Bess Rowen, PhD is a theatre theorist whose forthcoming book project on what she terms “affective stage directions” will be published by Michigan University Press in Fall 2021. At Villanova, she teaches the year-long sequence of Dramatic Vision and Form for second year MA students and acting and Gender & Women’s Studies courses for undergraduates. She received her doctorate in Theatre and Performance from The Graduate Center, City University of New York and her master’s in Performance Studies from the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. She is the recipient of an Andrew Mellon Public Humanities Fellowship and a Graduate Center Dissertation Fellowship. Bess is also an Equity Membership Candidate and has studied acting at Michael Howard Studios, The Berkshire Theatre Festival, and The Gaiety School of Acting (The National Theatre School of Ireland). She has also worked as a director, stage manager and dramaturg. She serves as the performance review editor for the Eugene O’Neill Review, the Conference Planner for the American Theatre and Drama Society, and the co-convener of the Transfeminisms working group at the American Society for Theatre Research. Her recent articles can be found in Modern Drama, the Journal for Dramatic Theory and Criticism, and Theatre Journal.