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Home > Faculty : Ellen Messer-Davidow

Ellen Messer-Davidow

Ellen Messer-Davidow

612-625-2071
English Language & Lit 22 LindH

Department Affiliations

Narrative

I have always been interested in how things function--facts and theories, texts and discourses, academic disciplines and institutions, social movements and public policies. What, for instance, are the forms of discursivity used by scholars, activists, lawmakers, the media, and the public? How are explanations of the “same” social phenomena constructed in these different arenas? How do interacting movements and institutions orchestrate change? What are the real-world impacts of action in or across these arenas? To answer questions like these, I oscillate among empirical research, theory, and practice. Practice has been an important part of my knowing about discourse and action--organizing women on campus during my graduate student days, serving on the MLA Commission on the Status of Women, chairing the Women’s Caucus for the Modern Languages, convening conferences on the new knowledge, coediting a book series and journal issues, and giving media interviews.


Specialties

  • literary, cultural, and social theory
  • the “new knowledge studies”
  • modern/contemporary American social movements (Civil Rights, New Left, Feminist, and Conservative)
  • certain areas of contemporary American public policy and law

Educational Background

  • Ph.D.: English, University of Cincinnati, 1984.

Publications

  • The Spiders’ Web: Discourses of Racial Discrimination in Higher Education. Messer-Davidow, Ellen, Author, forthcoming.
  • Studying Power/Knowledge Formations.” In The ‘Establishment’ Responds: Power and Protest During and After the Cold War. Messer-Davidow, Ellen, Oxford and New York: Berghahn, Author, forthcoming 2009.
  • “Interdisciplinary Investigations and Cross-Sector Interventions.” : Messer-Davidow, Ellen, Albany: SUNY Press, Interdisciplinarity and Social Justice, forthcoming 2009.
  • “Caught in the Crunch.” Special Issue: Academic Freedom and Intellectual Activism in the Post-9/11 University.: Messer-Davidow, Ellen, Works and Days, 26.1-2 .
  • “Why Democracy Will Be Hard To Do.” : Messer-Davidow, Ellen, Social Text, 24.1 , 2006.
  • “Feminist Theory and Criticism: From the Movement to the Academy.”: Messer-Davidow, Ellen, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Criticism and Theory., 2004.
  • Disciplining Feminism: From Social Activism to Academic Discourse. Messer-Davidow, Ellen, Durham: Duke University Press, Author, 2002.
  • “The Struggle for the Academy.” : Messer-Davidow, Ellen, New York: Scribner, Encyclopedia of American Cultural and Intellectual History., Vol. 2 , 2001.
  • “Rosenberger v. Rectors and Visitors of the University of Virginia: Messer-Davidow, Ellen, Atlantic Quarterly , 2001.
  • Knowledges: Historical and Critical Studies in Disciplinarity. Messer-Davidow, Ellen, David Shumway, David Sylvan, Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, Author, 1993.
  • (En)Gendering Knowledge: Feminists in Academe. Messer-Davidow, Ellen, Joan Hartman, Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, Author, 1991.

Courses Taught

  • Contemporary Theory--Literary, Cultural, Social
  • EngL 5510/CSCL 5910 - "Reading Foucault"
  • EngL 8510 - "Reading Marxisms"
  • Globalization 101--Community and Conglomeration
  • African Americans and Civil Rights: Reading Between and Beyond the Lines
  • HSem 3050 - "Consumer Culture"
  • Contemporary Critical Theory
  • Women and Public Policy
Alternative Output Formats Alternative Output Formats