Kalle Westerling

Kalle Westerling is a Ph.D. Candidate in Theatre and a Futures Initiative Graduate Fellow at the Graduate Center, CUNY, and Director of HASTAC Scholars, a vibrant student network within The Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory (HASTAC). Currently, he is completing his dissertation on the history and aesthetics of male-identified bodies in 20th-century burlesque and 21st-century boylesque, “The Roots and Routes of Boylesque: Queering Male Striptease and Burlesque in New York City from 1930s Golden Age Burlesque to the New York Boylesque Festival in the 2010s.”

His monograph, La Dolce Vita (Normal 2006) treats the history of the Swedish drag company After Dark. He regularly delivers scholarly papers at the annual conferences for the American Society for Theatre Researchers (ASTR) and the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE). Recently, his performance-related theatre work has included an English translation and dramaturgy of August Strindberg’s The Pelican for the Voyage Theatre Company’s 2016 production in New York City. In 2017, he will also dramaturge Parts Unknown—their reading series of newly written drama.

Kalle has taught courses at Villanova University, New York University, Baruch College, Hunter College, and Stockholm University, and has guest lectured at Yale University, The New School, Carleton University, and Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts. He regularly presents on the topics of queer and LGBT studies, the digital humanities, the public humanities, and on how to leverage digital technology for effective pedagogy.

As part of his service to the academic profession, Kalle frequently blogs and employs social media to connect others and build communities. He has organized many conferences, including contributions to HASTAC’s annual international conferences in 2015 and 2016, and the After Marriage Conference in New York City. Kalle also holds board appointments with CLAGS: Center for LGBTQ Studies (Chair of Programming), the open-source publishing platform OpenCUNY, and the CUNY Doctoral Theatre Students’ Association.