Laura Vriend is currently completing her Ph.D. in Critical Dance Studies at the University of California, Riverside. Her dissertation entitled "Choreographing Urbanisms: Site, Spatiality and Experimental Dance In Philadelphia" mines relationships between social and critical theories of space and choreographic uses and ideas of space in the site-based choreographic works of Philadelphia companies Headlong Dance Theater, Nichole Canuso Dance Company and Kate Watson-Wallace / anonymous bodies. She focuses on how these works perform discourses of spatiality and urbanism and how these discourses alter the spatial text of the city. Additional research questions center around the role of choreographic thinking in a liberal arts education. Vriend has presented her research at conferences in Los Angeles, Surrey (England), Toronto, and Philadelphia. She has also taught dance composition and performance theory at Bryn Mawr College, and works as dramaturge for Philadelphia-based company <fidget>.