ABOUT:
Josh Hamzehee, PhD, is a performance artist<->scholar<->practitioner who engages in critical ethnographic methods, spoken-word roots, and remixed performance techniques.
With these tools, Hamzehee culturally, aesthetically, and collaboratively excavates how marginalized publics foster community and reach dominant publics through live, digital, and ritual performances.
Since 2009, Josh Hamzehee has toured full-length performance projects paired with innovative workshops and experiences, as well as solo events, in 25 states. Including:
Burnt City: A Dystopian Bilingual One-Persian Show,
Baton Rouge SLAM!: An Obituary for Summer 2016,
The Deported: A Reality Show!,
CONVICT: The Age of Incarceration,
Renowned: Osama Lives On!
Speak Out!: Performance Ethnography of Long Beach’s LGBTQ… H? Toastmasters
The Worst of the Worst: Performances of Guantanamo Bay
Hamzehee has published academic and creative scholarship in the areas of performance studies, slam poetry, and forensics speech, in refereed journals like Text & Performance Quarterly, Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies, Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Journal, Florida Communication Journal, and the Professional Wrestling Studies Journal.
Currently Director of Santa Rosa Junior College’s Forensics Speech, Debate, and Performance Team, and former Co-Director of University of Northern Iowa's top-10 in the nation forensics speech program, Hamzehee has spent 15 years focusing on quality, creativity, advocacy, and personal connection to make sure researching, writing, and performance skills last well beyond the stage, the office, or the classroom. Hamzehee has coached nationally-ranked teams and national finalists on both coasts and the midwest, specializing in humor, drama, creativity, and connection.
Hamzehee has taught over 118 Performance and Communication Studies courses, and guided over 3,000 students at public universities, community colleges, and through forensics by embracing critical methods of classroom and performance engagement within the safety of a creative, supportive, and energized environment.
Select awards and honors in each of the above areas include:
2024: CSCA Outstanding Article in Performance Studies, Performance Studies & Autoethnography Division
2023: NCFA New Coach of the Year Award, Northern California Forensics Association
2022: IAANI Outstanding Visual Project Award, International Association of Autoethnography and Narrative Inquiry
2022: NCA Best Journal Article Award--Ethnography, National Communication Association Ethnography Division
2022: CSCA Outstanding Article in Autoethnography, Performance Studies & Autoethnography Division
2021: AAA New Directions Award: Individual, American Anthropological Association General Anthropology Division
2021: 2020 Marion Kleinau National Scripting Award, SIU Carbondale Deptartment of Communication Studies
2021: ICA Outstanding New Teacher Award, Iowa Communication Association
2021: LSC Adjunct Faculty Excellence Award, Lone Star College—University Park
2020: Best Dissertation Award, National Communication Association Ethnography Division
2018: Marie J. Robinson Outstanding Graduate Student in Perf. Studies, NCA Performance Studies Division
2017: Top Contributed Student Paper Award, NCA Performance Studies Division
2016: AFA Outstanding New Forensics Coach Award, American Forensics Association
2013: Outstanding Adjunct Teacher Award, Iowa Communication Association
