Kamler Productions

Kamler Productions is a creative studio and consulting company producing music, theater, and research-driven storytelling at the intersection of feminist international relations and the arts. Founded by Dr. Erin Kamler—award-winning composer, playwright, author, and gender equality researcher—our work bridges creative practice and international development to give voice to pressing global issues. From critically-acclaimed musicals and internationally released albums, to field-defining scholarly contributions, Kamler Productions creates projects that challenge dominant narratives, amplify marginalized voices, and inspire dialogue across cultures. Current projects include The Monsoon Trilogy, a musical political thriller about human rights struggles in Southeast Asia, and Meridian Lines: Songs from the Edge of the World, a multi-album recording project that moves across musical genres: Refuge (2025), a post-Covid era meditation bringing together Buddhist and Jewish mantras with songs of love and grief; Reckoning (coming in 2026), a celestial pop-odyssey through the illusions and unraveling of the United States as seen from the perspective of an American Expat looking back; and Ballads in Exile, a signature album of songs from Kamler’s feminist musicals, about women who refuse to stop searching for themselves.

At the core of Kamler Productions is a research-to-creation model rooted in Dr. Kamler’s concept of Dramatization as Research (DAR), introduced in her book Rewriting the Victim (Oxford University Press). This approach uses dramatic writing and creative practice as research methods in themselves—transforming fieldwork and feminist inquiry into artistic works that both embody and critique their findings. From there, creative production and performance generate new insights that inform advocacy and policy. In this way, each project is not only a work of art, but also a form of scholarship and a catalyst for social change.

Dr. Erin M. Kamler

Dr. Erin M. Kamler

Erin Kamler

Dr. Erin M. Kamler, PhD is an academic researcher, writer, artist, educator, and communication expert who gives voice to pressing international issues—particularly those affecting women—and finds creative solutions to development challenges. Her work lives at the intersection of feminist international research and the arts, where creative practice becomes a tool for scholarship, advocacy, and transformation.

An award-winning playwright, composer, and musician, Erin uses narrative and performance to explore systems of power, gender, and voice. Her musicals have been staged at leading theaters such as The Public Theater, Berkeley Rep, Playwrights Horizons, and New Dramatists, and have garnered recognition including the Los Angeles Ovation Award and Backstage Garland Awards (Divorce! The Musical), New Dramatists’ Frederick Loewe Award (Runway Sixty-Nine), and Stephen Sondheim’s Young Playwrights Award. Her musical Land of Smiles received critical acclaim at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for its bold critique of U.S.-driven anti-trafficking campaigns in Thailand. Erin’s current project, the musical political thriller The Monsoon Trilogy, dramatizes women’s rights struggles in Southeast Asia in the tense years leading up to Myanmar’s military coup.

As a singer-songwriter, Kamler’s work includes internationally-released albums that bridge Eastern and Western musical traditions, and feature songs about the universal themes of love, grief, dislocation, belonging, and liminality.

Alongside her creative practice, Dr. Kamler brings over sixteen years of experience as a gender equality consultant, program director, and researcher. She has worked with international development agencies, NGOs, UN bodies, academic institutions, and civil society organizations across Southeast and East Asia to address issues of human trafficking, migration, peacebuilding, and post-conflict regeneration. Between 2014 and 2025 she held academic positions including Affiliated Researcher at Chiang Mai University, Visiting Professor of Arts and Humanities at Minerva University, and Director, Partner Programs, Asia at Minerva Project. Her scholarship, grounded in feminist, qualitative, and participatory methods, links research to advocacy and institutional change. Her book, Rewriting the Victim: Dramatization as Research in Thailand’s Anti-Trafficking Movement (Oxford University Press), unites creative practice with critical inquiry into international development policy.

Dr. Kamler holds a Ph.D. in Communication, dual MAs in Communication and International Public Diplomacy from USC’s Annenberg School, and a BA in Music Composition from Sarah Lawrence College. Dividing her time between Southeast Asia and the United States, she creates, teaches, and collaborates across disciplines to amplify marginalized voices and foster equity-centered approaches to change.

To view Erin’s professional CV, visit LinkedIn: Erin Kamler