Dr. Pate 's dissertation was entitled, "Reinventing Performance, Reproducing Ideologies: Literary Models of Authorship and Performance Practices from 1960 to the Present." He is a teacher, director, and playwright -- his play Indifferent Blue won the Tennessee Williams National One-Act Playwriting Contest in 2008 and was recently published by Next Stage Press. He is faculty sponsor of Rogues and Vagabonds, and The Sturdy Beggars, and coordinates the Minor in Theater.