Mila

Mila Thigpen, EdM, MFA, PhD

Associate professor Mila Thigpen is Chair of the Dance Division at Boston Conservatory at Berklee. Her teaching portfolio includes salsa, dance and pop culture, dance history, as well as senior project and independent studies advising for the Dance Program. Thigpen earned a B.A. from Kenyon College, and an M.F.A. from The Boston Conservatory. Since completing her Ed.M. at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Thigpen’s research is concerned with engaging the body in conversation with critical theory and interdisciplinary approaches to academic research. Thigpen earned her Ph.D. in dance at Texas Woman’s University. Her doctoral research reclaims salsa as part of the African diaspora through ethnographic inquiry.

Thigpen’s advocacy for equity has been nationally recognized, as she has been called to major gatherings of social justice and equity convenings to lead people in embodied practices that support their work. Thigpen created and implemented a cultural humility professional development workshop for artists and educators, which she has facilitated for secondary and post-secondary educational institutions. She has co-presented research on teaching dance from racialized bodies, and continues learning new methodologies for culturally informed somatic healing practices.

http://www.milathigpen.com