La Donna Forsgren

Associate Professor

Department: Film, Television, and Theatre

Area of Specialization:

African American theatre and performance, dramaturgy, black feminist theories, Black nationalism

La Donna L. Forsgren is an Associate Professor in the Department of Film, Television, and Theatre and concurrent faculty in the Gender Studies Program. Prior to joining the faculty at Notre Dame, she taught theatre history, playwriting, and dramaturgy at the University of Oregon and Miami University. She has received numerous awards and competitive grants for her research on the Black Arts Movement, including ISLA's Large Grant for Research and Creative Work (2018), the Mid-America Theatre Conference’s Robert A. Schanke Theatre Research Award (2016), University of Oregon Humanities and Creative Arts Grant (2014), and Consortium for Faculty Diversity at Liberal Arts Colleges Dissertation Fellowship (2011). Her research has appeared in Theatre Topics, Theatre History Studies, Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, Callaloo: A Journal of African Diaspora Arts and Letters, Continuum: the Journal of Black Drama, Theatre and Performance, and New England Theatre Journal. Her first book, In Search of Our Warrior Mothers: Women Dramatists of the Black Arts Movement, investigates the works and careers of Martie Evans-Charles, J.e. Franklin, and Sonia Sanchez (Northwestern University Press 2018). She is completing her second book manuscript, Sistuhs in the Struggle: An Oral History of the Black Arts Movement. She currently serves as Associate Conference Planner for the Mid-America Theatre Conference.

Gender Studies Courses:

African American Musicals in Film, Television, and Theatre