Shonni Enelow
Professor of English
Fordham University
924 Leon Lowenstein Building
113 West 60th St NY, NY 10023
senelow@fordham.edu
ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
2022–present: Professor of English, Fordham University.
2018–2022: Associate Professor of English, Fordham University.
2012–2018: Assistant Professor of English, Fordham University.
EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
Ph.D., Comparative Literature and Literary Theory, 2012.
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
B.F.A., Theater, Tisch School of the Arts, 2005.
RESEARCH AWARDS
Modern Drama Prize for Best Article of 2019; Honorable Mention, Association for Theatre in Higher Education Outstanding Article Award, 2020, “Sweating Tennessee Williams: Working Actors in A Streetcar Named Desire and Portrait of a Madonna.”
2015-2016 George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism for Method Acting and Its Discontents: On American Psycho-Drama.
PUBLISHED BOOKS
A Discourse on Method, co-authored with David Levine, 53rd State Press, 2020. A Discourse on Method is a paranoid theory and a counterfactual history of American method acting, conducted in two parts. The first is Shonni Enelow’s account of a journey into the churning guts of the Method archives; the second is David Levine’s monologue Edition of Eight, delivered by an artificial human. Illustrated throughout with spiritual, conspiratorial, and documentary images.
Method Acting and Its Discontents: On American Psycho-drama, Northwestern University Press, 2015. Winner of the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism, 2015-2016. A cultural and historical analysis of Lee Strasberg’s Method acting in the late 1950s and early 1960s, this book analyzes Strasberg’s acting methods through contemporaneous works of American drama, and locates it alongside debates about psychology and psychoanalysis, representations of race and gender, and developments in mass media. Nathan Award citation: “a forceful and timely rethinking of the American theater’s dominant acting theory. In chapters ranging across Broadway and Off Broadway plays, Hollywood and experimental films, and classroom sessions at the Actors Studio, she probes the Method’s assumptions, identifies its blindspots, and tests it against the tumultuous politics of the 1950s and 1960s.”
Research Theatre, Climate Change, and the Ecocide Project: A Casebook, co-authored with Una Chaudhuri, Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. This co-authored and co-edited volume includes the full text of Carla and Lewis, by Shonni Enelow, as well as essays by Chaudhuri, Enelow, and Fritz Ertl. The book describes The Ecocide Project, a research theatre project by Chaudhuri, Ertl, Enelow, and Josh Hoglund undertaken to explore ecological theater and the representation of climate change, and the process of developing the resulting play, Carla and Lewis.
ACADEMIC ARTICLES AND ESSAYS
“Sweating Tennessee Williams: Working Actors in A Streetcar Named Desire and Portrait of a Madonna,” Modern Drama, May 2019.
“Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine,” Close Up: Great Cinematic Performances, Volume 1: America, eds. Murray Pomerance and Kyle Stevens, Edinburgh University Press, 2018.
“And if there’s no more beholder?: Acting and Surveillance,” Theater, April 2018.
“Home Theater: Louis C. K.’s Web Series Horace and Pete,” Theater, June 2017.
“The Literary Life of Performance: Emergency INDEX’s Performance Documentation Project,” Theater, April 2013.
“The Method and the Means: James Baldwin at The Actors Studio,” Theatre Survey, April 2012.
“Animalizing Performance, Becoming-Theatre: Inside Zooësis with the Animal Project at NYU,” co-authored with Una Chaudhuri, Theater Topics, March 2006.
JOURNALISM
For Film Comment:
“Toil and Trouble,” review essay, online, May 2021.
“Feel the Love: Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis in Do the Right Thing,” feature essay, print and online, July 2019.
“The Big Screen: Peterloo,” review, print and online, March 2019.
“The Greatest Love of All,” feature essay, print, May/June 2018.
“The Kid Slays in the Picture: John Adames in Gloria,” essay, print, September/October 2017.
“Stronger Together: The Films of Joan Micklin Silver,” feature essay, print and online, September/October 2017.
“Interview: Alison Maclean and Kerry Fox,” interview, online, January 2017.
“The Great Recession,” feature essay, print and online, September/October 2016.
Selected as one of five essays comprising the “Best Culture Writing of 2016” by Buzzfeed and listed by The Atlantic as one of the exceptional works of journalism of 2016.
For the Criterion Collection:
Catalog essay for Chilly Scenes of Winter, dir. Joan Micklin Silver, released 2023.
