Diana Taylor is a University Professor ofPerformance Studies and Spanish atNew York University' sTisch School of the Arts and the founding director of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics. She was also the president of theModern Language Association (MLA) in 2017–2018. Her work focuses on Latin American and U.S. theatre and performance, performance and politics, feminist theatre and performance in the Americas, Hemispheric studies, and trauma studies.
Born in Canada and raised in Mexico, Taylor graduated from theUniversidad de las Américas, A.C., where she earned a bachelor of arts degree in creative writing in 1971,[1] and another degree fromAix-Marseille University in France.[2] She earned a master's degree from theNational Autonomous University of Mexico in 1974 and a PhD from theUniversity of Washington in 1981,[1] both in comparative literature.[2]
She is married to Eric Manheimer, former New YorkBellevue Hospital medical director and later writer and producer of the NBC television showNew Amsterdam.[3]
Taylor taught atDartmouth College from 1982 to 1997 before joining the faculty atNew York University, where she is a University Professor ofPerformance Studies and Spanish at theTisch School of the Arts. Taylor is also the founder and former director of theHemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, a leading center for research and collaboration across the Americas.[4]
She served as the second vice president of theModern Language Association (MLA) beginning in 2014 and was president of the organization from 2017 to 2018.
Taylor’s research explores the intersection of performance, memory, and social justice in the Americas. Her bookTheatre of Crisis received the Best Book Award from the New England Council on Latin American Studies,[5] and her workThe Archive and the Repertoire earned both the Outstanding Book Award from the Association of Theatre in Higher Education and the Kathleen Singer Kovacs Award from the MLA.[6]
Over the course of her career, Taylor has received numerous fellowships and honors recognizing her scholarly and creative contributions, including aJohn Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, twoRockefeller Foundation Fellowships,Mellon Foundation support, and anAmerican Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Digital Innovation Fellowship. She also held a Research Fellowship at theInstitut d’Études Avancées de Paris.[5]
In recognition of her impact on the field, Taylor was inducted into theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences[7] and received the Edwin Booth Award[8] for her outstanding contribution to the New York City theatre community and her efforts to bridge academic and professional theatre. In 2025, she was elected an International Fellow of theBritish Academy[9] and awarded aNational Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Digital Publication Fellowship.[10]
