Scott Proudfit
Associate Professor of English and Chair of the Department of English
Department: English
Email: sproudfit@elon.edu
Phone number: (336) 278-6409
Professional Expertise
Brief Biography
Before receiving his Ph.D. in English at Northwestern University in 2008, Scott worked with the Actors’ Gang and the Factory Theater in Los Angeles and with Irondale Ensemble Project in New York, often on devised plays. In addition, for seven years he covered the New York and Los Angeles theatre scenes as an editor for the publications Back Stage and Back Stage West. Scott's first job out of college was working as an assistant editor for Town Brook Press, a division of Marvel Comics. He was also for some years an "Imagineer" for Walt Disnery Imagineering in Glendale, California. He served as associate editor for two volumes published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2013, A History of Collective Creation and Collective Creation in Contemporary Performance, and is co-editor of an additional volume on collective creation also published by Palgrave Macmillan: Women, Collective Creation, and Devised Performance (2016). Recent publications include essays on Caryl Churchill's Escaped Alone, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' Appropriate, and Rajiv Joseph's Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo.
Research and Teaching Fields
Collective Creation and Devised Performance in the Modern Theatre, 20th-Century Drama/Theatre/Performance (American, European, British, World), Early Modern Drama/Theatre (especially Shakespeare), American Literature After 1865, British Literature Before 1800, Performance Theory, Dramatic Criticism, Directing/Acting (Viewpoints/Composition, Commedia), The Comics Form and the Graphic Novel
Education
Ph.D. in English, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 2008 (Major field of study: Drama in English)
M.A. in English, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 2004
B.A. in English/B.A. in Theater (Cum Laude), Columbia University, New York, NY, 1993
Employment History
Former Academic Positions
Assistant Professor, University of Houston-Downtown, 2009-2010
Visiting Assistant Professor, Northwestern University, 2008-2009
Professional Writing Experience
Managing Editor, Back Stage West, Los Angeles, CA, 1998-2003
Writer, Walt Disney Imagineering, Glendale, CA, 1996-1997
Copy Editor, Back Stage, New York, NY, 1995-1996
Assistant Editor, Town Brook Press (div. of Marvel Comics), New York, NY, 1994-1995
Administrator/Grant Writer, Irondale Ensemble Project, New York, NY, 1994-1995
Courses Taught
Current Academic Position
“American Literature After 1865: Archetypes and Invisibles,” Spring 2023, Spring 2018, Fall 2013, Spring 2013, Spring 2011, Fall 2010
“Devised Theatre,” Spring 2023
“The Graphic Novel,” Summer 2021, Summer 2020, Summer 2019, Summer 2018, Summer 2017, Summer 2016, Summer 2015, Summer 2014, Summer 2013, and Summer 2012 (online); Winter 2023, Winter 2017, Winter 2016, Winter 2013, Winter 2012
“Studies in Drama: Eugene O’Neill, Edward Albee, and Psychoanalytic Theory,” Fall 2022, Fall 2018, Fall 2015
“Senior Seminar in Drama and Theatre Studies,” Fall 2022, Fall 2020, Fall 2018, Fall 2016
“Modern Drama,” Spring 2022, Spring 2020, Spring 2017, Spring 2015, Fall 2011
“The AIDS Play,” Winter 2022, Winter 2020, Winter 2018
“DTS 101: Drama, Theatre, and Theory,” Fall 2021, Fall 2019, Fall 2017, Fall 2015
“Studies in Drama: August Wilson, Suzan-Lori Parks, and Spike Lee, and Race,” Fall 2021 and Fall 2017
“Shakespeare,” Fall 2021, Fall 2020, Fall 2019, Fall 2013, Fall 2012
“Solo Performance Art,” Spring 2021
“The Comedy of Manners: Restoration, Wilde, Orton, and LaBute,” Winter 2021, Winter 2015, Winter 2014
“Studies in Drama: Anton Chekhov, Annie Baker, and Cultural Materialism,” Fall 2020
“British Literature I,” Spring 2020, Spring 2016, Spring 2015, Fall 2014, Spring 2013
“Studies in Drama: Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard, Caryl Churchill, and Postmodernism/Poststructuralism,” Fall 2019, Fall 2016, Fall 2014, Spring 2012
“Senior Seminar in English Literature,” Fall 2018, Fall 2017, Fall 2016
“College Writing,” Spring 2018, Spring 2016, Fall 2013, Spring 2012, Spring 2011 (two sections), Fall 2010
“Elon 101,” Fall 2014
“Studies in Drama: Realism,” Fall 2012, Fall 2010
“Advanced World Literature: Post-Colonial Studies,” Fall 2011
Former Academic Positions
Assistant Professor, University of Houston-Downtown, 2009-2010
“Studies in Drama: Theatre and Other Worlds,” Spring 2010 and Fall 2009
“American Literature After 1865,” Spring 2010 (two sections) and Fall 2009
“Composition I,” Spring 2010 and Fall 2009 (two sections)
Visiting Assistant Professor, Northwestern University, 2008-2009
“Virtue in Vice: The Morality Play’s Impact on Renaissance Drama,” Summer 2009
“Theatre of the Absurd,” Winter 2009, Spring 2009
“Revenge Tragedy: Medea Through Carrie,” Winter 2009
“Introductory Seminar in Reading and Interpretation,” Fall 2008
“The Comedy of Manners: Restoration, Wilde, Orton, and LaBute,” Fall 2008
Leadership Positions
Coordinator, Interdiscplinary B.A. in Drama & Theatre Studies
Faculty Advisor for EFFECT (Elon's student feminist organization, NewWorks, and the Elon Book Club
Current Projects
Publications
Edited Volumes:
Women, Collective Creation, and Devised Performance, with Kathryn Mederos Syssoyeva. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.
