March 22, 2023
After a national search, Performance as Public Practice Ph.D. candidate Molly Roy has been selected as the UT Fine Arts Library's new Performing Arts Liaison Librarian.
As the Performing Arts Liaison Librarian, Roy will oversee research, scholarly communications, collections, digital scholarship and engagements related to the Department of Theatre and Dance and Butler School of Music. She'll also help advance UT Library's goals and initiatives as a member of the Fine Arts Library staff and the broader UT Library System.
When speaking about Roy's application and interview for the position, Dr. Charlotte Canning shared "I was very impressed with her passion for arts research and education, sophisticated sense of what researchers need and her imaginative view for the future of our Fine Arts Library. Her emphasis on interdisciplinarity, DEI work, event programming and the digital humanities/arts will connect us to national developments and opportunities.“
According to Roy, this position provides her with an exciting opportunity to combine her passions and experiences as "a librarian, a dance artist and an interdisciplinary researcher." When asked about the position and her continued work at UT Austin, Roy shared, "There is such amazing scholarship and creative practice happening on this campus. I have had the opportunity to work with and be inspired by some brilliant faculty and students throughout the course of my Ph.D. I look forward to expanding existing connections and cultivating new collaborative relationships in support of research, teaching and learning in the performing arts."
Roy is a Ph.D. in Theatre candidate in the Performance as Public Practice program and a 22-23 COFA Graduate Fellow. Her research focuses on choreographies of surveillance, exploring dance works that thematize and critique surveillance culture while considering how surveillance technologies themselves function as choreographic agents. Roy will defend her dissertation, "A Moving Seen: Choreographies of Surveillance" in April 2023. Her article, "Systems of Choreography: Performing Normal in Public," was recently published in the Arts Forum of the journal Surveillance & Society.
Roy holds a M.S. in Information Studies from The University of Texas at Austin and a B.A. in Liberal Arts with specializations in dance and education from Prescott College. She has previously worked for UT Libraries as a Graduate Research Assistant in Teaching and Learning Services and was a 2017 recipient of the Harold W. Billings Library Staff Honors award. Prior to beginning her Ph.D., she served as an Instruction Librarian at Austin Community College. Roy has also worked as a teaching artist for Johnson/Long Dance Company, as a stage manager for Forklift Danceworks and as a high school special education teacher. She is a dramaturge, a practicing artist and active member of the Austin dance community and a contributor to Sightlines magazine.
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