Jenny Spencer

Jenny Spencer teaches courses in modern and contemporary drama and performance theory.  Her book, Dramatic Strategies in the Plays of Edward Bond, was published by Cambridge University Press in 1992 and her co-edited anthology, Staging Resistance: Essays on Political Theatre with Michigan University press in 1997.  Her latest anthology, Political and Protest Theatre since 9/11: Patriotic Dissent, was published by Routledge in 2012.  She has also published articles on the plays of Marsha Norman, Adrienne Kennedy, Mark Ravenhill, Tony Kushner, David Edgar, and Lillian Hellman.  Her current interests include contemporary theories of audience and affect, documentary drama, and feminist performance.  Professor Spencer has served as the President and as Faculty Advocate for the MSP, and is currently Chair of the English Department. She founded the Edinburgh Fringe Theatre Festival summer abroad course that takes place every August.

Educated at University of Iowa, B.A., 1973; M.A., 1976; Ph.D., 1982.

• African, African American, & African Diaspora Studies 
• American, Atlantic, & Hemispheric Studies
• American Literature
• Drama and Performance Studies
• Gender and Sexuality Studies
• 20th Century and Contemporary Literature

Books:

• Political and Protest Theatre since 9/11: Patriotic Dissent. Florence, Ky.: Routledge, 2012; editor.
• Staging Resistance: Essays on Political Theatre. Ann Arbour: University of Michigan Press, 1998; co-edited with Jeanne Colleran.
• Dramatic Strategies in the Plays of Edward Bond Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.