Two faculty members in the University of Notre Dame’s Department of Film, Television and Theatre (FTT) have recently published books highlighting the diverse topics of German women’s writing and Hollywood opinion polls.
- “Performance and Femininity in Eighteenth-Century German Women’s Writing: The Impossible Act” by Wendy Arons, assistant professor of FTT, was published last month by Palgrave Macmillan as part of its Studies in Theatre and Performance History series. In the book, Arons examines a series of texts by 18th century German women to highlight the ways theater and performance were used to explore female subjectivity and femininity during that era.
Arons’ teaching and research focus on 18th and 19th century theater history, 20th century German theater, feminist theory and acting theory. She directs FTT student productions for the Notre Dame mainstage season and has translated several plays from German to English.
- “George Gallup in Hollywood,” by Susan Ohmer, William and Helen Kuhn Assistant Professor of Modern Communication, was published this month by Columbia University Press. In her examination of the film industry’s use of opinion polling in the 1930s and `40s, Ohmer utilizes interviews and extensive research to examine Gallup’s comprehensive approach to market research and some of the issues illuminated by the results of his polls.
Ohmer’s teaching concentrates on film and television in U.S. culture and her research focuses on the history and use of market research in media organizations. Her work has appeared in such journals as Film History and the Journal of Film and Video.
Contact: Chris Sopczynski, FTT outreach specialist, 574-631-0457, csopczyn@nd.edu
Originally published by at newsinfo.nd.edu on November 15, 2006.