Michal Kobialka

kobia001@umn.edu

612-625-0048

Theatre Arts & Dance

520C Rarig Center

330 21st Ave S
Minneapolis, MN 55455

Curriculum Vitae

Collegiate Affiliation

Theatre Arts & Dance

Links

A Requiem for Tadeusz Kantor

Possible Worlds of the Pomaranczowa Alternatywa

Michal Kobialka Full Bio

A Note on Working Through Crisis (PDF)

Specters of the Past: An Installation in the Times of Disquiet (PDF)

Michal Kobialka is an internationally recognized theatre historian and scholar. He has published over 100 articles, essays, and reviews as well as presented papers on medieval, eighteenth-century, and contemporary European Theatre.

His current research includes the investigation of representational practices as well as defining the nature of theatre/performance historiography. Additionally, he is focused on examining the temporal and spatial flaws and imperfections in the academic design for the eighteenth century and the Enlightenment, which haunt the Euro-American academy.

To view Michal Kobialka's full bio, please select it from the links provided above.

Educational Background & Specialties

Open Close

Educational Background

PhD: Theatre History and Theory, Graduate School of the City University of New York, 1982 – 1987
MA: English and American Literature, Warsaw University, 1976 – 1981
Courses: History of Stage Directing, Royal Holloway College, 1979 – 1980

Specialties

Eastern European theater
Literature
Theatre Historiography
Theatre History
Medieval Theatre
Avant-Garde Theatre and Drama