“When Actors Do Double Duty,” The Current, 2018.
“Amy Wright in Wise Blood,” June 2017.
“Lindsay Crouse in House of Games,” January 2017.
For Reverse Shot, The Museum of the Moving Image:
“All My Souvenirs: The Eternal Daughter,” review, October 2022.
“Signs of Life: Documenteur,” essay, July 2022.
“What You Know: The Souvenir,” essay, February 2020.
“Stuck in the Middle: Juliette Binoche in Code Unknown,” essay, July 2019.
“Best of Enemies: Madeline’s Madeline,” review, August 2018.
“Make it Real, Make it Alive: Shonni Enelow on Listen to Me Marlon and Birdman,” essay, May 2016.
“Caught in the Act: Juliette Binoche’s Clouds of Sils Maria,” essay, October 2015.
For T: The New York Times Style Magazine: “Revel Yelp,” September 2010, print edition. “New York Botany: Highline Planting” (6/23/09), “Oakland Eclectic: Cafe Van Kleef” (6/10/09), “Soan: A Nouvelle Star is Born” (6/9/09), “Now Spinning: A Sound from an Early Grave” (5/29/09), “Second Life: The Invisible Dog Barks Again” (4/15/09), “Trash Talk: Bushwick's Junk Shop” (4/9/09), “Poetry in Motion: Ugly Duckling Presse” (3/20/09), online edition.
FELLOWSHIPS, GRANTS, AND OTHER AWARDS
Distinguished Mentoring Award, The Program in Comparative Literature, Fordham University, 2022.
Annual award given by the faculty of the Comparative Literature program “in recognition of enduring contributions to education that promotes justice in a multicultural and multinational society.”
Alpha Chi Omicron Honorable Mention for Outstanding Teaching Award, Fordham University, 2022.
Annual award given by the undergraduate student English Honors society for recognition of “outstanding teaching that combats racism and promotes social justice.”
Arts and Sciences Deans’ Challenge Grant, 2021-2022.
Grant to support co-curricular development for “The Adrienne Kennedy Project,” co-led with Prof. Daniel Alexander Jones.
Faculty Fellowship, Fordham University, 2022.
Arts and Sciences Deans’ Grant, Fordham University, 2020.
Research grant to support “Against Representation: Rethinking Performance and Religious Studies for the 21st Century,” co-led with Prof. Kathryn Reklis [ongoing].
American Society for Theatre Research Fellowship, 2019.
Competitive research fellowship to support “Sweat: A Theory of American Performance.”
Visiting scholar, New York University-Abu Dhabi, 2016.
Faculty Fellowship, Fordham University, 2015-2016.
Faculty Research Grant, Fordham University, 2013.
Mellon Dissertation Fellowship, University of Pennsylvania, 2011–2012.
University of Pennsylvania Dean’s Scholar, 2009-2010.
INVITED LECTURES AND EVENTS
“American Actor Training and the Legacy of the Method,” invited plenary lecture at “Fare L’Attore,” Univerità di Torino (Turin, Italy), November 2022.
“REOPENING? Rethinking NYC’s Performance Infrastructures,” moderator for panel discussion, NYU Skirball Center for the Arts, October 2021.
“Performance, Possession, and Automation,” invited panel discussion, Queen Mary University of London, May 2021.
“Sweating Tennessee Williams,” invited guest lecture, The Drama Group at Rutgers University, October 2018.
“Bad TV: A Critical Conversation with Shonni Enelow and Julia Jarcho,” invited presentation, PAM Residencies (Los Angeles), April 2018.
“Living Cinema: Film Comment Live,” panel discussion, New York Film Festival, October 2016.
“Affects of Surveillance: American Film Acting after 2008,” invited talk, Spectatorship in an Age of Surveillance conference, Bard College, September 2016.
“Method Acting and Its Discontents: Pathological Hypnotism in Boleslavsky and Strasberg,” invited plenary lecture, American Realism conference, Université Jean Jaurès (Toulouse, France), June 2016.
“Ron Vawter’s Roy Cohn/Jack Smith.” invited presentation, LEGACY seminar, The New Museum (New York), May 2016.
Staged reading and presentation of Carla and Lewis, “Play: A Reading Series,” NYU-AD Theater Program, NYU Abu Dhabi, February 2016.
“Method Acting and Its Discontents: The Psycho-drama of Tennessee Williams,” invited lecture, Callaway Distinguished Lecture in Drama (co-sponsored by English, Drama, Comparative Literature, Dramatic Literature), New York University, December 2015.
