معرفی
Maggie Hennefeld is a Professor of Cultural Studies & Comparative Literature at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. She specializes in early cinema, feminist film theory, and the intersections of gender, laughter, and violence. Hennefeld is the author of award-winning books including Specters of Slapstick and Silent Film Comediennes (2018) and Death by Laughter: Female Hysteria and Early Cinema (2024). She curates film collections like Cinema’s First Nasty Women (2022) and co-edits Cultural Critique.
Education: Ph.D. in Modern Culture and Media from Brown University (2014), B.A. in Cinema Studies and Comparative Literature from University of Pennsylvania (2006).
Research Interests: Silent film comediennes, feminist historiography, laughter’s sociopolitical dimensions, early cinema’s gendered dynamics, and archival film curation. Her work bridges film history with feminist theory, examining how comedy and bodily spectacle challenge gender norms.
Articles: Recent works analyze unwatchable media, postmodern film genres, and the relationship between hysteria and cinematic spectatorship. Her 2024 book explores historical accounts of women dying from laughter, linking it to medical and cultural discourses on female hysteria.
Curatorial Projects: Co-edited volumes include Unwatchable (2019) and Abjection Incorporated (2020), which examine problematic media and its political stakes.
Labs/Teams: Involved in feminist film archivistics through projects like the Feminist Fragments program at Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, showcasing marginalized women’s early film contributions.
