Year of Graduation

2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

MFA: Dance

Directing Professor

Jeffery Bullock

Abstract

This braided research-performance thesis uses personal narrative, critical theory, and live performance to investigate how whiteness is sustained and embodied. Grounded in the work of bell hooks, Ibram X. Kendi, Tema Okun, Diana Taylor, Catrice M. Jackson, Miguel Gutierrez, and Narcissister, I interrogate whiteness not as a static identity, but as a system of power that shapes perception, behavior, and social value. As a cisgender white woman, I move through the world with unearned ease—my presence normalized, my advantages often unquestioned.

Identity is performance—layered, like the Russian nesting dolls I once played with at my grandmother’s house. Peeling back these layers reveals the myths whiteness upholds, the privileges it grants, and its influence on embodiment across perception, education, femininity, sexuality, religion, and artmaking. The writing blends autobiographical reflection with scholarly analysis to confront the invisible scripts that sustain white supremacy culture.

The performance component—un-nesting—is a disruptive, site-specific work involving nature, layered clothing, duality, and dolls of varying sizes, rendering this unlayering process in real time. Together, these methods form an intentional interference in internalized whiteness and its unconscious choreography. Rather than offering redemption or resolution, the work embraces unlearning as an ongoing act of accountability, critical self-examination, and vulnerability.

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Performance Access Statement

If you wish to see the creative piece or performance that accompanied this thesis, please complete the Request Form, and you should receive a response from the Dance Department within two weeks.

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