Professor Maria Delgado, Central’s Director of Research, Receives Career Achievement Award from the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE)
Congratulations to Professor Maria Delgado, Central’s Director of Research, who has received the Career Achievement Award in Academic Theatre from the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE).
The Career Achievement Award recognises an individual who is primarily based in academic theatre and indicates a career of distinguished service to the field. Recipients must be recognised for superlative contributions to the field and they must be known for supporting multiculturalism and diversity in theatre and/ or education.
Their achievements must be the product of an entire career of contributions; they must be original thinkers and/ or creators whose work has established new frames of reference; they must be instrumental in nurturing the careers of others; and they must have been effective advocates for the field. Recognised scholarly and/ or creative contributions, work with professional organisations and service to students are also considered.
On the announcement of her receipt of the ATHE Career Achievement Award, Professor Maria Delgado said:
“Heartfelt thanks to ATHE for this wonderful award. Academic life is ultimately about civic life – about how we converse, how we share and how we act. It is about recognizing why a commitment to community matters. Community is what helps us make sense of the world; it encourages us to question; it is what propels us towards change. To all the many communities and the colleagues within them who have sustained, supported and challenged me over many years, my thanks go to you all.”
Colleagues from around the world sent letters in support of Professor Delgado’s nomination for the Award, noting her enormous contributions including her innovative field-defining scholarship, mentorship of younger scholarships and practitioners, selfless service to the field and advocacy for it:
“The UK-born daughter of Spanish Civil War refugees, Professor Delgado knows firsthand the important role education can play in the immigrant experience, and she has devoted her career to building and sustaining important transnational bridges in the arts, both as a public practice and as an object of scholarly inquiry.” - Jean Graham-Jones, Lucille Lortel Professor of Theatre; Latin American, Iberian, and Latino Cultures, and Comparative Literature, The Graduate Center, The City University of New York; President, International Federation for Theatre Research
“Professor Delgado’s career has been noteworthy for her support for theatre and film in languages other than English - most notably Spanish. Her strong commitment to multiculturalism is evident in her continuing to chair doctoral committees and other discipline-shaping events in Spain, and she has extensive research connects in Spain and in South America. She has also worked hard to ensure gender diversity and support for women in academic and professional theatre contexts.” - Professor Joanne Tompkins, Executive Director, Humanities and Creative Arts Panel, Australian Research Council
“Following in the footsteps of distinguished senior figures in our discipline such as Erika Fischer-Lichte, Patrice Pavis and others, I cannot think of another as influential and as prolific an ambassador of international theatre and performance studies amongst Maria’s generation of scholars, who is as widely respected, and who has been as instrumental in shaping the field as well as supporting and inspiring the lives and careers of so many that again will follow one day in her footsteps, and who will certainly follow her most exemplary role model as a person, colleague and mentor.” - Peter M Boenisch, Professor of Dramaturgy at Aarhus University and Professor of European Theatre at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama
“The groundbreaking research that Professor Maria M. Delgado has published, her mentorship for several generations of theater scholars, and her global stature in theater studies. She merits an award that recognizes a life trajectory that has inspired and will continue to inspire scholars and teachers globally.” - David Rodríguez-Solás, Assistant Professor of Spanish, Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, University of Massachusetts Amherst
“Maria is someone who has bridged the gap between academia and public culture in a manner which has refreshed our discipline and relocated it as both accessible and meaningful. She is also a witty and caring colleague! I cannot think of anyone in the UK or Europe more generally who deserves this award more than Maria Delgado.” - Professor Maggie B. Gale, Chair in Drama, University of Manchester School of Arts, Languages and Culture
“I am pleased to recommend Maria Delgado’s serious and beautiful body of work to the committee’s attention. She is an inspiring example of researcher, scholar, mentor and activist in a struggling and demanding world.” - Peter Sellars, Distinguished Professor; Director, Boethius Initiative; Theatre, Opera and Festival Director
“I can truly think of no other scholar in the field more clearly deserving of this honor. Professor Delgado has been for many years not only a leading figure in the study of the Spanish theatre, her particular specialty, but in the international theatre, she has worked with distinction as a historian, editor, translator, critic and curator.” - Marvin Carlson, Sidney E. Cohn Distinguished Professor of Theatre and Performance, Comparative Literature and Middle Eastern Studies, The Graduate Center, The City University of New York
“Maria Delgado is an outstanding scholar and a superb international figure in our field. To say she is acclaimed is an understatement. She is also a strong advocate for the field in her cultural industries roles - again indications of her leadership and public presence.” - Janelle Reinelt, Emeritus Professor of Theatre and Performance, University of Warwick
“Frankly, having read the criteria, I can’t think of any other person – in the UK, US or indeed anywhere – who deserves it more. I have been working with and publishing books by outstanding academics and practitioners in the field of theatre and performance around the world since 1991, so I have some overview of this. I’ve known Professor Delgado for almost the same time span and have worked closely with her for the last ten years. She continues, even now, to surprise and impress me with her indefatigable energy and resolute integrity.” - Talia Rodgers, Publishing Director of Digital Theatre and Honorary Fellow of The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama
The Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) is a comprehensive non-profit professional membership organisation that works to support and advance the study and practice of theatre and performance in higher education.
Founded in 1986, ATHE serves the interests of its diverse individual and organisational members, including college and university theatre departments and administrators, educators, graduate students, and theatre practitioners.
An advocate for the field of theatre and performance in higher education, ATHE serves as an intellectual and artistic centre for producing new knowledge about theatre and performance-related disciplines, cultivating vital alliances with other scholarly and creative disciplines, linking with professional and community-based theatres, and promoting access and equity.
You can find out more about the work of the ATHE here.
