Harry J. Elam, Jr.
Winter Quarter 2006

Harry J. Elam, Jr. is the Olive H. Palmer Professor in the Humanities; the Robert and Ruth Halperin University Fellow for Undergraduate Education; Professor of Drama; Director of the Institute for Diversity in the Arts; and Director of the Committee on Black Performing Arts at Stanford University as well as the Chair of the Stanford Drama Department.

Dr. Elam is author of two books, Taking It to the Streets: The Social Protest Theater of Luis Valdez and Amiri Baraka; The Past as Present in the Drama of August Wilson (Winner of the 2005 Errol Hill Award form the American Society of Theatre Research); and co-editor of four books, African American Performance and Theater History: A Critical Reader; Colored Contradictions: An Anthology of Contemporary African American Drama; The Fire This Time: African American Plays for the New Millenium; and Black Cultural Traffic: Crossroads in Performance and Popular Culture.

In addition to his scholarly work, he has directed rofessionally for over eighteen years. He has directed several of August Wilson’s plays, including Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Two Trains Running, and Fences, the latter of which won eight Bay Area “Choice” Awards. Harry J. Elam, Jr. received his AB from Harvard College in 1978 and his Ph.D. in Dramatic Arts from the University of California Berkeley in 1984.

Related Events
August Wilson and the Doing and Undoing of History
February 2, 3:30 pm
Wexner Center Film/Video Theater
Free and Open to the Public