Maria Litvan is a doctoral candidate in Theatre and Performance at the CUNY Graduate Center. Her dissertation explores the interrelation between absence and presence in performative transmissions in the Americas. Her research focuses on questions of embodiment, memory, and transmission. She is particularly interested in the link between ritual, the sacred, and the political in the indigenous cultures of the Americas. She has an M.A. in Individualized Studies at Gallatin, NYU, with a concentration in perception, mysticism, and performing arts. She has taught courses in theatre at Hunter College and has worked as WAC Fellow at Borough of Manhattan Community College. She has been published in TDR: The Drama Review, Performance Research, and BOMB (magazine). Maria is also a theatre-maker. Her latest full-length production, Prologue (2018), is a tribute to philosopher, mystic, and social activist Simone Weil, and it was partly developed in a residency at the Jersey City Theatre Center.