Biography
Dr. Jimmy A. Noriega is Professor and Chair of the Theatre Department of Columbia College. He is the current President of the American Society for Theatre Research and was awarded the Kennedy Center Gold Medallion in 2023. He has directed over 50 English and Spanish language productions, which have been staged at theatres and festivals in 15 countries: Mexico, India, Ireland, Greece, Columbia, Peru, Ecuador, Canada, Belgium, Romania, Israel, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and the United States (including New York City). His production of Women of Ciudad Juárez, which he translated and directed, has been on tour since 2014. His most recent touring production, CAGED, which he wrote and directed, is about the "zero tolerance policy" that separated migrant children from their families at the US-Mexico border.
Dr. Noriega received a prestigious Fulbright Scholar Award to Vienna, Austria in 2022. As a theatre researcher, he has published two books: Theatre and Cartographies of Power: Repositioning the Latina/o Americas (with Analola Santana, Southern Illinois University Press, 2018) and Fifty Key Figures in Queer US Theatre (with Jordan Schildcrout, Routledge, 2022). His essays have appeared in Theatre Topics; Latin American Theatre Review; Review: Literature and Arts of the Americas; Review: The Journal of Dramaturgy; Lateral: Journal of the Cultural Studies Association; and various collected anthologies. His areas of research include Latinx, Latin American, and Queer Theatre, as well as Theatre for Social Change and theatre pedagogy.
As a dramaturg, Dr. Noriega was awarded the 2013 Elliot Hayes Award for Outstanding Dramaturgy by the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas. His other accolades include: the 2021 and 2015 Collaborative Research Award from the American Society for Theatre Research; the 2015 Michael Lynch Service Award Honorable Mention for Activism and Mentorship from the GL/Q Caucus of the Modern Languages Association; and the 2015 Award from the Kennedy Center and American College Theatre Festival for “Making Theatre a Catalyst for Sociopolitical Change."
Professor Noriega has also taught theatre and literature to students in the Elmira Correctional Facility as part of the Bard Prison Initiative. He previously served as President of the Latinx, Indigenous, and the Americas Focus Group of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education and was Chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance at the College of Wooster from 2017-2023.
Degrees
B.A., Theatre, English, Spanish Missouri Southern State University 2005
M.A., Theatre Cornell University 2009
Ph.D., Theatre Cornell University 2011