Introduction to the Bruce Kirle Memorial emerging scholars Debut Panel 2013: Celebrating and challenging inconsistency, authenticity and difference

In 2007, the distinguished scholar of musical theatre Bruce Kirle died unexpectedly. In tribute to his contribution to this field of scholarship, the Music-Theatre-Dance focus group of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) established a competition for new scholars researching in the field. This is now the fifth season in which three prize-winning entries to this competition have been presented both as conference papers (at the 2013 ATHE Conference in Orlando), and as written articles in Studies in Musical Theatre. William A. Everett, respondent to the papers at the ATHE Conference, introduces them in this short introduction.