
Jennifer DeVere Brody
Professor of Theater and Performance Studies
Bio
Jennifer DeVere Brody graduated with a B.A. in Victorian Studies from Vassar College and did her graduate work in English and American Literature at the University of Pennsylvania which awarded her the Thurgood Marshall Prize for Academics and Community Service. Her scholary essays have appeared in Theatre Journal, Signs, Genders, Callaloo, Screen, Text and Performance Quarterly and in numerous edited volumes. Her books, Impossible Purities: Blackness, Femininity and Victorian Culture (Duke University Press, 1998) and Punctuation: Art, Politics and Play (Duke University Press, 2008) both discuss relations among and between sexuality, gender, racailization, visual studies and performance. She has served as the President of the Women and Theatre Program, on the board of Women and Performance and has worked with the Ford and Mellon Foundations. She received that Monette-Horwitz Prize for Independent Research Against Homophobia. She co-produced “The Theme is Blackness” festival of black plays in Durham, NC when she taught in African American Studies at Duke University. Her research and teaching focus on performance, aesthetics, politics and subjectivity as well as feminist theory, queer studies and contemporary cultural studies. Currently, she with Prof. Nicholas Boggs on the re-publication of James Baldwin’s illustrated book, Little Man, Little Man and is writing a new book about the intersections of sculpture and performance. She held the Weinberg College of Board of Visitors Professorship at Northwestern University.
Academic Appointments
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Professor, Theater and Performance Studies
Administrative Appointments
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Director, Center for the Comparative Study in Race and Ethnicity (2016 - 2021)
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Chair, Department of Theatre and Performance Studies, Stanford University (2012 - 2015)
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Professor, Department of Drama and Affiliate Faculty, Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, Stanford University (2011 - Present)
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Professor, African and African American Studies, Women's Studies & Theater, Duke University (2008 - 2011)
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Visiting Professor, African and African American Studies, Duke University (2008 - 2008)
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Weinberg College Board of Visitors Research and Teaching Professor, Northwestern University (2006 - 2008)
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Associate Professor of English, Performance Studies and African American Studies, Northwestern University (2002 - 2008)
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Associate Professor of English and African American Studies, University of Illinois at Chicago (2000 - 2002)
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Associate Professor of English, The George Washington University (1998 - 2000)
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Assistant Professor of English, University of California, Riverside (1992 - 1998)
Honors & Awards
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Faculty Fellow, Clayman Center for Research in Gender Studies at Stanford (2012 - 2013)
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Duke Endowment Teaching Enhancement Award, Duke University (2010)
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Outstanding Faculty Award, Duke Center for GLBIT Life (2010)
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Weinberg College Board of Visitors Research and Teaching Professor, Northwestern University (2005 - 2007)
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Faculty Affiliate, Kaplan Humanities Center, Northwestern University (2006)
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Interdisciplinary Course Development Award, Northwestern University, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences (WCAS) (2003)
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Award for Independent Research Against Homophobia, Manette/Horwitz Trust (2002)
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Special Citation for Co-Editing "Plum Nelly," in Callaloo, Mondern Language Association (MLA) (2000)
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Postdoctoral Fellowship, Ford Foundation (1998 - 1999)
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Notable Book in Language and Literature for Impossible Purities, Choice (1998)
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Affirmative Action Development Award, University of California Regents (1997)
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Research Award, Royal Society for Theatre Research, Great Britain (1996)
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Humanities Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of Pittsburgh (1994 - 1995)
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Queer Alliance Faculty Service Award, University of California, Riverside (1994)
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Fellowship, School of Criticism and Theory, Dartmouth College (1993)
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Fellow, Center for Ideas and Society, Postcolonial Studies, University of California-Riverside (1993)
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Paul Robeson Award for Academic Excellence and Leadership, University of Pennsylvania
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Whiting Dissertation Fellow, University of Pennsylvania (1991 - 1992)