“The Technology of Sweat in Tennessee Williams,” invited talk, Acting as Technology panel, The University at Buffalo Humanities Institute (co-sponsored by Theatre and Performance Studies), October 2015.
“Method Acting and Documentary,” invited talk and co-curated event, UnionDocs Center for Documentary Art (New York), October 2015.
Introduction to William Greaves’ Symbiopsychotaxiplasm Take One, invited talk, The Museum of the Moving Image (New York), September 2015.
“Stop Acting,” performance lecture/event with David Levine, Gallery TPW (Toronto, Canada), September 2015.
“‘She’s Just––Just––Perverse!’: Suddenly Last Summer, or, What Does the Actress Want?,” invited guest lecture, Bard College, October 2014.
CREATIVE PUBLICATIONS
“The Power of Emotion: A Conversation with Katherine Brook and Shonni Enelow,” interview, Miranda 15, 2017, online.
“My Dinner with Bernard Frechtman,” essay/performance piece, Aufgabe 13, Litmus Press, 2014.
MEDIA CONTRIBUTIONS
On The Last Thing I Saw podcast: Conversation with Nicolas Rapold about acting in the films of Joanna Hogg, July 2022.
For the Criterion Channel: Conversation with Michael Koresky, Queersighted: Stage to Screen, March 2022.
On the Film Comment podcast: “The Decade Project #3” (December 18, 2019), “What was the TV movie?” (June 19, 2019), “This is What Democracy Looks Like” (April 3, 2019), “Musical Performers on Film (April 24, 2018), “Wanda. Woman” (July 11, 2017), “Bad Scenes in Good Movies, Good Scenes in Bad Movies” (June 27, 2017), “Terrence Malick” (April 11, 2017), “Acting for All Ages” (March 7, 2017), “Tearjerkers and Manchester by the Sea” (November 29, 2016), “Live from FF: The Living Cinema” (October 11, 2016), “American Film Acting Today” (September 7, 2016).
For Cohen Media: Conversation and interview with Joan Micklin Silver, released with Hester Street and Between the Lines, rereleased 2021.
For BAMcinematek: Introduced screening of Hester Street (Joan Micklin Silver) and The Frontier Experience (Barbara Loden), May 2018.
On The Leonard Lopate Show, WNYC: “Inside the Mind of an Actor,” January 16 2015.
SELECTED THEATER AND PERFORMANCE
Playwright, The Power of Emotion: The Apartment, directed by Katherine Brook, Abrons Art Center (New York), October 2017. Developed during two Mount Tremper Arts Residencies (Mt. Tremper, NY), May 2016 and August 2017.
Playwright, The Power of Emotion: Actresses, directed by Katherine Brook, The Public Theater/Under the Radar Festival (New York), 2015. Developed at a Chashama Summer Performance Residency (New York), 2014.
Member, Devised Theater Working Group, The Public Theater (New York), 2014-2015.
Co-conceiver and dramaturge, Acting: The First Six Lessons, by Richard Boleslavsky, directed by Katherine Brook, Experimental Theater Wing main stage production, New York University, 2013.
Dramaturge, Pink Melon Joy, by Gertrude Stein, directed by Katherine Brook, Provincetown Tennessee Williams Festival (Provincetown, MA), 2013.
Visiting Artist, Carnegie Mellon University, fall 2011; dramaturg, Suddenly Last Summer, by Tennessee Williams, MFA thesis production, directed by Katherine Brook (Pittsburgh, PA), 2011.
Playwright, Carla and Lewis, directed by Fritz Ertl and Josh Hoglund, Incubator Arts Project (New York), March 2011. Long-term research theater project (The Ecocide Project), collaboration with Una Chaudhuri, Fritz Ertl, Josh Hoglund. Workshops held at NYU, July 2010; Invisible Dog Art Center, 2010.
Writer and performer, My Dinner with Bernard Frechtman, directed by Josh Hoglund, the Invisible Dog Art Center (New York), April–May 2010; invited keynote performance, American Literary Translators Association Conference, October 2010. Previously presented at PS122, New York, 2010; Dixon Place, New York, 2009.
OTHER PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2016: Casting/Dramaturgy, Feast of the Epiphany, independent film directed by Michael Koresky, Jeff Reichert, and Farihah Zaman.
2010–2012: Theater and performance curator, The Invisible Dog Art Center, Brooklyn, NY.
