Overview
J. Ellen Gainor is Professor in the Department of Performing and Media Arts. A specialist in British and American drama of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and women's dramaturgy, she is the author of the award-winning studies Shaw's Daughters: Dramatic and Narrative Constructions of Gender and Susan Glaspell in Context: American Theater, Culture and Politics 1915-48. She is a co-editor of The Norton Anthology of Drama, co-editor of The Complete Plays of Susan Glaspell, and the editor of Githa Sowerby: Three Plays. She has also edited the influential essay collections Imperialism and Theatre and the co-edited Performing America: Culture Nationalism in American Theater. Her latest publications include the edited volume, Susan Glaspell in Context, for the Literature in Context series from Cambridge University Press, and the co-edited Routledge Anthology of Women’s Theatre Theory & Dramatic Criticism, which received the 2023 George Freedley Memorial Award Special Jury Prize from the Theatre Library Association. She previously served as a literary advisor to both the Mint Theater and the Metropolitan Playhouse in New York and has worked for the Shaw Festival in Canada and the National Theatre in England. She is an elected fellow of the College of Fellows of the American Theatre.
Research Focus
- British and American Drama and Theatre
- Women and Theatre
In the news
- Call for Submissions - The Marvin Carlson Award for Best Student Essay in Theatre or Performance
- J. Ellen Gainor wins book award from Theatre Library Association
- PMA Professor J. Ellen Gainor Wins Book Award from Theatre Library Association
- PMA Professor J. Ellen Gainor Published in Theatre Survey
- Gainor elected to College of Fellows of the American Theatre
- Sixty Years of Theatre Studies: A Talk by Dr. Marvin Carlson ‘61
- Professor Gainor’s Engagements at the University of Toulouse: Keynote Address on Susan Glaspell
- Call for Submissions - The Marvin Carlson Award for Best Student Essay in Theatre or Performance
- Gainor Appointed to Advisory Board for Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Literary Studies
- Scholars spearhead anthology of women’s theater writing
- Professor J. Ellen Gainor Interviewed by the BroadwayRadio on “Alison’s House” by Susan Glaspell
- Githa Sowerby study illuminates women writers' struggle
- Professor Ellen Gainor speaks at London’s National Theatre
- PMA professor receives Achievement in Scholarship Award
- Theater scholar examines critical reception of religion on Broadway
- Circus musical ‘Pippin’ at Schwartz Center Jan. 12-14
- Professor J. Ellen Gainor wins career achievement award
PMA Courses - Fall 2024
- PMA 3000 : Independent Study
- PMA 3750 : Global Theatre and Performance
- PMA 3757 : American Drama and Theatre
- PMA 7000 : Independent Study for Graduate Students in Performing and Media Arts
- PMA 7100 : The Pedagogy of Performing and Media Arts
- PMA 9900 : Thesis and Research Projects