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Graduate Fellow, Mellon Minority Undergraduate Program (1990 - 1992)
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Fontaine Fellow, University of Pennsylvania (1987 - 1988)
Program Affiliations
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Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
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Modern Thought and Literature
Professional Education
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Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, English and American Literature (1992)
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Certificate, Jesus College, Oxford University, African Studies (1990)
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M.A., University of Pennsylvania, English Literature (1989)
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B.A., Vassar College, Victorian Studies (1987)
Projects
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New Edition of James Baldwin's LITTLE MAN, LITTLE MAN (August 10, 2018 - Present)
Republication of Baldwin's only book written for children
Location
New York
Collaborators
- Nicholas Boggs, Clinical Professor, New York University
2019-20 Courses
- Baldwin and Hansberry: The Myriad Meanings of Love
AFRICAAM 250J, AMSTUD 250J, CSRE 250J, FEMGEN 250J, TAPS 250J (Win) - Just Art? Equity, Immigration and Art in the Global City
SINY 166 (Spr) - My Journey: Conversations on Race and Ethnicity
CSRE 1A (Win) - RealTalk: Intimate Discussions about the African Diaspora
AFRICAAM 31 (Aut) -
Independent Studies (5)
- Directed Reading
CSRE 200W (Aut) - Directed Reading
TAPS 390 (Sum) - Directed Research
CSRE 200R (Aut) - Graduate Independent Study
MTL 398 (Win) - Honors Work
FEMGEN 105 (Aut, Win, Spr)
- Directed Reading
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Prior Year Courses
2018-19 Courses
- Introduction to Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity
CSRE 196C, ENGLISH 172D, PSYCH 155, SOC 146, TAPS 165 (Spr) - My Journey: Conversations on Race and Ethnicity
CSRE 1A (Win)
2017-18 Courses
- Black Feminist Theater and Theory
CSRE 258, FEMGEN 258X, TAPS 258 (Win) - Performing Identities
FEMGEN 314, TAPS 314 (Spr)
2016-17 Courses
- Introduction to Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
AMSTUD 107, CSRE 108, FEMGEN 101, TAPS 108 (Win) - Michelle Obama in American Culture
CSRE 3E, HISTORY 3E (Spr) - Performing Identities
CSRE 314, FEMGEN 314, TAPS 314 (Spr)
- Introduction to Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity
Stanford Advisees
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Doctoral Dissertation Reader (AC)
Karina Gutierrez -
Doctoral (Program)
Amani Starnes
All Publications
- Little Man, Little Man by James Baldwin and Yoran Cazac. Co-Edited with Nicholas Boggs Duke University Press. 2018
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Embodied Avatars: Genealogies of Black Feminist Art and Performance (Book Review)
SIGNS
2017; 42 (3): 801–5
View details for Web of Science ID 000395362500021
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Wandering: Philosophical Performances of Racial and Sexual Freedom (Book Review)
SIGNS
2017; 42 (3): 801–5
View details for Web of Science ID 000395362500020
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The Repeating Body: Slavery's Visual Resonance in the Contemporary (Book Review)
SIGNS
2017; 42 (3): 801–5
View details for Web of Science ID 000395362500019
- The Cambridge Companion to African American Theater Theater Review 2014
- Passing Solo: An Interview with Nancy Cheryll Davis Solo black woman edited by Johnson, E. P., Rivera-Servera, R. Northwestern University Press. 2013
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Occupy Your Imagination
OCCUPY THE FUTURE
2013: 209–19
View details for Web of Science ID 000318227200015
- Occupy Art Occupy the Future edited by Grusky, D., McAdam, D., Reich, R., Satz, D. MIT Press. 2013
- Everything You Do ... Ntozake Shange's Recipe for Performance Scholar and Feminist On-Line 2013
- Occupy Art Occupy the Future Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 2012
- Occupy Art The Boston Review 2012
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Representing African Americans in Transatlantic Abolitionism and Blackface Minstrelsy (Book Review)
JOURNAL OF SOUTHERN HISTORY
2011; 77 (4): 954-955
View details for Web of Science ID 000297081500050
- Child of Fire: Mary Edmonia Lewis and the Problem of Art History's Black and Indian Subject Women's Review of Books 2011; 28 (2)
- Dangerous Profiling: Recent Media Representations of Black Male Sexuality edited by Battle, J., Cohen, C. Rutgers Press. 2009
- Review of It TDR: The Drama Review 2009
- The Returns of Cleopatra Jones Taboo, Not Taboo edited by Delgado, D. Cleis Press. 2009
- The Blackness of Blackness: Reading the Typography of Invisible Man New Critical Views on Ralph Ellison edited by Bloom, H. Vintage Press. 2009
- Punctuation: Art, Politics and Play Duke University Press. 2008
- Performance in America GLQ 2007
- Boyz Do Cry: Screening History's White Lies Queer Screen: The Screen Reader edited by Stacey, J., Street, S. Routledge Press. 2007
- Clare Kendry's 'True' Colors Norton Critical Edition of Nella Larsen's Passing edited by Caplan, C. Norton Press. 2007
- An-Other Case of New England Underwriting: Negotiating Race and Property in the Memoirs of Elleanor Eldridge Crossing Waters, Crossing Worlds: The African Diaspora in Indian Countrv edited by Miles, T., Holland, S. Duke University Press. 2006
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The blackness of blackness ... Reading the typography of invisible man
THEATRE JOURNAL
2005; 57 (4): 679-?
