Prior to joining Syracuse University in 2018, Gratch was an assistant professor at Georgia Gwinnett College (2015-18) where she taught courses in cinema and media arts. She also served as visiting assistant professor of cinema and media studies at Oberlin College (2014-15) where she taught courses in performance and media, remix culture, digital adaptation, and film production.

Gratch’s research and creative work focuses on the intersections of communication, digital culture, and performance. Her research explores the ways in which the physical and virtual have become inseparable in everyday life, and how social norms and discourses that develop alongside digital technologies affect everyday life communication and creative performance practices. She is the author of Adaptation Online: Creating Memes, Sweding Movies, and Other Digital Performances (Lexington Books/Rowman & Littlefield, 2017) and co-author of Digital Performance in Everyday Life (Routledge, 2021) with Ariel Gratch of Utica College. Gratch has published articles, video essays, and video art in multiple academic journals (including Text and Performance Quarterly; Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies; Storytelling, Self, Society; Departures in Critical Qualitative Research; Theatre Annual; Women & Language Online), and has presented more than 45 competitively selected papers and performances at regional, national, and international conferences.

Her recent and ongoing research and creative work has been supported by competitive grants from the Syracuse University Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Engagement (The SOURCE) and the College of Visual and Performing Arts’ research and creative grant program.

Gratch was the recipient of the 2019 Janice Hocker Rushing Early Career Research Award from the Southern States Communication Association (SSCA), which honors SSCA members who have demonstrated exceptional scholarly ability through research and publication early in their academic careers. She was the keynote speaker and workshop leader at the 2018 Patti Pace Performance Festival. In 2014, Gratch was awarded the Outstanding Doctoral Student Award, Outstanding Scholar Award, and HopKins Black Box Performance Award from the Department of Communication Studies at Louisiana State University. In 2012, Gratch also received the National Communication Association’s Marie J. Robinson Award in Performance Studies. She is a member of the National Communication Association, the Association of Internet Researchers, and is currently serving as chair of the Performance Studies Division for the Southern States Communication Association (2021-22). Gratch also served as chair of the College of Visual and Performing Arts’ Faculty Council during the 2020-21 academic year.

Gratch earned a Ph.D. in communication studies (focusing on performance studies and media art) in 2014 from Louisiana State University. She also holds an M.A. in theatre arts (2008) and a B.S. in communication, media, and theatre arts (2002), both from Eastern Michigan University.

Selected Publications

• Gratch, Lyndsay Michalik and Ariel Gratch. Digital Performance in Everyday Life. London: Routledge, 2021. (forthcoming)
• Gratch, Lyndsay Michalik. "Performance, Technologies, Ontologies: The Video Performance Does Not Stand Alone" in The Routledge Handbook of Performance Studies Research Methods. Eds. Craig Gingrich-Philbrook, Ph.D. and Jake Simmons, Ph.D., London: Routledge, 2021. (forthcoming)
• Gratch, Lyndsay Michalik. “Identity Performance, Digital Adaptation, and Remix,” in The Handbook of Remix Studies and Digital Humanities. Eds. Owen Gallagher, Eduardo Navas, and xtine burroughs, (Routledge, 2020). (forthcoming)
• Gratch, Lyndsay Michalik. “The Stand-alone Digital Performance” in The Routledge Handbook of Performance Studies Research Methods. Eds. Craig Gingrich-Philbrook, Ph.D. and Jake Simmons, Ph.D., London: Routledge, 2019. (forthcoming)
• Gratch, Lyndsay Michalik. Adaptation Online: Creating Memes, Sweding Movies, and Other Digital Performances. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2017.
• Gratch, Lyndsay Michalik. “The Irish Hills of Michigan: A Performative Curation,” Departures in Critical Qualitative Research 7.1, 2018.
• Gratch, Lyndsay Michalik. “How I Learned to Swede (and You Can, Too!): In Praise of Amateur Aesthetics,” Text and Performance Quarterly 38.1-2, Jan/Apr 2018.
• Michalik Gratch, Lyndsay. “Catching my Drift: On the Influence of Paul Edwards.” Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies: Special Issue on the Video Essay, 2018.
• Michalik Gratch, Lyndsay. “Performing Inside the (Sand)Box” & “Legal: A Counterhistory of Turning THIRTY.” Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies: Special Issue on the Video Essay 14.2, 2018. (Video Essay & Video Remix)
• Michalik Gratch, Lyndsay. Co-created with Rosa Avila, Kinsey Denney, K. J. Edwards, Eliza Levinson, Anna Marsden, Jacquelyn Paige Paschal, and Julie Thompson. “tech/transfr/fem: feminism is,” Women & Language Online: Special Issue on Nasty Womanifestos: Remixing Feminisms for Social Change 40.2, 2018. (Video Essay)
• Gratch, Lyndsay Michalik. “a hole in the light.” Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies: Special Issue on Cartographies 12.1, 2016. (Video Art and Artist’s Statement)
• Gratch, Lyndsay Michalik, John LeBret, Ariel Gratch, Bonny McDonald, Eddie Gamboa. “Scotch & Soda,” Text and Performance Quarterly 35.4, 2015.
• Michalik, Lyndsay. “Stretching the Code: Sexual Performances and Online Gaming Economies,” Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies: Special Issue on Performance, Digital Media and Sexuality 11.1, 2015.
• Michalik, Lyndsay. “How Antoine Dodson and the Bed Intruder Keep Climbin’ in Our Windows: Viral Video Appropriation as Performance,” Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies 10.3-4, 2014. (Multimedia Essay)
• Michalik, Lyndsay. “Haunting Fragments: Digital Mourning and Intermedia Performance,” Theatre Annual 66, 2013.

Lectures, Panels, and Workshops

• Featured Speaker and Workshop Leader, “Patti Pace, Sweded Edition,” National Patti Pace Annual Performance Festival, Kennesaw State University, 2018
• Panelist, “How does a professor’s discipline and gender relate to the experience of teaching gender and sexuality?” Intersections: An Interdisciplinary Conference on Gender and Sexuality, Georgia Gwinnett College, 2018.
• Featured Speaker, “Gender and Film,” Georgia Gwinnett College Faces of Gender, 2017
• Invited Lecture. “Internet Memes and Participatory Culture,” Georgia College & State University, 2014.
• Workshop Leader. “(Re/Mixed) Media in Adaptation and Performance,” Georgia College & State University Black Box Theatre, 2014.

Awards and Honors

• Janice Hocker Rushing Early Career Research Award, Southern States Communication Association (2019)
• Outstanding Doctoral Student Award, granted by The Department of Communication Studies, Louisiana State University, April 2014
• Outstanding Scholar Award, granted by The Department of Communication Studies, Louisiana State University, April 2014
• HopKins Black Box Performance Award, granted by The Department of Communication Studies, Louisiana State University, April 2013
• Top Student Paper, Performance Studies Division. “Haunting Fragments: Digital Interactivity, Liveness, and Death in Intermedia Performance,” Southern States Communication Association Convention, Louisville, April 2013
• National Communication Association, Performance Studies Division Marie J. Robinson Award, November 2012
• BoxFest Detroit Theatre Festival: Best Director, August 2009 & August 2008

Education

• Ph.D., Louisiana State University
• M.A., B.S., Eastern Michigan University