Department of Theatre and Dance

• Ph.D. in Performance Studies, Northwestern University
• M.A. in Film Studies and Screenwriting, Beijing Film Academy
• M.A. in Theatre and Drama Studies, University of London
• B.A. in English, Chinese University of Hong Kong

Dr. Kin Yan Szeto is Professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance at Appalachian State University. She previously taught performance studies at Northwestern University and film studies at the University of California, Irvine. Her teaching and research span theatre, dance, film, media and performance studies, comparative literature, and intercultural and global studies.

An accomplished scholar, Dr. Szeto has authored over twenty publications. Her work appears in leading academic venues, including Oxford Bibliographies, Adaptation, Journal of Dance Education, and Critical Stages/Scènes critiques. Additional publications in Dance Chronicle, Modern Chinese Literature and Culture, Visual Anthropology, and Jump Cut, among other journals, reflect her longstanding contributions to interdisciplinary scholarship. She has also contributed chapters to edited volumes in film and media studies.

Her monograph, The Martial Arts Cinema of the Chinese Diaspora, held in over 1,000 libraries worldwide according to WorldCat, explores how a distinctive “cosmopolitical awareness” enables filmmakers and artists to navigate the transnational dynamics of media production, distribution, and reception. Her expertise has also reached broader audiences; she was interviewed for a New York Post article examining the evolution of Jackie Chan’s cinematic fighting style.

Beyond her academic writing, Dr. Szeto is a director and choreographer with over two decades of experience in stage direction. She is recognized for an interdisciplinary practice that bridges mythic narrative, ecological inquiry, and intercultural performance. Her body of work spans a wide range of theatrical forms and venues. Directorial highlights include Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People, Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice, Brian Sloan’s WTC View, Gao Xingjian’s The Other Shore, Stan Lai’s Pining in Peach Blossom Land, Wei Yu-Chia’s A Fable for Now, and the forthcoming The White Snake by Mary Zimmerman. Her creative work was recently featured in an exhibition at the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts, underscoring her commitment to embodied storytelling across stage and gallery spaces.

Dr. Szeto’s contributions have been recognized through numerous awards, grants, and fellowships. National and international honors include, among others, the New York Public Library Research Fellowship and a grant from the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange. At Appalachian State University, honors have included the Global Learning and Teaching Award, the Appalachian Foundation Fellowship, the University Research Grant, the Board of Trustees International Research Grant, and the 100 Scholars Research Award—an annual distinction conferred on a single faculty member. She is also a two-time recipient of her College’s Award for Outstanding Scholarship and Creative Activity.

Dr. Szeto has served on the boards of the Congress on Research in Dance and the Dance Studies Association. She is a fellow of both the Association for Theatre in Higher Education Leadership Institute and the University of North Carolina’s BRIDGES Academic Leadership Program.