CJ Nizard

Nizard headshot
Cohort Year: 2019
Research Interests: dance and performance studies; historiography; critical theory; gender; violence and interpretation; creative research
Education: MFA Performance Practice as Research, The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, 2018; BA (Hons) English and Anthropology, McGill University, 2016

Biography

CJ Nizard (she/they) is Joint PhD Candidate in English Language and Literature & Theater and Performance Studies at The University of Chicago. Their research moves across a wide array of dance histories, considering negative tropes within the form, and formal attempts at negativity. They served as coeditor of Chicago Review (2023-2024), cocurator of the exhibition and program Jessica Stockholder: For Events (Logan Center for the Arts & Art in Public Spaces, SMART Museum, 2024), were a University of Chicago Arts, Science + Culture Fellow (2022), and cotranslator of Superliquid Water (PRROBLEM PRESS, 2026). Their performance criticism has appeared in ASAP/Journal, Performance Response Journal, and Chicago Review. They have recently performed in dance projects with Yuval Sharon, Erin Kilmurray, and Shir Ende, as well as in their own creative research for The Lawn and WIHSH Gallery (Chicago, IL). They are a founding member of the Movement Theory Lab at The University of Chicago.