Jennifer Jones Cavenaugh
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Profile
Dr. Jennifer Jones Cavenaugh is the dean of the School of Arts & Sciences. She joined the University of Richmond in July 2022.
Prior to joining the University of Richmond, Cavenaugh served as the dean of faculty and Winifred M. Warden Endowed Chair of Theatre & Dance at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. Prior to that role, Cavenaugh served as the associate dean of Arts & Sciences and producing artistic director of the Annie Russell Theatre at Rollins College. She has been a faculty member at Louisiana State University and the University of Denver, and is the recipient of numerous teaching and research awards.
Cavenaugh’s teaching and research focuses on gender and performance, theater history, and American musical theater. Cavenaugh’s book Medea’s Daughters: Forming and Performing Women Who Kill examines representations of women criminals in plays and television. Much of her scholarly and creative work focuses on foregrounding marginalized voices and placing these in dialogue with the traditional narratives of theater and dance. Cavenaugh is a member of Actor’s Equity, and has performed and directed in regional theaters across the country.
Cavenaugh completed a B.A. in policy studies from Dartmouth College, and an M.F.A. in dramaturgy from Brooklyn College, and a Ph.D. in theater history and dramatic criticism from the University of Washington.
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Awards
Professing Excellence teaching Award, Rollins College, 2012.
Arthur Vining Davis Fellowship, Rollins College, 2009-2010.
Best Female Professor Award from the Off Campus Student Association, Rollins College, 2007.
Alumni Award for Excellence in Teaching and Research, Louisiana State University, 2004.
BP Amaco Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, Louisiana State University, 2003.
Phi Kappa Phi Award for Achievement in the Creative and Performing Arts, Louisiana State University, 2002.
Tiger Athletic Foundation Undergraduate Teaching Award, Louisiana State University, 2001.
Tiger Athletic Foundation President’s Award, Louisiana State University, 2001.
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Presentations
“Margo Jones produces Inherit the Wind,” Comparative Drama Conference, Orlando, 2019.
“Strategies for Hiring and Supporting a Diverse Faculty” Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences, Atlanta, 2018.
“Institutional Bystander Behavior: Confronting the Internal Conflict between Sexual Assault Education and Institutional Image” London’s Women Leadership Symposium, London UK, 2012.
“What Price Glory? The Sexual Economy if the Ziegfeld Follies” Song Stage and Screen V, Winchester, UK, 2010.
“Putting Pedagogy and Research into Dialogue: Difficulties, Alternatives and Reforms” Association of Theater in Higher Education, Denver, 2008.
“Hooray For What!: A Glimpse into the Golden Age of Sexual Harassment” Music in Gotham/Song Stage and Screen III, New York City 2008.
“An Historiography of Informed Imagination: The Letters of Annie Russell and Faith Baldwin” Mid-America Theater Conference, Kansas City 2008.
“The Musicals We Hate to Love: Responding to Racism, Sexism and Homophobia in the Golden Age Musical” Song, Stage and Screen II: Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Musical Stage, Leeds, England 2007.
“Devotedly, With Dearest Love: The Letters of Scott Zelda Fitzgerald” I directed a staged reading of this original script (by Lorrie Kyle) for the Icons of an Era: Academic Symposium on Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Winter Park 2006.
“Conduct Un(Becoming): Performing Nineteenth-Century Conduct Manuals” National Communications Association (NCA) Conference, San Antonio, 2006.
“Feminist Mothering in the Adoption Triad” National Communication Association (NCA) Conference, Boston 2005.
“Agnes deMille as Theater Historian, or How Women Got Screwed in the American Musical Theater.” American Society for Theater Research (ASTR) Conference, Toronto 2005.
“Nineteenth-Century Make-up Practices for Villain Roles.” Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Studies Conference, London 2003.
“They Eat Babies Don’t They? The Villainizing of Jewish Prosperity in Nineteenth-Century American Melodrama.” Nineteenth-Century Studies Association Conference, New Orleans 2003.
“Where Have All the Bad Girls Gone?” The Victorian Murderess on Stage.” Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Studies Conference (INCS) New Haven, 2000.
“Reformation of Community in Early AIDS Dramas.” Mid-America Theatre Conference (MATC) St. Louis, 2000.
“Planting the Grass Roots: A Hopeful Proposal for Theater Activism in the University.” Mid-America Theatre Conference (MATC) Minneapolis, 1999.
“Anarchy On the American Stage: Maxwell Anderson’s Gods of the Lightning.” Mid-America Theatre Conference (MATC) Omaha, 1998.
“Birthing a New Woman: Franca Rame and Dario Fo’s Medea.” International Theatre Conference: Millenium Responses: (Dis) Placing Greek Theatre in the Millennium. Thessaloniki, Greece 1997.
“Totaling Women: The Francine Hughes Stories” Association of Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) Chicago 1997.
“Beauty Queen as Deified Sacrificial Victim.” Mid-America Theatre Conference (MATC) Chicago 1996.
“The Foreign Face of Villainy on the Victorian Stage.” International Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR) Montreal 1995.
