JOHANNA C. KIRK BIO

I received my PhD in Culture and Performance from the University of California Los Angeles, department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance. I am an interdisciplinary researcher and writer whose academic work connects phenomenology, performance and dance theories, and the medical humanities. I am trained as a dance historian, theorist, and choreographer, and I also have training as a cultural anthropologist and qualitative medical researcher. My writing sparks dialogue between the work of artists, theorists, and health scientists.

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Currently, I research individuals’ diverse experiences of pregnancy and how dancing while pregnant can both reveal and support these experiences. I focus on the formal, theoretical, and healing work performed by dances made by artists during pregnancies as well as the ways that such dances are in dialogue with obstetric medicine. My ongoing research focuses on choreography's applications to birth justice work, and it proposes how the attentions and community building of dance making might productively inform medicine in ways that benefit pregnancy experiences and outcomes for more individuals, both inside and outside of dance cultures in the US.