View details for Web of Science ID 000234666300006
- Moving Violations: Globalization and Black Feminism in F. Gary Gray's Set it Off Black Cultural Traffic edited by Elam, H., Jackson, K. University of Michigan Press. 2005: 363–378
- Etiquette in the Electronic Era: The Art and Ethics of Asking for a Letter of Recommendation Lore: An On-Line Journal 2003
- Deforming Island Races Making Humans: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; H.G. Wells' Island of Dr. Moreau edited by Wilt, J. Houghton Mifflin Press. 2003: 341–352
- The Returns of Cleopatra Jones Queer Studies: An Interdisciplinary Reader edited by Corber, R., Valocchi, S. Blackwell Publishers, UK. 2003: 88–101
- Queering Racial Reproduction: Grimke's 'The Closing Door' Text and Performance Quarterly 2003; 23 (2): 205-223
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The color of sex: Whiteness, heterosexuality, and the fictions of white-supremacy. (Book Review)
JOURNAL OF AMERICAN HISTORY
2002; 89 (2): 633-634
View details for Web of Science ID 000177945500058
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Boyz do cry: Screening history's white lies ('Boys Don't Cry')
SCREEN
2002; 43 (1): 91-96
View details for Web of Science ID 000175306000008
- Victorians and Slave Narrative Victorian Studies 2002; 44 (3)
- Forum on the Tragedy of September 11 Theatre Journal 2002; 54 (1): 101-102
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Black cat fever: Manifestations of Manet's Olympia (Art history, performance studies, and visual culture)
THEATRE JOURNAL
2001; 53 (1): 95-118
View details for Web of Science ID 000168047900005
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Distance learning classroom using virtual Harlem
7th International Conference on Virtual Systems and MultiMedia (VSMM 2000)
IEEE COMPUTER SOC. 2001: 489–498
View details for Web of Science ID 000174171500058
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The black body: Women, colonialism, and space (Book Review)
RESEARCH IN AFRICAN LITERATURES
2001; 32 (4): 220-221
View details for Web of Science ID 000172092500030
- Opening Sequences Dancing Desires edited by Desmond, J. University of Wisconsin Press. 2001: 391–401
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Theory in motion: A review of the Black Queer Studies in the Millennium conference (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, April 7-9, 2000)
CALLALOO
2000; 23 (4): 1274-1277
View details for Web of Science ID 000167586900023
- The Yankee Hugging the Creole Creole: The New Orleans Afro-French edited by Kein, S. University of Louisiana Press. 2000: 101–116
- The Returns of Cleopatra Jones The Seventies edited by Waldrep, S. Routledge. 2000
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The returns of Cleopatra Jones
SIGNS
1999; 25 (1): 91-121
View details for Web of Science ID 000084019000004
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Memory's movements: Minstrelsy, miscegenation, and American race studies
AMERICAN LITERARY HISTORY
1999; 11 (4): 736-744
View details for Web of Science ID 000087052500008
- Shading Meaning Performing the Body/Performing the Text edited by Jones, A., Stephenson, A. Routledge Press. 1999: 89–106
- Impossible Purities: Blackness, Femininity and Victorian Culture Duke University Press. 1998
- New Black Feminist Criticism Signs 1998; 69
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The politics of color in the fiction of Jessie Fauset and Nella Larsen - McClendon,JY (Book Review)
AFRICAN AMERICAN REVIEW
1997; 31 (3): 528-529
View details for Web of Science ID A1997YA02900027
- American Anatomies American Literature 1997; VI (69): 656-657
- Gothic Images of Race in Nineteenth-Century Britain Nineteenth-Century Literature 1997: 517-519
- Effaced into Flesh: Black Women's Subjectivity Genders 1996; 24: 184-205
- When White Women Matter: Re-Reading Race and Gender American Quarterly 1996; 48 (1): 153-160
- The Nicholas Brothers The Encyclopedia of African American Literature and Culture edited by West, C., Salzberg, J. MacMillan Publishers. 1995
- Hyphen-Nations Cruising the Performative edited by Brett, P., Case, S., Foster, S. University of Indiana Press. 1995: 149–162
- Clare Kendry's 'True' Colors: Race and Class Conflict in Nella Larsen's Passing Callaloo 1992; 15 (4): 1053-1065