The Histories of Dance Working Group (HDWG) is a community of scholars who ground their studies of dance in archival research. The group serves as a platform for sharing resources, facilitating intergenerational conversation, and cultivating a network of people who are invested in historical methods.

We welcome scholars whose primary focus is dance, but also those who write about theatre, music, popular entertainment, and movement within a broader context. We are interested in work that belongs to any period and geographic location, so long as its production incorporates archival research.

HDWG plans to exist as an online forum (list-serv) in which members can impart information about events, conferences, recently opened archival collections, research inquiries, etc., but also as an in-person/hybrid symposium that meets once or twice a year in New York City. The in-person component of the group will focus on cultivating the work of doctoral students and junior scholars, who will present research and writing and receive comments from senior scholars.

Founding Members: Julia Foulkes (Professor, The New School), Julie Malnig (Professor, New York University), Lynn Garafola (Professor Emerita, Barnard College), Juliana DeVaan (PhD Candidate, Columbia University), and Emily Hawk (Postdoctoral Research Associate, Princeton University)

Image: Romare Bearden, The Dancer, c. 1982