Elizabeth Whitney
Associate Professor
Speech, Communications and Theatre Arts
EMAIL: ewhitney@bmcc.cuny.edu
Office: S-628F
Office Hours: Tuesday 10 am-1 pm
Phone: +1 (212) 776-6322
Elizabeth Whitney is a Professor in the Department of Speech, Communication, and Theatre Arts, and the Co-Coordinator of the Communication Studies major. She teaches courses in gender & women’s studies, intercultural communication, and public speaking.
Her research focuses on creative methods of documentation including auto/ethnography, digital storytelling, and lecture performance. In 2015-2016 she was a Fulbright Scholar at University of Turku, Finland, researching arts funding and freedom of expression, and her subsequent research on queer and feminist arts communities in Finland was funded by PSC-CUNY and a BMCC Faculty Development Grant. During summer 2019 she was a Scholar in Residence at Aalto University in Helsinki, and during 2021-2022 a visiting researcher at University of Helsinki.
Previous to her appointment at BMCC, she taught courses on gender and performance at the Barnard Center for Research on Women. She was a Performance Studies Scholar in Residence in the Institute for Liberal Arts & Interdisciplinary Studies at Emerson College, and a visiting faculty in the Gender Studies program at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where she also served as Assistant Director of the LGBT Resource Center.A
Expertise
Social Justice, Performance Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies
Degrees
Ph.D. Southern Illinois University in Communication & Performance Studies
M.A. University of Utah in Intercultural Communication & Gender Studies
B.M. University of Montevallo in Music & Vocal Performance
Courses Taught
- This course is designed to provide an understanding of intercultural principles and perspectives when communicating with people from diverse cultures. Consideration will be given to both verbal and nonverbal communication processes in the "American" culture, co-cultures, contact cultures, and popular culture. Through readings, lectures, response papers, and interviews, as well as through in-class discussion and exercises, this course will explore how culture shapes communication, how situations are framed through cultural lenses, and how histories, perceptions, values, contexts, aspects of stereotypes, and ethnocentrism all contribute to the complexity of intercultural communication. Prerequisite: SPE 100 or SPE 102
- This introductory level, interdisciplinary course explores the basic concepts and perspectives of Gender & Women's Studies from an intersectional angle; that is, examining the ways in which gender intersects with race, ethnicity, nationality, class, sexuality, sexual identity, disability, and other categories. The concepts of gender - the roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes that a society considers appropriate for men and women - privilege and oppression, intersectionality, and feminist praxis will be at the core of this course. After a background in the history and significance of Gender & Women's Studies as a field of study, you will learn to critically examine how institutionalized privilege and oppression shape individual lives and intersecting identity categories.
- The aim of this course is to develop effective skills in speech communication. The student examines how to generate topics and organized ideas, masters elements of audience psychology and practices techniques of speech presentation in a public forum. All elements of speech production and presentation are considered.
Research and Projects
2023-Present. Affiliated researcher. “Mapping the Sounds of the Finnish Forest.” Collaborative project in development. University of Helsinki.
2023-Present. Anti-Semitism Undermining Democracy. Advisory board member and affiliated researcher. The Donner Institute, Åbo Akademi, Finland.
2023. Re-envisioning Scholarship Faculty Fellow. Invited participant through CETLS/BMCC, facilitated by HuMetricsHSS (Humane Metrics Initiative).
2023. Podcasting Institute Faculty Fellow. Invited participant through CETLS/BMCC in National Humanities Center Virtual Institute to create public facing podcasting content.
2020. Participating Researcher. Massive and Micro Sensemaking During a Global Pandemic. International virtual
research collaboration.
2020. Presenter & Collaborator. Conceptualizing Utopia: The Gendered Politics of Public Space. “Queer and Feminist Arts Communities in Finland.” Grant-funded symposium at NYU Abu Dhabi.
2016-2018. Future Making Research Consortium. Ongoing collaborative project on digital archiving. University of Aarhus, Denmark. http://futuremaking.space/workshop/
“Creating Future Memories: A Project of the Future Making Consortium.” Interactive installation event at CounterPlay Festival. Aarhus, Denmark. May 15, 2016.
Publications
Selected Peer-Reviewed Scholarship
Whitney, Elizabeth. “Humanizing Healthcare through Narrative Performance.” Liminalities 20.1 (2024): 1-3.
Whitney, Elizabeth. “In a Glass Garden.” Thirteen Bridges Review. Featured Creative Non-Fiction, May, 2023.
Whitney, Elizabeth. “How I Found Myself in Finland: A Mediated Essay.” Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies. 18.2 (2022).
- Virtual International Arts Festival for Social Change. 27.10-29.10.2020.
“Run Bunny Run”: A collective art piece on COVID-19 lockdowns and digital technology (Zach Bastick, Lynette Widder, Heidi Campbell, Elizabeth Whitney). France, USA
https://markdegarmodance.org/virtual-international-arts-festival-via/
Whitney, Elizabeth. “The Sex that God Can’t See: Heteronormativity and the Erasure of Queer Desire.” For a forum devoted to Gust Yep’s influential essay “The Violence of Heteronormativity,” in QED: A Journal of Queer Worldmaking. 4.2 (2017): 143-149.
Whitney, Elizabeth. “The Dangerous Real: Mediated Queer Solo Performance in/as
Active Disruption.” For a special issue of Comparative American Studies on “Disrupting Insecurity: Grassroots Interventions.” 14.3-4 (2016): 246-260.
Whitney, Elizabeth. “Imagining Utopia, Sustaining Community: The Affective Pleasure of
Queer Performance in Finland.” For a special issue of SQS: Journal of Queer Studies in Finland on affect. 6.1 (2016).
“Creating Future Memories: A Dialogue on Process.” In collaboration with the members of The Future Making Research Consortium. The Disruptive Journal of Media Practice. 2016.
Whitney, Elizabeth. “Queer Longing, Queer Nostalgia: A Performative Lecture on Anna Elizabeth Dickinson.” Text and Performance Quarterly. 35.4 (2015): 286-304.
Selected Creative & Public Scholarship
2023. Finland, Land of Romance. Invited lecture-performance. Southern Illinois University Alumni series.
2023. Whitney, Elizabeth. “Digital Storytelling in the Classroom.” Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning, and Scholarship at BMCC/CUNY.
2023. Whitney, Elizabeth. “How I Found Myself in Finland: Documenting Research.” Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning, and Scholarship at BMCC/CUNY.
“Isn’t it Queer?” Interview with podcast host Jonny Gray. September 13, 2023.
- “Teaching in the After Times.” Collaborative podcast for the National Humanities Center.
2023. “Ice Swimming.” Out There Podcast feature. Collaboration with Sound Editor Landry Ayres. Season Four, Episode Five.
2022-2023. Whitney, Elizabeth. “Farmer Bill.” Substack.
Honors, Awards and Affiliations
Visiting Researcher, University of Helsinki, 2021-2022.
Visiting Researcher, Aalto University, 2019.
PSC/CUNY Research Foundation Award, 2017-2018.
Borough of Manhattan Community College Faculty Development Award, 2016-2017.
Fulbright Scholar, University of Turku, Finland. 2015-2016.
City University of New York, Faculty Fellowship Publication Program Grant. Spring 2015.
City University of New York, C3IRG Collaborative Research Grant (digital storytelling). 2013-2014.
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History Summer Seminar. July 2013.
National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute. July 2013.
Faculty Resource Network Scholar in Residence. New York University. June 2013.
