Lynda Paul

Lecturer, Yale College

Lynda Paul, Ph.D., M.F.A., is a multidisciplinary educator, writer, and theater maker. Dramaturgy credits include Kingdom City, Alternate States, The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow (Babson College), Assassins, Cymbeline (Yale Repertory Theatre), The Three Sisters, and Some Bodies Travel (David Geffen School of Drama). Directing credits include Cabaret (Yale Dramat), the Baroque pasticcio The Silent Lyre (Elm City Consort with Yale College, inaugurating Pauli Murray’s new Lighten Theater), Tim Crouch’s England (Yale Koerner Center), Leoš Janáček’s Cunning Little Vixen (Opera Theatre of Yale College), Christopher Chen’s Caught, and Leonard Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti (Yale Cabaret).

Dr. Paul is a devoted mentor, teacher, and advocate with a special interest in educational equity and holistic academic support for historically underrepresented students currently navigating Yale, including: first-generation/lower-income college students (FGLI); BIPOC and international students; students across the spectrum of neurodiversity; students affected by trauma and other mental health challenges; and students in LGBTQIA+ communities. She works with the understanding that difference (among people, perspectives, and ways of thinking) is the norm and not the exception, and believes strongly in an intersectional, student-centered, community-oriented, strengths-based, research-supported, trauma-informed, and context-dependent approach to her work. Dr. Paul has been at Yale since 2005, and in this time has served as a college advisor and senior thesis advisor to numerous students, worked as one of the Residential College Writing Tutors, and taught interdisciplinary classes listed in nine different departments at Yale—most frequently teaching in Music, English, and Theater Studies. Courses she has taught at Yale include Theater History, 1700-Present; Introduction to Dramaturgy; Cabaret; Alternate Realities; Richard III (with Joseph Roach); The Ballets Russes; Reading and Writing the Modern Essay (English 120); and Disney and Society (English 114). Courses she has taught sections for include Shakespeare: Comedies and Romances; Music 110 (musicianship skills); Music Cognition; Music History, 1750-present; Theater History, Ancient through 1750; Listening to Music; and Popular Music (music theory). In her role as Associate Director of the Academic Strategies Program, she leads and trains a staff of close to 70 undergraduate peer mentors and 12 graduate lead mentors in best practices in mentorship; creates and develops Academic Strategies programming (including Yale’s Language Tasting); directs Arts and Humanities Fridays; manages public speaking support; and works 1-1 with students in an advisory and academic coaching role.

Dr. Paul holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music, the University of Rochester, the University of Chicago, the David Geffen School of Drama (formerly Yale School of Drama), and Yale’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, where she received distinction on her PhD in music history/ethnomusicology.