Tresa Randall is a dancer, educator, choreographer, and scholar. At Ohio University, she led the development of the first M.A. in Community Dance in the United States, a graduate program that emphasizes community engagement through dance, centered on values of inclusivity, collaboration, and social justice. Dr. Randall also serves as the Director of Studies for the Honors Tutorial program in Dance. In this role, she mentors highly motivated undergraduate students with independent creative activity and research on topics such as dance, ethics, and human rights; group dance-making processes; site-specific dance; and research in dance.

As a Dance Studies scholar and historian, Dr. Randall explores how people shape and experience their world through dance. Particular areas of expertise include dance studies of modernity; modernist dance in the U.S., India, and Germany; feminist dance studies; critical dance pedagogies; pedagogies of dance history; and dance as community engagement. She has presented her research at international conferences, and her writing has been published in Feminist Modernist Studies, New German Dance Studies, Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism, and Journal of Dance Education. Her research at archives in Germany was funded by a Faculty Visit Grant from DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service).

In the Ohio University School of Dance, Dr. Randall teaches a wide range of dance studies and studio courses, including dance history, dance appreciation, dance composition, contemporary modern dance technique, ballet technique, and graduate seminars. She has developed new courses such as Writing Dance and Gender; Dance, Gender, and Sexuality: Historical Perspectives; Languages of Dance; Community Dance Theory and Practice; and Seminar in Dance Studies Research.

Dr. Randall was a Presidential Teacher at Ohio University from 2015 to 2018. In 2023, she was named a Fellow of the Ping Institute for the Teaching of the Humanities.

Educational Background

• Ph.D., Dance Studies, Temple University, 2008
• Graduate Certificate in Women's Studies, Temple University, 2008
• MA, Dance History and Criticism, University of New Mexico, 2000
• BA, Dance, Comparative Literature minor, Hamilton College, 1993

Recent Scholarship (selected)

Randall, Tresa. “Resilient and Activist Bodies in the New York Wigman School.” Paper presented at the Dance Studies Association Conference, Vancouver, Canada, October 2022.

Randall, Tresa. “Introduction to Gladys Bailin: An Oral History Interview.” Gatherings Magazine (Spring 2022): 6-9. https://www.ohio.edu/library/about/giving/magazine

Randall, Tresa. “Cultural Modernity, the Wigman School, and the Modern Girl.” Feminist Modernist Studies 4:3 (2021): 360-374. DOI: 10.1080/24692921.2021.1989247. 

Randall, Tresa. “Hanya Holm.” Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism. 2018. ( https://www.rem.routledge.com ).

Randall, Tresa. “Transnational Modernism: Hellerau, Rhythmic Gymnastics, and American Dance.” Paper presented at the Modernist Studies Association Conference, November 2018.

Randall, Tresa. “Beth Gill: Containment, Freedom and Vulnerability.” Wexner Center Blog. 30 March 2017. https://wexarts.org/blog/beth-gill-containment-freedom-and-vulnerability