How I found my research is an occasional series featuring VCU students sharing their journeys as researchers.
Hope Ward, a fourth-year Ph.D. student in the Media, Art and Text program at Virginia Commonwealth University, is an accomplished actor, choreo-poet and director. At VCU, Ward’s research focuses on the influence of American theater’s anti-Black history on university and conservatory acting programs.
In an interview last year with Frances Burson for VCU’s Humanities Research Center, where Ward served as a graduate research assistant, Ward said that she believes “the trauma that shapes the Black experience in this country lays so heavy on the average Black American that often performance exists as the only passageway through to power.”
Ward’s performing credits include Antigone in Baltimore Center Stage’s Production of “Antigone,” and Tyree in the Off-Broadway Production of “Bundle of Sticks” at Intar Theater, as well as streaming productions “Love My Roomie” and “Hawks Ridge” and HBO’s “Succession.” Her original play, “To All the Black Girl’s Who’ve Waited,” had its off-Broadway debut in 2023.
Ward shared more about her research with VCU News and how faculty are helping inspire her in her work.
In two sentences, tell us the focus of your research ... and why it is important/impactful for all of us.
My dissertation is titled “Imagine Being Free: Decolonizing Actor Training in University and Conservatory Programs.” My research historicizes actor training programs in the United States through blackface minstrelsy and slave auctions and offers new equitable acting training techniques to be infused in our curriculum.
What inspired you to pursue this line of research?
I’ve always been really moved and inspired by theater while simultaneously being its biggest critic. Working as a professional actor further inspired my desire to effect a more localized change within our BFA and MFA theater programs.
Tell us about a surprise in your research journey.
A surprise I found in my research is the role of violence in theater as an accepted practice of performance and really delving more deeply into this.
Tell us about an obstacle or challenge you had to overcome in your work.
Getting on a strict writing schedule. Working full time as an actor and personal trainer, working as a teaching assistant and splitting my time between Richmond and New York has forced me to carve out some early mornings dedicated to just four or five hours of writing and research.
Is there a memorable partnership or lesson you've embraced along the way?
My entire dissertation committee is full of women who inspire me daily. Being able to have a committee filled exclusively with Black women from a variety of disciplines is the biggest blessing I have received from VCU. They have pushed me and challenged me in ways only they could do.
What do you find fulfilling about the research process?
The small things that come up in writing that turn out to be bigger subset research areas is really exciting.
What advice would you offer undergrads to kick-start their own research journeys?
Find faculty that inspire you. They will walk a very important path in your life.