Associate Professor Harmony Bench’s research revolves around encounters between bodies and machine or media technologies. She particularly attends to how human bodies and technological devices are imagined in relation to each other, and how technologies facilitate the circulation and transmission of movements, gestures, and even bodily schema. Dr. Bench’s work asks how people leverage the various technologies at their disposal for cultural expression, political control and social action. Her writing has appeared in numerous edited collections, including the Oxford Handbook of Dance and the Popular Screen, Choreographies of 21st Century War and Dance on Its Own Terms, as well as Dance Research Journal, The International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, Participations and Performance Matters, among others. Projects underway include a book in contract with University of Minnesota Press, tentatively entitled Dance as Common: Movement as Belonging in Digital Cultures, as well as the various projects gathered under the umbrella of Movement on the Move (online, forthcoming), including the database-oriented Mapping Touring, which focuses on the performance engagements of early 20th century dance companies, and Dance in Transit, undertaken with Kate Elswit, which explores the touring and travel of choreographer Katherine Dunham. Dr. Bench is affiliated faculty with Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Translational Data Analytics.
