Sarah Bay-Cheng [pronounced Bay-JUNG, “j” as in jump; rhymes with “sung”] is the Dean and Professor of Theatre & Performance Studies in the School of the Arts, Media, Performance and Design (AMPD) at York University in Toronto, Canada. She was formerly Chair and Professor of Theater and Dance at Bowdoin College, teaching theatre history and theory, dramatic literature, and intermedia performance. Her research focuses on the intersections among theatre, performance, and media including histories of cinema, social media, and digital technologies in performance. She is the author/editor of 4 books, including Performance and Media: Taxonomies for a Changing Field (2015) and Mapping Intermediality in Performance (2010) as well as more than 50 essays in Theater, Contemporary Theatre Review, and Theatre Journal, among others.

She was a founding co-host for On TAP: A Theatre and Performance Studies podcast and still drops in on the conversation from time to time. Bay-Cheng frequently lectures internationally and in 2015 was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar in Media and Cultural Studies at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. She has served on the boards of the International Council of Fine Arts Deans, Canadian Association of Fine Arts Deans, Performance Studies international, the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, and the Executive Committee for the American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR). Bay-Cheng has also worked as a director and dramaturg with particular interest in intermedial collaborations and a fondness for puppetry.

Short Bio

Sarah Bay-Cheng is Dean of the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design and Professor of Theatre & Performance Studies at York University in Toronto, Canada. Her research focuses on the intersections of media and performance, including four books, most recently Performance and Media: Taxonomies for a Changing Field (2015). Bay-Cheng has been a Fulbright Scholar in Media and Cultural Studies at Utrecht University in the Netherlands and a founding co-host for On TAP: A Theatre & Performance Studies Podcast.