Faculty Associate, Department of English
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Creative Writing & Interdisciplinary Theatre Studies
2016 OMAI/First Wave Outstanding Faculty/Staff Award recipient
2016 & 2018 University Housing Honored Instructor
Fall 2021 Courses
ENGL 174: Literature and Social Justice
Staging Environmental Justice
From toxic drinking water and floods to rising temperatures and raging wildfires, environmental risks rarely come with a choice to opt out. This course will focus on how theatre and performance are used as tools in the struggle for environmental justice. What can we learn from Shakespeare and Lin-Manuel Miranda when we examine how their work relates to the natural world? Can a play about Hurricane Katrina do anything to protect those vulnerable to flooding in the future? Can theatre help us prevent the slow violence of the Flint, Michigan water crisis from happening elsewhere? Course texts will include plays and recorded/filmed productions, multi-media performances, and environmental criticism, supplemented by guest artists and individual explorations.
ENGL/GENWS 144: Women’s Writing
Contemporary American Women Playwrights
Examining the boundaries of gender, feminism, “American” and “women’s writing in the context of contemporary American theatre, this course will include works by playwrights such as Annie Baker, Jackie Sibblies Drury, Larissa FastHorse, May Lee-Yang, Quiara Alegra Hudes, Dominique Morisseau, Lynn Nottage, Ashley Lauren Rogers, Paula Vogel, and Lauren Yee.
NOTE: ENGL 410: Playwriting will next be offered in the spring of 2022.
Please contact Jen directly at plants@wisc.edu if you’re seeking
instructor supervision for an independent study to write a full-length play.
Jen Plants 