Shilyh Warren

Ph.D. - Literature
Duke University - 2010

M.A. - Literature
Duke University - 2004

M.A. - Comparative Literature
Dartmouth College - 2002

B.A. - Women's Studies
Dartmouth College - 1996

PERSONAL STATEMENT

Dr. Shilyh Warren's research takes up debates in film history, feminist theory, documentary studies, and film theory. Her first book, Subject to Reality: Women and Documentary (University of Illinois Press, 2019) examines two key periods in the history of women's documentary filmmaking: the 20s-40s and the 1970s. The book explores the ethnographic strain of documentary in particular and makes the argument that women's nonfictional filmmaking has always struggled with the problems of realism and the politics of race. Her research has also appeared in Signs, Camera Obscura, and South Atlantic Quarterly.

In her teaching, Warren helps students learn about the histories and theories of key areas of American and Global cinema, especially documentary, women's cinema, independent cinema, and political filmmaking. She has taught courses like "The Ethics of Documentary," "Women Directors," "Gender, Race and the Movies," and "Latin American Film."

Warren previously earned a PhD in Literature and a Certificate in Feminist Studies from Duke University as well as an MA in Comparative Literature from Dartmouth College. She's also fluent Spanish speaker.

She advises doctoral students on a wide range of projects interested in politics, representation, and moving image media, including, but not limited to: identity politics, histories of representation, psychoanalysis, critical theory, feminist theory, theories of sex and sexuality, critical race studies, and more.