J. Chris Westgate
Professor
Biography
I earned my doctorate from the University of California, Davis in 2005 with a dissertation that examined the intersections of drama, critical geography, and urbanism, with emphasis on the representation of the homelessness and public space, gentrification and suburbanism, rioting and ghettoization. I earned my B.A. and M.A. from California State University, Sacramento.
Degrees
2005, Ph.D., University of California, Davis
2000, M.A., California State University, Sacramento
1998, B.A., California State University, Sacramento
Research Areas
My research follows two parallel tracks. The primary track, right now, involves modern drama and theater history, specifically a book-length project entitled, Staging the Slums, Slumming the Stages. This project demonstrates how theatrical production during the Progressive Era served as an arbiter and producer of discourse on class, ethnicity, and poverty in New York City. The second track is about contemporary drama, where I’m interested in the politics of performance and reception attendant with work by dramatists like José Rivera, George F. Walker, and David Hare.
Courses Regularly Taught
Modern and contemporary drama; literature, critical geography, and landscape studies; theater history; and cultural studies.
Publications
Westgate, J. Chris. Urban Drama: The Metropolis in Contemporary North American Plays. Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.
Westgate, J. Chris. “Between Want and Wealth: The Failure of Upward Mobility in José Rivera’s Early Plays,” Ed. James Fisher. To Have or Have Not: Essays on Commerce and Capital in Modern Theatre. McFarland & Co., 2011. 257-278.
Westgate, J. Chris. “Evicted in—and from—Toronto: Walker’s Beautiful City at Factory Theatre.” Comparative Drama, vol. 43, no. 2, 2009, pp. 221–45, https://doi.org/10.1353/cdr.0.0057.
Westgate, J. Chris. “O’Neill’s ‘Damned Unconventional’ Play from the Prohibition years: ‘Anna Christie’.” Eugene O’Neill Review. vol. 33, no. 2, 2012, pp. 56-70.
Westgate, J. Chris. “A voice evolving through time: An interview with José Rivera.” Contemporary Theatre Review, vol. 20, no. 1, Feb. 2010, pp. 87–95, https://doi.org/10.1080/10486800903453053.
Westgate, J. C. "Poverty, Philanthropy, and Polemics: Edward Sheldon's Salvation Nell and Theatre History." The Journal of American Drama and Theatre, vol. 21, no. 3, 2009, pp. 25-47,83. ProQuest, https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/poverty-philanthropy-polemics-edward-sheldons/docview/197752998/se-2.
Office Hours
Fall 2025
To be announced
