Maggie Hennefeld
216 Pillsbury Dr SE
Minneapolis,
MN
55455
Office hours: Tuesdays 1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. or by appointment.
Maggie Hennefeld is Professor of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. She is the author of the award-winning book, "Specters of Slapstick and Silent Film Comediennes" (Columbia UP, 2018), a curator of the 4-disc DVD/Blu-ray collection "Cinema's First Nasty Women" (Kino Lorber, 2022), an editor of the journal "Cultural Critique," and co-editor of two volumes, "Unwatchable" (Rutgers UP, 2019) and "Abjection Incorporated: Mediating the Politics of Pleasure and Violence" (Duke UP, 2020). Her new book, "Death by Laughter: Female Hysteria and Early Cinema" (Columbia UP, 2024) reveals the untold history of women who allegedly died from laughing too hard.
Educational Background
- Ph.D. : Modern Culture and Media, Brown University, 2014
- B.A. : Cinema Studies, Comparative Literature and Literary Theory, University of Pennsylvania, 2006
Specialties
- Film and Media Studies
- Comedy, Humor, Laughter
- Silent Cinema (Especially Early Cinema)
- Film Theory and Film History
- Archival Film Curating
- Feminism, Affect Theory, Gender Politics
- Speculative Approaches to Critical Thought
- Media Historiography and Its Relation to Social Justice
- Critical Theory and Cultural Politics
- Film and Popular Culture