Performance Studies

meaning made in the doing

Performance Studies, as I use it, is a way of understanding how meaning is made through what we do and not just what we say (although saying is a kind of doing). It calls me to look at everyday life as something shaped by actions, gestures, timing, and context. In other words, performance isn’t only what happens on a stage. It’s how we move through the world, how we present ourselves, how we interact with others, and how those interactions take on meaning.

This perspective draws, in part, from Erving Goffman, who described social life as a series of performances. When you enter a classroom, send an email, participate in a discussion, or even choose how to phrase a sentence, you are performing. That does not need to mean in a false or artificial way. I mean it in a way that is responsive to audience, setting, and expectation. Performance Studies takes that insight seriously and expands it.

For me, performance studies is especially useful because it helps us see structures (for me that is classrooms, institutions, or technologies) not as fixed systems, but as environments we actively shape and are shaped by. A syllabus, a policy, or even a conversation is not just a document or event; it is something we enact together. This is why I often describe the classroom as a rehearsal space: a place where we try out ways of thinking, speaking, and relating to one another. This approach also helps me think about things like privacy, authorship, and trust. These are not just abstract ideas; they are produced through repeated actions. When we decide how to share our work, how to cite a source, or how to use a tool like, say, a printing press or  AI, we are participating in performances that carry ethical and social meaning.

If you’re new to performance studies, two accessible entry points are Richard Schechner and Andreea Micu. Schechner’s work helps ground the field in key concepts like “restored behavior,” while Micu offers clear, contemporary explanations that make the field approachable.

Performance studies offers a simple but powerful shift: it asks us to pay attention to how meaning is made in action. Once you start looking for it, performance is everywhere: in the everyday practices that shape how we live, learn, and understand one another.