Publications

Open Close

Publications

Kobialka, Michal. "Historical Archives, Events and Facts: History Writing as Fragmentary Performance." Performance Research 7(4) (2002).
Kobialka, Michal. "Can there be Such a Thing as a Postmodern Archive." The New Information Order and the Future of the Archive (2002).
Kobialka, Michal. "Tadeusz Kantor's Happenings: Reality, Mediality, and History." Theatre Survey (2002).
Kobialka, Michal. "Theatre and Tragedy." Theatre Journal (2002).
Kobialka, Michal. "Words and Bodies: A Discourse on Male Sexuality in Late XVIIIth-century London." Theatre Research International (2002).
Kobialka, Michal. This is My Body: Representational Practices in the Early Middle Ages. University of Michigan Press, 1999.
Kobialka, Michal. A Journey Through Other Spaces: Essays and Manifestos, 1944-1990. The University of California Press, 1993.
Kobialka, Michal. "“Words and Bodies: A Discourse on Male Sexuality in Late XVIIIth-century." Theatre Research International 28(1) (none): 1-19.
Kobialka, Michal, ed. Rosalba Gasparo. "“Tadeusz Kantor’s Odysseus: Imagined Myths and Chronicled Histories in Le Maschere di Proteo." Edizioni di Nicolo (2003): 175-185.
ed. Philip Auslander (2003). “Historical Events and Historiography of Tourism“ . Performance: Critical Concepts.
(2006). “Tadeusz Kantor’s Practice: A Postmodern Notebook“. Performing Arts Journal, 28.1.
ed. Sérgio de Carvalho (2006). “Prácticas Representacionais na Idade Média“. O Teatro e a Cidade: Lií§íµes de História do Teatro.
(2004). “Everyday Histories“. Performance Research, 9.4.
(2004). “Historiography“. Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, 18.2.
(Winter 2003/4). “Theatre and Space: A Historiographic Preamble“. Modern Drama, 46.4.
Theatre/Performance Historiography: Time, Space, Matter. Rosemarie K Bank and Michal Kobialka, Palgrave, Kobialka, Michal, 2015.
“There is a World Elsewhere: The Endgame of Theory and Practice”: Megan Altruz, Julia Listengarten, M. Van Duyn Wood, Palgrave, Kobialka, Michal, Playing with Theory in Theatre Practice, 2012.
“Representational Practices and Real Abstractions in Early XVIIIth-century London”: Lara D. Nielsen and Patricia Ybarra, Palgrave, Kobialka, Michal, Neoliberalism and Global Theatre: Performance Permutations, 2012.
“Epilogue: Tadeusz Kantor’s Theatre of Personal Confessions”: Marta Bryś, Anna Burzyńska and Katarzyna Fazan, Peter Lang, Kobialka, Michal, Tadeusz Kantor Today: Metamorphoses of Death, Memory and Presence, 2014.
“Of Adorno’s Beckett”: Will Daddario and Karoline Gritzner , Palgrave, Kobialka, Michal, Adorno and Performance, 2014.
Further on, Nothing: Tadeusz Kantor's Theatre. University of Minnesota Press, Kobialka, Michal, 2009.
"Theatre Historiography: Politics, Ethics, and the Now": Kobialka, Michal, Modern Language Quarterly, 70:1 (March 2009), 19-42.
. “Tadeusz Kantor and Hamed Taheri: Of Political Theatre/Performance“. The Drama Review, T204 (Winter 2009), 78-91.
“Representational Practices in Eighteenth-Century London: A Prolegomenon to Historiography of the Enlightenment“. Faculteit Geesteswetenschappen, Universiteit Utrecht, The Netherlands, 2009, Kobialka, Michal, 2009.
“Theatre Historiography: History and Ethics in the Time of the Now“ : eds. Meike Wagner and Wolf-Dieter Ernst, Munchen: Epodium, Kobialka, Michal, Performing the Matrix: Mediating Cultural Performances, 177-200, 2008.
ed. Maaike Bleeker (2008). “Delirium of the Flesh: “˜All the Dead Voices’ in the Space of the Now“. Anatomy Live: Performance and the Operating Theatre, 223-244.
(2007). “Tadeusz Kantor: Collector and Historian“. Performance Research, 12.4, 78-96.
eds. Christine Greiner and Claudia Amorim (2007). "Delírio da carne: arte e biopolítica no espaí§o do agora". Saíµ Paulo: Annablume.
(2022). “Specters of the Past: An Installation in the Times of Disquiet”. Theatre Journal , 74 (2022), 339-62.
eds. Sascha Bru, Kate Kangaslathi, Le Lin, Iveta Slavkova and David Ayers (2022). “A Note on Working Through Crisis: Theorising Polish Socialist Realism, 1945-1949” . Crisis: The Avant-Garde and Modernism in Critical Modes, 97-112.
(2022). “On Interruption: Working Through the Past and the Arts”. Performance Research, 26, 5, 65-71.
(2021). “Theatre/Performance Historiography: A Preamble”. Pamiętnik Teatralny, 70.4.
(2021). “Of British Representational Practices in the Age of Capitalism/Territorialism (1743-1776)”. Pamiętnik Teatralny, 70.4.
ed. Arthur Watson (2021). “Tadeusz Kantor: The Water Hen/Kurka Wodna. Demarco 2020: From Strategy: Get Arts into the Future, 48-51.
(2020). “Tadeusz Kantor: Spectres of the Past”/“Tadeusz Kantor: Widma przeszłości”. Tadeusz Kantor.Widma/Spectres Exhibition Catalog.
eds. Magda Romanska and Kathleen Cioffi (2020). “Kantor’s Objects: Materialism of the Encounter”. Theatremachine: Tadeusz Kantor in Contex, 17-28.
eds. Luigi Marinelli, Valentina Valentini, Andrea Vecchia (2018). “Requiem per Tadeusz Kantor”. Politica dell’arte, politica della vita: Tadeusz Kantor fra teatro, arti visive e letteratura.
eds. Francesca Bortoletti and Annalisa Sacchi (2018). “Di memoria e di storia; Il teatro dei Minima Moralia di Tadeusz Kantor”. La Performance della Memoria, 261-99.
eds. Stephani Etheridge Woodson and Tamara Underiner (2017). “Of Change”. Theatre, Performance and Change, 173-81.
(2017). “Walencje awangardy: o ‘Maszynie miłości i śmierci’ Tadeusza Kantora i o dialektyce przestrzeni” (a Polish version of: “Valences of the Avant-garde: of Tadeusz Kantor’s Machine of Love and Death and Spatial Dialectics”). Didaskalia, 138, 62-70.
(2016). “A Note on Spatial Dialectics”. Performance Research, 21.3, 54-64.
(2015). “Possible Worlds of the Pomarańczowa Alternatywa”. Theatre Journal, 67.4, 605-623.
ed. Małgorzata Paluch-Cybulska (2015). “Memento Mori et Amori: zagadka „Maszyny miłości i śmierci” Tadeusza Kantora jako obraz dialektyczny” (Mementori Mori et Amori: The Riddle of Tadeusz Kantor’s “The Machine of Love and Death” as a Dialectical Image). Tadeusz Kantor: Cholernie Spadam, 25-44.
eds. Jarosław Suchan and Ricardo Muniz (2015). “Sobre objetos e máquinas/Of Objects and Machines” (in Portuguese and in English). Máchina Tadeusz Kantor, 69-84.
eds. Natalia Zarzecka and Michal Kobialka (2018). Tadeusz Kantor’s Memory: Other Pasts, Other Futures. London and Wroclaw: Polish Theatre Perspectives Press.
eds. Katarzyna Fazan, Michal Kobialka, and Bryce Lease (2022). A History of Polish Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Activities

