1. Graduate Student Bio
Isis L. Golden entered the Ph.D program in Dramatic Art/Performance
Studies at UC Davis during the fall of 2003 with an interest in studying the various
relationships between Culture and Theater and a previous background in acting
and stage design. The majority of her research in contemporary Native American
Theater, explores issues of bi-racial/multi-racial ethnicity and sovereignty and
autonomy. Her current interests also include examining American drama in its
political aspects—with respect to race, gender, and class as well as representations
of race and the body as they are discussed in various works of multi-ethnic drama.
In her first year, she presented her undergraduate thesis in Anthropology,
entailing a Levi-Straussian structural analysis of Diane Glancy’s The Truth Teller
at the 2003 Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities. Her second
year seminar presentation with the UCD dept. of Theatre and Dance examines the
psychological and historical underpinnings of mixed-race conflict in William S.
Yellow Robe’s Rez Politics. Her 2006 Hawaii International Conference presentation
focuses on bridging gaps between Theater and Ethnohistory, through a discussion of
Arthur Kopit’s play Indians and his emphasis on the history(ies) of Native
Americans in the United States.
She is the recipient of a number of honors and awards, including the Andrew
Mellon Minority Undergraduate Fellowship, Hortense Powdermaker award in
Anthropology and Joseph L. Bertram award in Drama. Also, she has taken part in
a number of productions as an undergrad—one of them was Oscar Wilde’s Salome
created as a Kabuki Theater-styled production. Also, she has worked with the
Native Theatre School in Saskatchewan, Canada during the summer of July 2002.
As a graduate student, she has worked extensively with the UCD dept. of Native
American Studies, co-writing, acting in and choreographing productions such as
“Cantos De La Tierra Tremenda: Melodies of the Rebellious Earth” during the
Winter 2005 quarter and “Sharing Our Skins/SpiritSpeak: Native Theater for the
Equinox” during Winter 2006 and continues to do theatrical productions and other
community events. She also took part in a fashion show exploring the relationships
between Indigenous fashion and globalization during the Spring 2005 quarter.
During fall 2007, she volunteered as an assistant stage manager for a fashion show
cover girl contest for Solano County’s “La Voz Hispana” Magazine and currently
holds a position as a Communications Coordinator within the Black Professional
Graduate Student Association (BPGSA) executive board on the UC Davis campus.
Ms. Golden was born and raised in Queens, NY and holds a B.A. in
Anthropology and Theater from Queens College (City University of New York).
Currently at ABD status (All But Dissertation status), she seeks to complete her
dissertation in June 2008 tentatively entitled Performing Native American Cultural
Empowerment: Looking at the 1969 Native American Re-Occupation of Alcatraz
Island.