American University of Central Asia - AUCA - GenEd Faculty & Staff

GenEd Faculty & Staff

Lauren B. McConnell, PhD

Department Chair / Associate Professor

Television, Cinema and Media Arts Department

Division of Arts, Humanities and Communication

 

Email: [javascript protected email address]

Room: 415

 
  • Scriptwriting
  • English Writing and Conversation Lab

2004  Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Theatre and Drama, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA

  • 1997, 1998 CIC Travelling Scholar Program, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
  • Certificate: International and Comparative Studies, Northwestern University

1986   MA in Theatre, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, USA

1985  MA in Music, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, USA

1981  BA in Music, Concentration Drama, University of Washington, Seattle USA

FELLOWSHIPS, SCHOLARSHIPS & GRANTS 

$10,000-$25,000: 

  • Charles H. Revson Foundation Fellowship for Advanced Holocaust Studies, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington D.C. ($11,000 for research on “The Fireflies Project”) May-July 2012 
  • Early Career Investigator Grant, Central Michigan University, (funding to research, produce and record The Fireflies, a play originally produced in the Terezín Concentration Camp in Czechoslovakia during WWII, granted $23,200), May 2010-14 
  • Fulbright Fellowship, (CIES) Lecturer in Drama, (provided financial support to teach at the University of Plovdiv, Bulgaria), spring 2010 
  • Dissertation Year Fellowship, Northwestern University, (competitive university-wide fellowship that provided support for my final academic year), 2003-04 
  • Boren Graduate International Fellowship, Academy for Educational Development, (competitive national fellowship that provided financial support for 14 months of research and language study in the Czech Republic), April 2001- June 2002 
  • Fulbright Fellowship (CIES) Lecturer in Drama (financial support to teach at University of Constantine the Philosopher, Slovakia), Spring1996 

$1000-$7500: 

  • Communication and Dramatic Arts Grant, CMU, $1400 to defray the costs of students participating in the “Fireflies to Terezín” Study Abroad class, fall 2016
  • Holocaust Research Scholarship, Academic Seminar, held at Yad Vashem World Center for Holocaust research, Jeruselem, Israel (funding to attend a seminar on Holocaust Research and conduct research), Dec. 2012 
  • Spanish Language Improvement Grant, $3000 Faculty 2010 Grants, Central Michigan University, 2010
  • Collaborative Arts Grant, Center for Interdisciplinary Research in the Arts, Northwestern University, (provided funding for me to adapt Serbian-Jewish writer David Albahari’s short stories into a play and produce it in collaboration with the Jewish Theatre Ensemble at Northwestern), 2000 
  • Graduate Research Grant, Northwestern University, (for dissertation research), 2000 
  • Humanities Center Graduate Affiliate, Northwestern University, 1999 

Under $1000: 

  • CCFA Dean’s Discretionary Fund, Central Michigan University, $500 to present "The Success of Censorship: Czechoslovak Play writing During the 'Normalization'," at the International Federation for Theater Research Conference, Lisbon, Portugal, July 2009
  • Hayek Fund for Scholars Grant, Institute for Humane Studies, George Mason University, (awarded for research that contributes to the understanding of the principles of the classical liberal tradition. I presented a paper at the International Centre for Advanced Theatre Studies, Seili, Finland), summer 2002 
  • Center for International & Comparative Studies Research Grant, Northwestern University, (for dissertation research in the Czech Republic), 2000 
  • American Society for Theatre Research Dissertation Fellowship, (funding for dissertation research in the Czech Republic), summer 2000 
  • Russian and East European Summer Research Lab, University of Illinois, (funding for housing) summer 2000, 1999 
  • Center for International and Comparative Studies Summer Travel Grant, Northwestern University, (funding to attend a conference in Slovakia), 1999                            
  • Scriptwriting (Screenplay and Theatre)
  • Czech and Slovak Film and Theatre
  • Terezín Ghetto/Holocaust Research
  • Radio Plays and Podcast Production
  • Environmental Issues
  • “The History of The Fireflies.” Cd brochure for “Terezín’s The Fireflies.” Adapted by Lauren B. McConnell, musical arrangements and original music by José-Luis Maúrtua, Mount Pleasant, MI: Central Michigan University, 2015. Print.   
  • “Teaching and Communicating Cross-Culturally.” Teaching Central. Mount Pleasant: Faculty Center for Innovative Teaching, Central Michigan University, March 6, 2011. Web. Mar. 25, 2011. 
  • “Understanding Paul Robeson’s Soviet Experience.” Theatre History Studies. Vol. 30, Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press, 2010. Print. 
  • Black Snow.” Performance review. Texas Theatre Journal. Jan. 2010 issue. Print. 
  • BrundibárBravo: The Official Magazine of the Detroit Opera House. Royal Oak, Michigan: Echo Publications, Mar. 2009. Print. 
  • “Dramatyczny wybór współpracy i zaniechania przemocy: Zitra to spustime! (Od jutra zaczynamy!)” (The Dramatic Choice of Cooperation and Non-Violence: Vaclav Havel's Tomorrow We Will Start Up!), trans. Agnieszka Izdebska, Dyskursy i przestrzenie nie tolerancji (Discourses and Spaces of (In)tolerance), ed. Grzegorz Gazda, Irena Hübner, and Jarosław Płuciennik, Łódź: Łódź University Press, 2008, 265-270. Print. 
  • “Paul Robeson.” Cold War Encyclopedia, New York: Routledge, 2008. Print. 
  • “Lustration.” Cold War Encyclopedia, New York: Routledge, 2008. Print. 
  • “Humor in the Face of Inhumanity.” Program notes for Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s production of Brundibár and Comedy on the Bridge. Nov. 2005. Print.
  • “Theatrical Conservatism in Post-Communist Prague: The Case of Pavel Kohout and His Play Zeros.” Selected Papers from the 22nd SVU World Congress (2004), Palacky University, Olomouc, Czech Republic. CD. 
  • Review of Modern Czech Theatre: Reflector and Conscience of a Nation, by Jarka Burian. Theatre Survey 43 (2002): 115-118. Print. 
  • “Peter Karvas.” Censorship: A World Encyclopedia. Derek Jones, Ed. London: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 2001. Print. 
  • “Daniela Fischerová's The Massage Table: Politics and Guilt in Post-Communist Czechoslovakia.” Modern Czech Studies. Brown Slavic Contributions 8. Providence: Dept. of Slavic Languages, Brown University, 2000. Print. 
  • “Postmodernist Theatre in Post-Communist Slovakia.” Tracing Literary Postmodernism. Nitra, Slovakia: University of Constantine the Philosopher, 1998. 185-194. Print. 
  • “Postmodernisticke divadlo na postkomunistickom Slovensku.” Trans. Olga Ruppeldtova, Divadlo v Medzicase. Bratislava, Slovakia: Zdruzenie divadelnikov na Slovensku, March 1997. Print. 
  • Monologue from my play The Northern Lights. Best Women's Stage Monologues 1997. New Jersey: Smith & Kraus, 1998. Print. 

 

  • Research Associate, Center for Russian and East European Studies, University of Michigan 2007-2018
  • Actor’s Equity Association
  • American Guild of Musical Artists
  • Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences

 

American University of Central Asia
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Tel.: +996 (312) 915000 + Еxt.
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