Debra Caplan

  

I am a doctoral candidate in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University, in the Yiddish Studies program. My interdisciplinary scholarship focuses on topics in Yiddish theater, Jewish performance and theatrical modernism around the world.

I am currently completing a dissertation on the Vilna Troupe and the rise of a Yiddish art theater movement between the two World Wars. My project includes a born-digital mapping component that illustrates the emergence of vibrant cross-continental networks among Yiddish theater artists of this period.

I teach courses at Emerson College and at Harvard on theater history, world drama, Jewish studies, Yiddish literature and culture, performance studies, dramatic analysis, and theatrical modernism.

I am also the Executive Director of Harvard's Mellon School of Theater and Performance Research, in collaboration with Martin Puchner. In addition to my research and teaching, I am also a stage director, dramaturg, and translator for the theater.