Dr. Buckner is the program director for the BA Theatre Studies degree and teaches coursework in theatre history and historiography, dramaturgy, dramatic theory and criticism, the BA professional development and thesis seminars and the interterm London Theatre Tour. Beyond the Department of Theatre, she is also a faculty member of the University Honors Program. As a mentor, she guides the application and integration of students’ research and creative work on productions, internships, thesis projects, and capstone projects. Additionally, she has mentored students’ independent research/creative projects funded by Undergraduate Student Scholarly/Creative Grants and Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships administered by the Chapman University Center for Undergraduate Excellence. She has been recognized for her work in and out of the classroom with Chapman University’s Faculty Excellence Award in Mentorship of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity, Chapman University’s Valerie Scudder Award for Outstanding Teaching, Research/Creative Activity, and Service, Chapman University’s Faculty Excellence and Achievement in Teaching Award, and the Sigma Alpha Pi (The National Society of Leadership and Success) Excellence in Teaching Award.
Dr. Buckner’s research focuses on the intersections and representations of identity such as race, class, gender, and sexuality in contemporary plays and U.S. popular entertainment from the nineteenth to twenty-first centuries. She is a leading scholar on the plays of Lynn Nottage and the editor of A Critical Companion to Lynn Nottage (Routledge), the first scholarly collection dedicated to the two-time Pulitzer Prize winning playwright’s work. This anthology examines Nottage’s dramatic treatment of themes such as history, the African diaspora, and identity, and includes interviews with the playwright and her frequent collaborators. Dr. Buckner has published book chapters as well as peer-reviewed articles, editorials, book reviews, and performance reviews in African American Review, American Studies Journal, Ecumenica Journal, Journal of American Drama and Theatre, HowlRound, Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, Popular Entertainment Studies, Theatre History Studies, Theatre Journal, Theatre Survey, and Theatre Topics. Dr. Buckner currently serves as editor of the journal Theatre History Studies and has served as the book review editor and managing editor for the Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism and as guest editor for the Spring 2020 special issue of the Journal of American Drama and Theatre, “Local Acts: Performing Communities, Performing Americas.”
Dr. Buckner is an active leader and member in several professional organizations and regularly presents her research at national and international conferences. She is a current board member and immediate past president of the American Theatre and Drama Society and previously served as ATDS conference planner. She has also served as the vice president of awards on the governing council of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, and as a member of the American Society for Theatre Research Gerald Kahan Essay Award Committee as well as the Nominating Committee. She was co-chair of the Mid America Theatre Conference Articles-in-Progress Sessions and Book-Proposal Workshops.
Dr. Buckner is a professional dramaturg and has collaborated with theatres including Donmar Warehouse in London, Pitt Repertory Theatre, Native Voices at the Autry, and Center Stage Theatre’s New Play Festival. She has served as a script respondent for the literary department of South Coast Repertory Theatre, and an audience engagement facilitator for Center Theatre Group. She is a resident artist of The Chance Theater, where she serves as dramaturg for the On The Radar: New Works Series and mainstage productions. Dr. Buckner holds a PhD in Theatre Studies from the University of Kansas, an MFA in Theatre Pedagogy from Virginia Commonwealth University, and a BA in Theatre and Economics from Converse College. Prior to joining Chapman’s Department of Theatre in 2012, Dr. Buckner held a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Department of Theatre Arts at the University of Pittsburgh.
