People

Elizabeth Bell

Professor Emeritus
Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

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Biography

Elizabeth Bell received her PhD in Speech Communication in 1983 from the University of Texas, specializing in Performance Studies. She was most recently the Interim Vice Provost of Faculy Affairs and Professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. From 2013 to 2020, she served as Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs in the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of South Florida. From 2011 to 2013, she was Chair of the Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Bell chaired USF’s Presidential Women’s Status Committee from 2009 to 2013.

Bell is the recipient of more than ten teaching awards from college, state, and national associations, including Gender Scholar of the Year from the Southern States Communication Association and Feminist Mentor-Teacher Award from the Organization for the Study of Gender and Language. She has published dozens of journal articles, book chapters, and is the coeditor of From Mouse to Mermaid: The Politics of Film, Gender, and Culture (Indiana UP, 1995). Her textbook, Theories of Performance (Sage, 2008), is the first performance theory textbook aimed at the undergraduate classroom.