Prof. Dr.
Joy Kristin Kalu

Joy Kristin Kalu holds a doctorate in theater studies, is a dramaturge and curator for international performative arts. She currently works as a visiting professor for the theory of performative arts at the Berlin University of the Arts. Until summer 2023, she was head dramaturge for theater and performance at the Sophiensælen in Berlin. There she curated the festivals "Save your Soul" (2018), "Freischwimmer*innen. The Future is Female" (2019), "Risk & Resilience" (2020) and "Leisure & Pleasure" (2023) and conceived and moderated the ongoing discourse series "Politics of Love. Representation in Theater and Society". Her book "Aesthetics of Repetition. Die US-amerikanische Neo-Avantgarde und ihre Performances" was published in 2013 (Transcript). She is co-editor of the volumes "Theater als Intervention. Politiken ästhetischer Praxis" (Theater der Zeit 2015), "Kunst und Alltag" (De Gruyter 2017), and "OPENINGS. Sophiensaele 2011-2021" (Alexander Verlag 2021).

Joy Kristin Kalu has researched and taught at Freie Universität Berlin and New York University and has worked at various cultural institutions in Germany and the USA, including the Actors' Gang in Los Angeles, Berlin's Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, New York's Wooster Group and Kunst-Werke Berlin. Most recently, she was a member of the board of trustees of the Fonds Darstellende Künste (2018-2022), the jury of the Forced Entertainment Award (2018), the Stückemarkt of the Berlin Theatertreffen (2018) and the advisory board of the Impulse Theaterfestival 2017.