Playwright Rajiv Joseph attended Miami University, Oxford, and New York University, serving in the Peace Corps in Senegal for three years in between. Joseph’s works examine the political and emotional forces that drive a person toward action. His play, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, based on the true story of a rare tiger that was killed by a U.S. Marine, was a 2010 Pulitzer Prize finalist. Joseph has had five other plays produced in New York, Houston, and Washington, D.C., and will premiere three new works in 2011. He received the 2008 Paula Vogel Award in Playwriting from the Vineyard Theatre and the 2009 Kesselring Fellowship. Joseph served as a Language Lecturer at New York University with the School of Art and Public Policy and the Expository Writing Program.