Samer Al-Saber

Bio

Samer Al-Saber is a critical scholar, historian, director, and playwright at Williams College. He comes to Williams after serving for over a decade at the Department of Theater and Performance Studies at Stanford University, the School of Theater at Florida State University, and the Theater Department at Davidson College. He received the Walter J Gores Award at Stanford and the Undergraduate Teaching Award at Florida State University, the most prestigious teaching award at these institutions. His scholarly work appeared in Theatre Research International, Performance Paradigm, Critical Survey, Theatre Survey, and various edited volumes, such as Palgrave’s Performing For Survival, Edinburgh Press’ Being Palestinian, and Routledge’s Troubling Traditions. He is co-editor of the anthology Stories Under Occupation and Other Plays from Palestine (Seagull Press/University of Chicago Press) and editor of To The Good People of Gaza (Bloomsbury Press). He co-edited the just-released Arab, Performance, and Politics by Routledge (2024), in which he published the chapter “Historiographical Conundrums in Palestinian Theatre Research.” Directing credits include Betty Shamieh’s As Soon As Impossible, Hasan Abdelrazzak’s The Prophet, Arthur Milner’s Facts, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Decolonizing Sarah. He recently directed Returning To Haifa (Golden Thread Productions), and Everybody (Williams College). His monograph A Movement’s Promise: The Making of Contemporary Palestinian Theater (Stanford University Press). At Williams College, he teaches courses such as Directing, Playwriting, and Race and Performance.