Biography

Shannon Walsh is an Associate Professor of Theatre History. She received her MA in Theatre Studies from Florida State, and her PhD in Theatre Historiography from the University of Minnesota. She is the head of the PhD Theatre program and faculty rector for the Visual and Performing Arts Residential College (VPARC). Her edited volume Sporting Performance: Politics in Play examines the intersections between theatre, and sport and physical culture across the world and in history. Her monograph Eugenics and Physical Culture Performance in the Progressive Era: Watch Whiteness Workout examines how Reform Era efforts in the U.S. promoted repeated physical exercise as a way to shape women’s bodies and minds to be more maternally fit. In addition she serves as the editor for Theatre Topics Online and series co-editor for Palgrave’s Studies in Theatre and Performance History. As a theatre practitioner she has worked as a director, actor, dramaturg, and development manager. At LSU she teaches a broad range of classes from a 600 student Intro to Theatre for Non-Majors course, to graduate student seminars in history and theory. She serves in an advisory capacity for student performance projects both for undergraduates and MFA students. She is also an actor and director at LSU and in Baton Rouge. Recently, she directed two “live” Zoom productions at LSU and Theatre Baton Rouge, and played Lady Bracknell in an audio version of The Importance of Being Earnest at Swine Palace.