In a dissertation entitled The Social and Cultural Role of Opera Performance in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Beijing, Andrea Goldman, a candidate for the Ph.D. in History, uses theater as a lens through which to observe urban cultural and social history. Considering the various venues within the city where opera was performed, the dissertation examines the place of opera performance in people’s lives and how the meanings transmitted through the stories played out on the stage reflected and shaped values in the diverse social groups who watched opera. Andrea Goldman will hold the Jean and Irving Stone Fellowship at the Townsend Center.