"\u003Cdiv class=\u0022view view-staff view-id-staff view-display-id-block_1 view-dom-id-7f3b883782690d2c9807da23914b0171\u0022\u003E\n \n \n \n \u003Cdiv class=\u0022view-content\u0022\u003E\n \u003Cdiv\u003E\n \n \u003Cp\u003ENicole Hodges Persley is an Assistant Professor of Theatre at the University of Kansas. She completed her Ph.D. in American Studies and Ethnicity at The University of Southern California in 2009. Her dissertation, \u0022Sampling Blackness: Performing African Americanness in Hiphop Theater and Performance\u0022 is the first study to examine the impact of African American racial and cultural identity on the artistic practices of non-African American artists in theater, conceptual art and dance. Her research and teaching interests include: African American Theater and Performance; Hiphop Studies; African Diaspora Theater; Solo Performance; Popular Culture; Performance Studies, and Improvisation Theory. Hodges Persley currently teaches courses in Acting, Hiphop in Popular Culture and African American Theater. She has received numerous fellowships and awards including a James Irvine Foundation Fellowship and an undergraduate teaching and mentoring award from the Mellon Foundation. As an actress and director, Hodges Persley has professional credits in theatre, film and television. Her current book project is an comparative study on the performance practices of Hiphop Theater and Performance artists in the United States, England and France.\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n \n \n \n \n \n \n\u003C\/div\u003E"