Alison Dobbins is a Professor of Integrated Performance Media Design at Michigan State University. Dobbins’ scholarship explores audience engagement and creating community through performance. She is an interdisciplinary project creator focused on integrating elements of dance, media, music, theatre, and computer science in performance.
Dobbins currently serves as the Chair of the University Curriculum Committee Sub-C, Faculty Excellence Advocate for the College of Arts and Letters and the Head of Design for the Department of Theatre. Former positions of leadership include acting Associate Chair for the Department of Theatre, Chair of the University Curriculum Committee, Chair of College of Arts and Letters Reappointment/Promotion/Tenure Committee, and member of the Dean’s Arts Advisory Council. Outside of academia, Dobbins is a commissioner for Digital Media in the United States Institute for Theatre Technology – the premiere organization for academic and non-academic applied theatre disciplines.
Dobbins has won the Service Learning and Civic Engagement Award and the Fintz Teaching Award as well as numerous community awards for theatrical performance projects. She received the HUB Teaching Fellowship and has received OER Grants for the development of openly accessible texts for students at MSU and beyond. She published Projection Design for Theatre Design & Live Performance (Routledge, 2021) and is currently working on Futurism, Feminism, and the Right to ‘Genius’: Mina Loy’s “The Sacred Prostitute” and Other Plays, to be published through the Open Education Resource program at MSU.
Dobbins manages several multi-institution, multi-disciplinary arts/science projects including: Dance Engine; BranchOut; Interfering Lobster, Loy Polloi, and Shark! Each project involves numerous scholars and artists from institutions such as Brigham Young University, Georgia State University, Oxford Brookes University, St. Olaf College, University of Maine-Farmington, University of Michigan-Fling and Davidson College.
Dobbins received her MFA from National University in Digital Cinema and her BA in Mathematics from Oberlin College.