Assistant Professor of Theatre Cason Murphy was invited to present his scholarship at a trio of recent international conferences, sharing research into shift in theatrical practices and pedagogical strategies during the coronavirus pandemic.
Murphy was one of three scholars invited to headline the “Shakespeare and the Closure of Theatres” international colloquy on April 22, 2021, hosted by the English Research Institute at De Montfort University in Leicester, England. His presentation, “The Plague’s the Thing: How a Modern-Day Pandemic Brought the Bard Online” examined contemporary presentations of Shakespeare’s work in digital settings during the pandemic and explored comparisons between these new practices and the historical adjustments to Shakespeare’s process and performance styles as a result of recurrent epidemics of Bubonic plague in the Elizabethan era.
Murphy also gave presentations on recent pedagogical strategies used by the Department of Music and Theatre at the Pandemic Pedagogy Research Symposium organized by Duke Learning Innovation on May 5, 2021, and at the Education, Technology & Culture in Crisis Conference hosted by the Global Institute for Research Education and Scholarship on May 16, 2021. These two conferences were opportunities for educators from across the globe to showcase emerging research on new teaching practices and pedagogies that have the potential to improve on-campus, online and hybrid/flexible teaching models post-pandemic. Murphy’s presentation “The Show Must Go-Online,” based on findings recently published in the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching’s inaugural collection of teaching briefs—”A Collection of Teaching Advice: Teaching through the Pandemic”—uses THTRE 355: Musical Theatre Auditions and Performance as a case study for ISU Theatre’s experimentation in using “class menus” during the past three semesters as a strategy to prioritize student choice and autonomy when moving high-impact performance courses into virtual and hybrid settings.
Murphy teaches courses in musical theatre, acting for the camera, script analysis and introduction to performing arts. He was the faculty facilitator for “On the Horizon: Festival of Student-Produced Work” as part of ISU Theatre’s 2020-2021 Season of Invitation. Murphy was recently awarded the 2021 ISU Early Achievement in Teaching Award as well as the LAS Cassling Family Faculty Award for Early Achievement in Teaching.