Creating Space for Success: A Conversation with Professor Shonni Enelow

Fordham's new Chair of the English Department, Professor Shonni Enelow

By Grace Keegan

I felt my spark for writing reinvigorated instantly when I signed on to a meeting with Professor—and new Chair of Fordham’s English Department—Shonni Enelow, her enthusiasm beaming straight through the screen to me. This unwavering exuberance is just how Professor Enelow has always met me and I've come to find out that may just be her key to success. 

I had the privilege of being introduced to Professor Enelow last spring when I took her Performance Criticism course, a class I have not been able to shut up about since. She has taught quite a few courses, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels at Fordham University. Theater, drama, and performance are at the center of nearly all of them. Upon asking her if there was a moment when she knew what she wanted to do, she told me the story of what was, in her words, "a funny route to where I am now." 

Growing up, Professor Enelow's one driving passion was acting. Her pursuit led her to the Tisch School at NYU, where she initially planned to focus exclusively on acting. Upon arrival, however, she was placed in a program that allowed her to experiment with other aspects of theater: directing, playwriting, design, dramaturgy, and more. She considers this "the first shift." Under the guidance of her professors, Professor Enelow expanded her sense of how to be simultaneously creative and intellectual. She learned to expand her passion for theater across even more planes, beginning her venture into the realms of literature, art, and culture. Upon further consideration of melding her knowledge of performance with her growing interest in writing, she decided to pursue a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature at the University of Pennsylvania. She is also fluent in French, so she figured she could work with French Literature while also engaging with the English Department. Even at this early point in the narrative, it became clear to me: not once did she consider herself limited to a single genre. 

From there she continued, supplementing with a bubbly, "Your friends in college matter!" explaining how a friend from college began working at TStyle–The New York Times Style Magazine–and he asked if she wanted to write something for him. This was her first time doing this sort of journalistic writing, and she loved it. Upon finishing her Ph.D., Professor Enelow published a book called Method Acting and Its Discontents: On American Psycho-Drama, which came out of her dissertation and was granted the 2016 George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism. As her work in creativity deepened, she realized that writing had always been at the center of her life. She kept journals since childhood, cultivated a passion for playwriting, and then worked on academic writing. Having experimented with all different writing genres, she jumped at any opportunity to advance this creative path. For instance, she wrote a feature in 2016 for Film Comment, the official publication of film at Lincoln Center–another opportunity aided by a friend who was an editor. She identified this as the piece that became her "calling card."  "The Great Recession," was recognized by The Atlantic and placed on its 2016 list of "exceptional works of journalism." 

In speaking about how organic the evolution of her career felt, Professor Enelow presented this caveat to her success story that drew me in. It veered me away from the sense that any particular event could be considered a setback: “I think the reason that the narrative feels really positive for me is that…I’ve actually been really flexible.” Attributing much of it to embracing each opportunity with excitement and viewing it as a chance to discover more about herself, she impressed me with her positivity. Intrigued by her optimism, I felt compelled to ask whether there were any challenges that she found daunting. She assured me that there were and provided examples. 

Throughout these examples, this positivity proceeded to shine through. She spoke of post-grad grants and residencies she had applied to, none of which accepted her. However, she could not even get through her sentence before cutting herself off and redirecting: "It was a setback in a certain sense, but it actually was important, you know, I was like 'Okay, well, this isn't working out, so what do I have an opportunity to do? What can I do?'" Throughout Professor Enelow's stories, I couldn't find a moment where the themes of innovation, exploration, or perseverance faltered. 

Considering this, I wanted to know what pushed Professor Enelow toward teaching. In a blend of humor and candor she acknowledged that "it's incredibly, incredibly hard to make a living just writing. Even if you're really successful, it's hard. So, the vast majority of writers I know have some…job." Despite the dull reality of that statement, again, it didn't take long for her to pivot: "I think the question is, is there a field that interests you?" With her Ph.D. and her interest in literary scholarship, she felt teaching would be the ideal job and she made clear how grateful she feels to have found her way to Fordham. Interestingly enough, however, she left the door open for what could have been if she hadn't begun working at Fordham, and I couldn't help but notice the lingering optimism in her tone. Who's to say where another path would have brought her? Perhaps she would be somewhere completely different. However, Fordham’s students are lucky that she did end up here at this very moment, getting a chance to experience her innovation and open-mindedness first-hand in the classroom.

Upon reflecting on the benefits of teaching, Professor Enelow spoke of how natural it feels, at the university level, to be able to create her own classes. And of course, she couldn't neglect the gift of breaks within a teaching schedule, where "you have these moments of pause where you can focus on writing." Wanting to explore more about this writing-teaching balance, I inquired about building the structure of the Performance Criticism course I took with her. I wanted to understand to what extent she was able to implement her personal writing strategies and experiences into the curriculum and how she felt her students received it. 

In order to address the question, she actually asked me what specifically about the class worked well for me, and the conversation that followed encompassed exactly what I had felt was effective. In Professor Enelow’s Performance Criticism course, she fostered a workshop culture that completely changed my perspective on my writing. Not only was her passion for performance so clear and infectious, but her students could feel that she had a genuine interest in our work, our choices, our development as writers. And I believe that the investment she had in her students is a major part of the symbiotic dynamic and mutual respect that grew amongst our class. She pushed us to experiment with our writing, find our own niche, and she tried out a less common strategy with a writing class–full labor-based grading– which offered great benefits to our writing. Professor Enelow was elated to hear that I felt it was effective and she reciprocated that sentiment: “I feel like people just relaxed a bit, when they felt they weren’t always on the spot, getting this grade that was going to say how well they did, you know?” 

This exchange between us made it increasingly apparent that Professor Enelow felt enthusiastic about that specific class, experimenting and learning from it, and how she wanted to create an environment that rigorously engaged with the kind of journalism and culture writing that she works on. She spoke very highly of the students in our specific section, highlighting how active and diversely engaged we all were with the material, which I also found notable and inspiring. As we continued to speak, it was intriguing to hear that she felt just as passionately as I did about that particular class environment; that a professor could experiment and learn from a certain course just as much as a student could. I could also sense she felt strongly about what her students brought to the table, which stuck with me. 

Given the care she showed her students, I could not conclude this conversation without asking Professor Enelow for any advice she could give to someone in my position. She returned to what I would consider the refrain of this interview: positivity and flexibility. She was kind enough to say, "You're starting from a good place because–you know, if you don't mind me saying so, you're naturally a very positive person in your sort of approach, which I think is really important," which was both validating and encouraging to hear. She emphasized practicing flexibility and responsiveness; this willingness to pivot in your career and not pigeonhole yourself. While acknowledging the constant criticism that comes as a package deal with the world of writing, she considered it a balance: taking in feedback and shifting accordingly but not letting it be "a referendum on [your] worth as a writer." It’s that avidity, that enthusiastic adaptability, that Professor Enelow uses to create space for success – for her herself, for her students, and now for the English Department.

Grace Keegan is currently a senior at Fordham University, majoring in English and Spanish Language/Literature with a minor in Public and Professional Writing. She is passionate about music, movies, literature, culture, and traveling, all of which inspire her writing.

This article was originally planned, researched, and written as part of the Intro to Professional Writing (ENGL 3003) class with Professor Michael Reich.