Jill Stevenson is Associate Chair for Theatre Arts NYC and a Teaching Professor of Theatre. She is the author of Performance, Cognitive Theory, and Devotional Culture: Sensual Piety in Late Medieval York (Palgrave, 2010), Sensational Devotion: Evangelical Performance in 21st-Century America (University of Michigan Press, 2013), and Feeling the Future at Christian End-Time Performances (University of Michigan Press, 2022). She also co-edited the collections Thresholds of Medieval Visual Culture (Boydell and Brewer, 2012) and Performing Dream Homes: Theater and the Spatial Politics of the Domestic Sphere (Palgrave, 2019). She has published articles in various journals and anthologies and has held several leadership roles in professional organizations and at Marymount Manhattan College.
Research/Publications Highlights
Books:
Feeling the Future at Christian End-Time Performances (University of Michigan Press, 2022).
Sensational Devotion: Evangelical Performance in 21st-Century America (University of Michigan Press, 2013; released in paperback edition, October 2015).
Performance, Cognitive Theory, and Devotional Culture: Sensual Piety in Late Medieval York. Cognitive Studies in Literature and Performance Series. (Palgrave, 2010).
Edited Collections and Journal Issues
Editor with Emily Klein and Jennifer-Scott Mobley of anthology Performing Dream Homes: Theater and the Spatial Politics of the Domestic Sphere (Palgrave, 2019). [Jointly authored Introduction and Coda]
Co-editor with Mario Longtin, “Special Issue: Showcasing Opportunities,” Research On Medieval and Renaissance Drama (ROMARD) 51 (2012). [Co-authored Introduction]
Co-editor with Elina Gertsman, Thresholds of Medieval Visual Culture: Liminal Spaces (Boydell & Brewer, 2012). [Co-authored Introduction]
Select Articles
“Sarah Ruhl’s Passion Play and Contemporary Expressions of Medieval Performance,” in The Drama and Theatre of Sarah Ruhl, Critical Companions series, ed. Amy Muse (Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2018; reissued in paperback, 2019), 141-54.
“Playing with Time’s End: Cultivating Sincere Contrition in Medieval Last Judgment Performances,” in The Routledge Companion to Early Drama and Performance, ed. Pamela King (Taylor and Francis, 2017), 118-136.
“Passion Playing: An Interview with Sarah Ruhl on the Shaping Influence of Oberammergau,” The Oberammergau Passion Play: Essays on the 2010 Performance and the Centuries-Long Tradition, ed. Kevin J. Wetmore, Jr. (McFarland, 2017), 168-175.
Recent Invited Presentations
“Shaping A Sense of the End: Dramaturgies of Threat,” Hot Topics Series for the Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism Program, Yale University, 22 October 2025.
“Sensing the Sacred Void,” at the 2nd International Multidisciplinary Conference of the Series “Experiencing the Sacred,” hosted by the University of Padua, Italy, 5-6 June 2024.
Departments
Theatre
Education
- PhD, Theatre, The Graduate Center, City University of New York
- BS, Biology and Chemistry, Valparaiso University
Research Focus
- Religious performance
- Medieval performance
- Evangelical culture