“Crisis of Assimilation: Student Perspectives on Pedagogy and Power.” ASTR, New York, November 1994.
“Portrait of a Murderess: The Young Woman of Machinal.” ATHE, Chicago, July 1994.
“My Brother’s Keeper: The Re-making of AIDS in Paula Vogel’s The Baltimore Waltz.” International Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR) Symposium, Moscow, June 1994.
“Scattered Remains: Disrupting Discourse in Genet’s The Maids and Kesselman’s My Sister in This House.” Comparative Drama conference, University of Florida, March 1994.
“Stepping Into Their Graves: Intertextual Quotation in Gregory Mosher’s Our Town.” Selected for Theory and Criticism Debut Panel at ATHE, Philadelphia, August 1993.
“In Defense of the Woman: Sophie Treadwell’s Machinal.” Read at Mid America Theatre Conference, Theatre History Symposium, Kansas City, March 1993.
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Memberships
American Society for Theatre Research
International Federation for Theatre Research
Association for Theatre in Higher Education
Actors Equity Association
Interdisciplinary Nineteenth Century Studies
Nineteenth Century Studies Association
Associated Colleges of the South
Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences
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Professional Experience
Dean, School of Arts & Sciences (July 2022-present)
University of Richmond
Professor of Theater (July 2022-present)
University of Richmond
Dean of the Faculty (2016-2022)
Rollins College
Interim Dean of Arts and Sciences (2015-2016)
Rollins College
Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences (2011-2015)
Rollins College
Chair, Department of Theater and Dance (2008-2011)
Rollins College
Producing Artistic Director of the Annie Russell Theater (2008-2011)
Rollins College
Professor of Theater, Winifred Warden Endowed Chair of Theater (2008-2022)
Rollins College
Associate Professor of Theater, Winifred Warden Endowed Chair of Theater (2005-2008)
Rollins CollegeDirector of the Ph.D. Program in Theater, Associate Professor of Theater (2003-2005)
Louisiana State University
Assistant Professor of Theater (1998-2003)
Louisiana State University
Assistant Professor of Theatre (1995-1998)
University of Denver
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Awards
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Publications
Books
Medea’s Daughters: Forming and Performing the Woman Who Kills. Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 2003.
Journal Articles“On the Anguish of Going: An Actor’s Endgame.” Text and Performance Quarterly, DOI: 10.1080/10462937.2021.1969425. Fall 2021. Full text available here.
“What Price Glory? The Sexual Economy of Ziegfeld’s Follies” Journal of American Theater and Drama Vol. 24(1). Winter 2012. 31-58.
“A Historiography of Informed Imagination: A Dramaturgical Reading of the Correspondence Between Annie Russell and Faith Baldwin” Theater History Studies Vol. 29, 2009. 52-80.
“Hooray For What! A Glimpse into the Golden Age of Sexual Harassment” Journal of American Theater and Drama, Winter 2009, v (23) 5-29.
“Where Have all the Bad Girls Gone? Absence of Malice on the Victorian Stage. Wordsworth Circle (32:1) Winter 2001. pp. 35-38.
“Beauty Queen as Deified Sacrificial Victim.” Theatre History Studies Vol. 18 1998 pp. 99-106.
“The Foreign Face of Villainy on the Victorian Stage.” Theatre Notebook Vol. L (2) 1996 pp. 95-108.
“A Fictitious Injustice: The Politics of Conservation in Maxwell Anderson’s Gods of the Lightning.” American DramaSpring 1995 4(2) pp. 81-96.
“In Defense of the Woman: Sophie Treadwell’s Machinal,” Modern Drama Fall 1994 37(3) 485-496.
“Stepping Into Their Graves: Intertextual Quotation in Gregory Mosher’s Our Town.” New England Theatre Journal. Vol. 5 Fall 1994. pp. 51-68.
Book Chapters"Feminist Aesthetics in the Theater” Chapter in Feminist Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art: The Power of Critical Visions and Creative Engagement. Ed. Lisa Ryan Musgrave Springer Press (forthcoming Spring 2022).
"On a Double-Dog Dare” Margo Jones’ Production of Inherit the Wind”. Chapter in The Great North American Stage Directors Volume Two. Ed. Jonathan Chambers. Bloomsbury Publishing PLC. 2021.
“A Composer in Her Own Right” Chapter in Women and the American Musical Theatre Eds. Judith Sebesta and Bud Coleman. McFarland Press, 2008. pp. 77-91.
“Nance O’Neill” Biographical profile in The Gay and Lesbian Theatrical Legacy. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2006. pp. 300-305.
“Birthing a New Woman: Franca Rame and Dario Fo’s Medea” Chapter in Millenium Responses: (Dis) Placing Greek Theatre in the Millennium University Studio Press, 1999. pp. 431-440.
"Rebels of Their Sex: Nance O’Neil and Lizzie Borden.” Chapter 4 in Passing Performances: Queer Readings of Leading Players in American Theatre History, Eds. Kim Mara and Bob Schanke, University of Michigan Press, 1999. pp. 83-103.