Jo Michael Rezes

Jo Michael Rezes (they/them/theirs) is a theatremaker and educator in the Greater Boston Area. Their dissertation, “Tastes Like AIDS: Sweet Aesthetics, Bitter Humor, and Viral Performances of HIV/AIDS “ examines the sensorial and affective dimensions of HIV/AIDS representations through taste—exploring how sweetness and bitterness structure cultural responses to queerness, race, and illness across transnational media. Their work taste-tests theatre, visual art, and archival ephemera to critique the colonial residues and nationalistic anxieties embedded in "AIDS flavors." They have published writing in Polari Press, Refinery29, and Texas Theatre Journal with forthcoming chapters in Milestones in Queer US Theatre (Routledge), Visual Histories of Humour, Health, and the Body (Manchester University Press), Queers at the Table (Arsenal Pulp), and the Methuen Drama Book of Trans Plays (vol. 3). Online, Jo is a TED Official Speaker (“A Playful Exploration of Gender Performance”) and runs an online cooking show (Jiffy Mae's Sick Kitchen) with a cookbook in development featuring recipes found in queer, chronically ill (and online) food cultures. 

Before joining CHAT, Jo was a Robyn Gittleman Graduate Teaching Fellow with the Tufts Experimental College. There, Rezes has taught their course “Camp: Bad Taste, Humor, and Cult Classics” three times. As an instructor, they received the award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in 2022. Since then, Rezes has held positions as Lecturer in Theatre at Boston College, Affiliated Faculty in the MA/MFA Applied Theatre & Theatre Education program at Emerson College, and Teaching Fellow at Harvard University. Most recently, they serve as the Curriculum Developer for The Theater Offensive's nationally recognized True Colors programs for queer and trans youth. A proud Vassar College alum and Ph.D. Candidate in Theatre & Performance at Tufts University. Learn more: JMRezes.com