Collective Creation in Contemporary Performance, with Kathryn Mederos Syssoyeva. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
A History of Collective Creation, with Kathryn Mederos Syssoyeva. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
Articles/Book Chapters:
“From Wilder’s Our Town (1938) to Churchill’s Escaped Alone (2016): Mediatization and the Collapse of the Large Into the Local,” Comparative Drama, vol. 56, no. 3 (Fall 2022), 313-335.
“Stop Your Sobbing: White Fragility, Slippery Empathy, and Historical Consciousness in Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s Appropriate,” Theatre History Studies, vol. 40 (2021), 50-72.
“Theatrical Mash-up: Assembled Text as Adaptation in Medea/Macbeth/Cinderella” in Contemporary Approaches to Adaptation, edited by Kara Reilly. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018: 275-294.
“Reunion, Complication, Refraction, and Translation: How Postcolonialism and Poststructuralism Mark Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo,” Modern Drama, vol. 60, no. 4 (Winter 2017): 480-500.
“From Neva Boyd to Viola Spolin: How Social Group Work in 1920s’ Settlement Houses Defined Collective Creation in 1960s’ Theatres” in Women, Collective Creation, and Devised Performance, edited by Kathyrn Mederos Syssoyeva and Scott Proudfit. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016: 51-66.
“Framework for Change: Collective Creation in Los Angeles After the SITI Company,” in Collective Creation in Contemporary Performance, edited by Kathyrn Mederos Syssoyeva and Scott Proudfit. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013: 137-150.
“Shared Space and Shared Pages: Collective Creation for Edward Albee and the Playwrights of the Open Theater” in A History of Collective Creation, edited by Kathyrn Mederos Syssoyeva and Scott Proudfit. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013: 157-169.
Book Introductions:
Introduction, “Company and Directorial Approaches to Adaptation,” Contemporary Approaches to Adaptation, edited by Kara Reilly. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018: 1-5.
Presentations
Conference Papers Presented While at Elon (Fall 2010-)
“Gods and Puppets: Annie Baker’s John, Mediatization, and Numinous Dread,” American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR) Conference working session (Monsters: The Unquiet Dead), New Orleans, LA, 2022
“Complicity and Resistance: How Postmodernism Paves the Way for Post-Truth Politics in Rajiv Joseph’s Describe the Night,” Mid-America Theatre Conference (MATC) theatre history symposium, Cleveland, OH, 2022
“Resa Fantastiskt Mystick and Foot/Mouth: How Late 20th Century Headset Theatre Challenged Mediatization,” MATC theatre history symposium, Chicago, IL, 2020 (paper accepted but not presented due to pandemic)
“Resisting Mediatization in 21st Century Immersive and Invisible Theatre,” ASTR Conference working session (Theatre’s Private Publics and the Politics of Performance), Arlington, VA, 2019
“The Privilege of White Men’s Tears: Young Jean Lee’s Straight White Men and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s Appropriate,” MATC theatre history symposium, Cleveland, OH, 2019
“Wittgenstein, Cell Phones, and the Terrible Rage: The Post-Postmodern Condition in Caryl Churchill’s Escaped Alone,” MATC theatre history symposium, Milwaukee, WI, 2018
“Why Metaphors Matter: Quotation-Heavy Theatrical Adaptations and How They Are Labeled,” Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) Conference panel (Dramaturgies of Translation and Adaptation), Chicago, IL, 2016
“A Streetcar Named Democracy: Mass Transit as Metaphor in Hull House’s Halsted Street,” ASTR Conference working session (Machine Labor + Mechanical Logic), Baltimore, MD, 2014
“Collective Creation at Hull House: Southern and Eastern European Diaspora, Progressive Education, and Improvisational Theatre,” ATHE Conference panel (Enacting Diaspora: Transcultural Encounters, Collective Creation, and the Theatre of Repair), Phoenix, AZ, 2014
“‘Play’ Is the Thing: Hull House and the History of Collective Creation,” MATC theatre history symposium, Cleveland, OH, 2014
“Shaping Things to Come: How Formatting Theatre Reviews Can Create Community for Critics and Audiences,” ASTR Conference working session (Theatre, Media, and History: The Post-Truth Historian), Dallas, TX, 2013
“The Concept of ‘Play’ and Collective Creation,” Art Via Corpora conference: “Adventuring Together: Ensembles, Collectives, Laboratories & Networks,” Los Angeles, CA, 2013
“Viola Spolin and the Birth of Improvisational Theatre,” ATHE Conference focus group (Women, Collective Creation, and Devised Performance), Orlando, FL, 2013
“Eating Our Children: Thyestes’ Place Among Caryl Churchill’s Plays,” MATC theatre history symposium (Feeding, Fighting, and Fornicating: Consumption and Myth), St. Louis, MO, 2013
“Shared Space and Time: Populist Collage in Medea/Macbeth/Cinderella,” South Atlantic Modern Language Association conference, Durham, NC, 2012
