David J. Levin is the Alice H. and Stanley G. Harris Distinguished Service Professor of Germanic Studies, Cinema and Media Studies, and Theater and Performance Studies at the University of Chicago. His work focuses on the aesthetics and politics of performance in opera, theater and cinema. From 2011-2016 he served as the founding Director of the Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry and from 2018-2023 he served as the Senior Advisor to the Provost for Arts. David has served as a guest professor of Theater and Performance Studies at the Free University of Berlin as well as the Universities of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Konstanz, Mainz, and Oslo. Along with Mary Ann Smart (UC Berkeley), he co-edits the book series OperaLab for the University of Chicago Press. In addition to his scholarship and teaching, David has worked extensively as a dramaturg and collaborator for opera, theater, and dance productions in Germany and the United States, working with, among others, Robert Altman, Ruth Berghaus, and William Forsythe.

For more information, please visit his faculty profile.