies at NYU as a forum for discussion of gender & representation. Over the past 17 years, the journal has grown steadily and is now distributed biannually via bookstores, libraries, and individual subscriptions throughout the US and internationally.

The core of the journal is its editorial board, made up of current and former graduate students and faculty from across disciplines. In recent years, the journal began a successful experiment in inviting guest editors to organize theme-based issues and, even more recently, has become a peer-reviewed journal. Through these efforts and the input of new members, the journal will continue its mission of extending and reformulating notions of performance and gender well into the future.

Mission Statement

With each issue, the journal seeks to reaffirm its commitment to feminist writing, and to extend and reformulate notions of performance and performativity so as to advance, challenge or reinvent issues critical to ongoing discussions surrounding gender and sexuality. We are also committed to serving women's groups and feminist theorists at a national and international level.