Open Close

Activities

Professional

"Theatre Historiography: A Challenge to the Archive": American Society for Theatre Research, Philadelphia, PA. 2002
Member: Winton Chair Selection Committee. 1999 - 2001
"Can there be Such a Thing as a Postmodern Archive": The New Information Order and the Future of the Archive, The Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, Edinburgh, UK. 2002
Member: McKnight Artist Fellowship for Theatre Arts Panel. 1997 - 1998
Member: West Bank Arts Quarter Advisory Committee.
Member: Humanities Institute Advisory Board, University of Minnesota. 1998 - present
Member: Committee on Publications, University of Minnesota Press. 1998 - 2001
Head: MA/Ph.D. Program, University of Minnesota.
Member of the committee for the Research Award for Outstanding Book in Theatre Practice and Pedagogy: Association for Theatre in Higher Education. 2001 - 2003
Executive Board Member: American Society for Theatre Research. 1998 - 2001
Editorial Board: Theatre Survey. 2001 - 2004
Chair: Department of Theatre and Dance, University of Minnesota.
"Everyday Histories": CIVICCentre CONFERENCE: RECLAIMING THE RIGHT TO PERFORMANCE, London. April 2003
Associate Editor: Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism.
"Image and Body: Historiography of Late XVIIIth-century English Representational Practices": Presentation, Newport Beach, CA. October
Lectureship: A series on lectures on the theatre of Tadeusz Kantor: DEPARTMENT OF DRAMA, STANFORD UNIVERSITY. January 2004 - none
Lectureship: “Why Historiography?“: Mainz, Germany. July - none
“The Future of the Profession“: Presentation, State of the Profession Panel, Durham, NC. November - none
Lectureship: “Theatre Historiography: Self-Examination in the Time of the Now“: GRADUATE SCHOOL OF CUNY. New York, NY, Novemb - none
Guest Lectureship: “Theatre Historiography: Ethics and the State of Exception“: IPP PERFROAMNCE AND MEDIA STUDIES SUMEMR SCHOOL 2005. Mainz, German, July - none
A series on lectures on the theatre of Tadeusz Kantor: TEATRO FíBRICA SíƒO PAULO. SÃ£o Paulo, Brazil, - none
A three-week long Eminent Hoffman Scholar Chair seminar on theatre historiography and postmodern critique: FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY. Tallahassee, FL, Jan - none
Guest Lectureship: “Representational Practices and Real Abstractions in Eighteenth-Century London“: BROWN UNIVERSITY. February 2009 -
Guest Lectureship: “Further on, Nothing: Tadeusz Kantor’s Theatre“: UNIVRSIDAD DE GRANADA Granada, Spain, October, 2008.
A day-long symposium & guest lectureship (with Ludmila Ryba): “Tadeusz Kantor’s Theatre“: HUIS AAN DE WERFT Utrecht, The Netherlands, January 2009.
“International Conference: The Art and Theatre of Tadeusz Kantor“ (panel participant with David Gothard, Ludmila Ryba, and Richard Schechner): POLISH CULTURAL INSTITUTE and THE MARTIN E. SEGAL THEATRE CENTER CUNY, New York, January 2009.

Research

Theatre Historiography: The Archive and the Performance Culture: A book-length study of the Enlightenment and its representational practices. This project interweaves new approaches to archival research.. 2008 - present

Awards

Open Close

Awards

McKnight Land Grant Professorship
ATHE Research Award for Outstanding Book in Theatre Practive and Pedagogy for This is My Body: Representational Practices in the Early Middle Ages, 2000
CLA Grant-in-Aid of Research, Artistry, and Scholarship, University of Minnesota, 2000
Fesler-Lampert Professorship in Humanities, 2003 - 2004
20th Eminent Hoffman Scholar Chair holder at the Florida State University, Fall 2004 - Spring 2005
Belle van Zuylen Chair/Professorship at the University of Utrecht/The Netherlands, Fall 2008 - Spring 2009
Scholar of the College, CLA, University of Minnesota, 2007 - 2010
Arts and Humanities Research Council of Great Britain: “Staging Difficult Pasts” project, 2018 - 2021
Paul W Frenzel Professorship in Liberal Arts, 2016 - 2021
Imagine Fund Annual Award, 2010
The Medal of Honor Meritorious for Polish Culture or Meritorious for Polish Culture (Odznaka honorowa “Zasłużony dla Kultury Polskiej”), The Medal of Honor Meritorious for Polish Culture or Meritorious for Polish Culture (Odznaka honorowa “Zasłużony dla Kultury Polskiej”) is awarded by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland to persons and organizations for distinguished contributions to the Polish culture and heritage., 2021
Grant for the "Tadeusz Kantor: The Ghosts of the Pasts" exhibition., Ministerstwo Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego (The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, Poland; 232,200.00 PLZ; $60,000) for the exhibition: “Tadeusz Kantor: The Ghosts of the Pasts” at the Cricoteka, Kraków, Poland., 2019-2021
Faculty Travel Grant, Institute for Global Studies Faculty Travel Grant (University of Minnesota), 2019; 2022

Courses

Open Close

Courses

Th 1101V - Honors Section: Introduction to the Theatre
Th 1101W - Introduction to the Theatre
Th 3171 - History of the Theatre: Ancient Greece through Neo-Classicism
Th 3172 - History of the Theatre: Age of Enlightenment to Present
Th 8115 - History and Theory of Western Theatre: 20th Century Through World War II
Th 8113 - History and Theory of Western Theatre: The Rise of National Theatres
Th 8111 - History and Theory of Western Theatre: Ancient/Medieval
Th 8102 - Theatre Historiography