“Quotation Blurs Division: Edward Albee and the Open Theater’s Shared Method,” ASTR Conference working group (Center-Staging the Sixties), Montreal, Quebec, 2011
“Framework for Change: How the SITI Company Recomposed the L.A. Theatre Landscape,” ASTR Conference working group, the History of Collective Creation, Seattle, WA, 2010
Service Activities
Academic Service
Coordinator, Interdisciplinary Major in Drama & Theatre Studies, 2019-
Member of the Advancing Equity Requirement (AER) Standing Committee, 2022-
Member of English Department recruitment, retention, and programming committee, 2022-
Faculty Advisor, Elon Feminists for Equality, Change, and Transformation (EFFECT), 2013-
Faculty Advisor, Elon Book Club, 2018-
Faculty Advisor, NewWorks, 2020-
Member of English Education advisory committee, 2016-
Member of the Promotion and Tenure Committee, 2021-2023
Member of English Department long range planning committee, 2018-2022
Member of President Book’s DEI Working Group (Curriculum Subcommittee), 2020-2021
Member of English Department search committee: Literature tenure-track position (Film and New Media Studies), 2019-2020
Member of the Library Promotion Review Committee, 2019-2021
Member of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Community Working Group, Diversity Subgroup, 2019
Member of English Department special projects committee, 2016-2018
Duke University Preparing Future Faculty mentor, 2016-2017
Member of English Department special committee on recruiting, 2016
Member of English Department search committee: Literature tenure-track position (Pre-1865 American Literature), 2015-2016
Literature Concentration Coordinator, English Department, 2014-2016
Member of the Dean’s Elon College Advisory Council on College Identity, 2014-2016
Member of English Department curriculum committee, 2014-2016
Member of the Elon University Task Force on Community Responsibilities and Standards for Reporting, Preventing and Responding to Sexual Assault, 2014-2015
Member of English Department search committee: Literature tenure-track position (Pre-1800 British Literature), 2013-2014
Member of Performing Arts Department search committee: Theatre historian tenure-track position, 2013-2014
Member of English Department search committee: Composition and Rhetoric lecturer position, 2012-2013
Chair of the University Library Committee, 2012-2013
Member of English Department programming committee, 2013-2014
Member of the Women’s and Gender Studies Interdepartmental Committee, 2010-2014
Instructor, Elon Honors Fellows Seminar, “The Comics Medium,” March 2012
Academic Service Outside Elon University While at Elon (Fall 2010-)
Chair, Modern Drama division, South Atlantic Modern Language Association (SAMLA), 2013-2015
Modern Language Association Drama Division delegate, 2008-2010 (three-year position)
Awards
Awards and Fellowships
Phi Beta Kappa’s Read On, Elon Initiative, funding for acquisition of 20 copies of James Ijames’ Fat Ham for Contemporary Play Reading and Discussion (2022)
Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning (CATL) Grant, “An Introduction to Reading Films as Texts: Designing a ‘Screen Cultures’ Curriculum for the Literature Concentration,” with Daniel Burns and Craig Morehead, 2019-2020
Elon College, the College of Arts & Sciences, Excellence in Teaching Award, 2019
Mentor, Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE), with student Maeve Riley, Elon University, 2019
FR&D Post-Probationary Sabbatical, Winter and Spring 2019
Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning (CATL) Diversity Infusion Grant, Elon University, 2018-2019, for English Department Literature Concentration
Fund for Excellence Grant (FFE Grant), Elon University, 2018-2019, for Get Lit: Building Community Among English Literature Students
Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning Mini-Grant (CATL), Elon University, 2018, for Drama & Theatre Studies (DTS) Contemporary Play Reading Series
FFE Grant, Elon University, 2017, for DTS New Works Playwriting Symposium
FFE Grant, Elon University, 2017-2018, for Get Lit: Building Community Among English Literature Students
CATL Mini-Grant, Elon University, 2017, for DTS Contemporary Play Reading Series
Inspirational Ally Award, The Gender and LGBTQIA Center of Elon University, 2017
Course Reassignment for Contributions to the Life of the University, Elon University, 2016-2017
Course Reassignment for Professional Activity, Elon University, 2015-2016
Course Reassignment for Professional Activity, Elon University, 2014-2015
Probationary Period Teaching Sabbatical, Elon University, Spring 2014
Mentor, Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE), with student Michelle Nussbaum, Elon University, 2013
Course Reassignment for Contributions to the Life of the University, Elon University, 2012-2013
Course Reassignment for Contributions to the Life of the University, Elon University, 2011-2012
Hultquist Funding, Elon University, Summer 2011
CATL/WAC Writing Residency, Elon University, 2011