Daphne Lei

Professor Daphne Lei (Ph.D., Tufts University; Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Stanford University) is a distinguished scholar and Professor of Doctoral Studies in the Department of Drama at the Claire Trevor School of the Arts, University of California, Irvine. In early 2022, she assumed the role of Director of UCI Illuminations, the university’s arts and culture initiative, where she advances inclusive programming and fosters connections between UCI and broader regional institutions.

Professor Lei is internationally recognized for her groundbreaking work on Chinese opera, Asian American theatre, and intercultural, transnational, diasporic, and transpacific performance studies. Her research centers on the "contact zone"—spaces where cultural, national, and identity boundaries are challenged, negotiated, and re-imagined. She is the author of three influential monographs: Uncrossing the Borders: Performing Chinese in Gendered (Trans)Nationalism (University of Michigan Press, 2019), Alternative Chinese Opera in the Age of Globalization: Performing Zero (Palgrave, 2011), and Operatic China: Staging Chinese Identity Across the Pacific (Palgrave, 2006). She also co-authored Theatre Histories: An Introduction, 4th edition (Routledge, 2024) and co-edited The Methuen Drama Handbook of Interculturalism and Performance (Bloomsbury, 2020).

In 2022, Daphne Lei was honored with the Distinguished Scholar Award by the American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR) for outstanding lifetime contributions to theatre studies—the first Asian American to receive this recognition. She previously served as ASTR President from 2015 to 2018, becoming the first president of color in the society’s history and launching diversity-centered programs that reshaped the field. Her commitment to equity extends beyond scholarship into performance and pedagogy. She founded “Multicultural Spring,” a long-standing program showcasing multicultural performance, and is the founding director of Theatre Woks, a theatre collective dedicated to supporting Asian American talent. Her multi-year performance research initiative, Dramatic Transformations (2012–2015), explored graduate student diversity and left a lasting campus impact, now archived at UCI.

At UCI, Professor Lei teaches across all levels, offering rich and diverse courses. Her Ph.D. seminars cover topics such as Food and Performance, Border Crossing, Transpacific Performance, Intercultural Theatre, Chinese Opera, and Postcolonial Theatre. For M.F.A. students, she leads seminars on Multiculturalism, Love and Desire in Chinese Drama, and Classical Asian Theatre, while her undergraduate courses include Introduction to Asian Theatre, Asian American Theatre, Women, Performance, Power, and the provocatively titled Dragon Lady and Kungfu Master.

Professor Daphne Lei’s multifaceted career interweaves scholarly excellence, creative activism, leadership in academic and cultural institutions, and a deep commitment to equity and multiculturalism. She stands as a transformative figure in contemporary theatre studies, shaping both intellectual discourse and community through her teaching, research, and leadership.