Jill Taft-Kaufman specializes in the rhetoric and performance of varied textual modes, including drama, narrative, and poetry, with a particular interest in scripting, directing, and performing literature that was not originally intended for the stage.  She directs plays and narrative theatre as part of the University Theatre season.  Her publications, like her artistic work, cover diverse areas.  They include essays in:  Theatre Topics, Text and Performance Quarterly, The American Communication Journal, and Central States Speech Journal.  She has received the Southern Communication Journal award for best article of the year and has been a Central Michigan University Teaching Excellence Award winner as well as Honors Professor of the Year.   She has served on the editorial board of The Quarterly Journal of Speech and is currently an associate editor of Text and Performance Quarterly. 

“A TPQ Interview:  Tony Kushner on Theatre, Politics, and Culture.”  Text and Performance Quarterly, 24, January, 2004, pp. 38-54.

 “Critical Claims, Critical Functions:  Authoethnography and Postscholarship.”  The American Communication Journal, 4 Fall, 2000.

“How to Tell a True War Story:  The Dramaturgy and Staging of Narrative Theatre.”  Theatre Topics, 10 March, 2000, pp. 17-38.