Patrick Anderson

Professor

Joint Appointment,
Department of Communication, Critical Gender Studies Program,
and Department of Ethnic Studies

Biography

Patrick Anderson is a Professor in the departments of Communication, Ethnic Studies, and Critical Gender Studies at the University of California, San Diego, and a 2023 Guggenheim Fellow. He is the author of The Lamentations: A Requiem for Queer Suicide (Fordham University Press, 2024), Autobiography of a Disease (Routledge, 2017) and So Much Wasted (Duke University Press, 2010) and the co-editor, with Jisha Menon, of Violence Performed (Palgrave, 2009). With Nicholas Ridout, he co-edits the “Performance Works” book series at Northwestern University Press. He has served as Director of the Critical Gender Studies program and founding facilitator for the Social Justice Practicum at UC San Diego; as Vice President of the American Society for Theatre Research; and as Editorial Board member for the University of California Press. In 2018, he was appointed by the Mayor and City Council of San Diego to the Community Review Board on Police Practices (later the Commission on Police Practices), which represents the community in reviewing complaints against the police, officer-involved shootings, and in-custody deaths. He served for two full terms. A former Fulbright Scholar and Berkeley Fellow, Anderson holds a PhD in Performance Studies (Designated Emphasis: Women, Gender, and Sexuality) from the University of California, Berkeley; an MA in Communication and Cultural Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and a BS in Performance Studies and Anthropology from Northwestern University. In 2020, he completed his Death Doula certification at the University of Vermont.

To learn more about Professor Anderson’s work, please visit the Research section of his personal site HERE.

Education

PhD, Performance Studies (Designated Emphasis in Women, Gender, and Sexuality), UC Berkeley
MA, Communication Studies and Cultural Studies, UNC Chapel Hill
BS, Performance Studies (High Distinction) and Anthropology (Honors), Northwestern