Drama’s Critical

ABSTRACT This article contends that drama is becoming increasingly precarious in higher education. Reports of cuts and faculty redundancies in the United Kingdon set the stage for a reflection on the author’s own experiences in the UK and Canada as an instructor who began teaching drama but shifted more recently to teaching creative arts courses in a media and communications studies faculty. The article identifies four key factors contributing to the precarity of drama: (1) hierarchization, demotion, and marginalization of drama in the arts and humanities; (2) a centralization of the creative industries that is reshaping the landscape of drama and in the process altering understandings of the meaning and value of studying drama; (3) an intensification of technological mediation in education that is seriously affecting student literacy and engagement levels; and (4) a diminishing regard for literature that is critical of capitalism as universities turn increasingly to skills-based education and training undergraduates to be rational actors for the workforce. The article draws from these areas to call for a more careful understanding of the issues at work and for a more concerted effort to advocate for the importance of drama education.