Leadership

Faculty Director, Assistant Professor of Theater

Max Shulman is an associate professor in the Theatre and Dance Program. His area of expertise is 19th and early 20th century U.S. theater with a focus on the formation of national identity. He is the author of The American Pipe Dream: Performance of Drug Addiction, 1890-1940, with the University of Iowa Press, which traces the formation of the addict in the U.S. imaginary. He is the co-editor of Performing the Progressive Era: Immigration, Nationalism, and Urban Life, also with Iowa. His work has appeared in Modern Drama, Theatre Topics, Theatre Annual, Studies in American Jewish Literature, and on HowlRound.com. He is also a member of the Eugene O’Neill Review editorial board. Locally, he serves as the “resident contributing dramaturge” for UCCS Dramaturgy and Theatreworks.

Max is presently the director of the Heller Center for the Arts and Humanities. The 34-acre campus promotes the humanities across UCCS and the Pikes Peak Region through fellowships, salons, exhibits, and performances. He is also the director of the HomeFront Theatre Project that creates events around issues facing our veteran and active-duty military community. Through this work, Max was awarded the National Endowment for the Humanities grant “Dialogues on the Experience of War” in 2020. The resultant project, “To the Battlefield and Back Again” promotes dialogue across the region around military issues.

Assistant Director and Curator

Rhonda Goodman-Gaghan is the Assistant Director and Curator at the UCCS Heller Center for Arts & Humanities. She holds a masters in Early American Culture from the Winterthur Program, a masters in history from Villanova University, and a bachelors from Williams College. Her current research highlights Pueblo Revival Architecture, the Indigenous People of Colorado Springs, and local, state, and regional history.