Dr. Suzanne Enck-Wanzer
Assistant Professor
Office Location: GAB 320 E
Phone: (940) 565-4856
E-mail: Suzanne.enck-wanzer@unt.edu

Women's Caucus Newsletter

Personal Biography

Suzanne is a transplant to Texas from the MidWest. Growing up in Ohio and attending Miami (of Ohio), Suzanne studied Political Science and Philosophy as an undergraduate and competed nationally with the Miami University speech team. Upon completing her B.A., Suzanne entered the M.A. program in Communication at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. It is during this stage of her life that Suzanne found her two passions in teaching and working with survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. Suzanne proceeded to teach and coach forensics for a year in Michigan at Oakland University and then moved to beautiful Bloomington/Normal, Illinois to teach at Illinois State University. While at ISU, Suzanne coached the highly decorated speech team (winning the national tournament in 1999). After this whirlwind tour of the MidWest, Suzanne moved back to Indiana in 1999 to pursue her Ph.D. at Indiana University-Bloomington. Suzanne’s doctoral degree is in Communication and Culture and American Studies with an emphasis on rhetorical theory, gender studies, feminist social movement, and U.S. media cultures. Working closely with the local anti-violence program (Middle Way House) in Bloomington, Suzanne studied representations of violence against women in U.S. public culture. Upon completing her degree in 2005, Suzanne accepted a tenure-track position in the Department of Communication Studies and Women’s Studies Program at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Illinois. Having served as the interim coordinator of Women’s Studies at EIU, Suzanne continues to root herself in both disciplines in a way that informs greatly her research, teaching, and service. While in Charleston, Suzanne also worked intimately with the domestic violence prevention program (HOPE) and rape crisis center (SACIS). Today, Suzanne is happy to be living in the south and thrilled to be teaching at the University of North Texas in Communication Studies. Allied with Women’s Studies, Suzanne envisions her position as one that will build bridges between various academic disciplines concerned with identity and difference.  

In her personal life, Suzanne enjoys bad coffee, good conversation, long car rides, and photographing the world around her. She is slightly addicted to Facebook, Coke Zero, and questionable television. An avid letter/card writer, she is always looking for the perfect postcard to send friends and loved ones. She has three nearly perfect animals: dog (Sisco), cat (Ari), and devil-cat (Kairos). She is partnered with the other Enck-Wanzer in the department, Darrel. Her favorite book is Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and she is an avid fan of music, both familiar and new.

Teaching at UNT

COMM 4040: Rhetorical Theory

COMM 4220: Gender & Communication

COMM 3440: Public Address Studies (Voices of Democracy)

Research Interests

Historically, the problem of what we call “domestic violence” has crystallized as a social ill that pits men against women and government against private interests.  Questions over whether this abuse should be considered a family problem, feminist issue, and/or crime against the state have divided those who presumably want to help victims.  Informed by two decades of working with domestic violence prevention programs as a victims’ advocate, board member, and crisis interventionist, Suzanne argues that the dominant representations framing domestic violence limit in especially problematic ways the agency of all parties involved.  Specifically, her broader research agenda seeks to answer three questions:  1) How do conceptions of gender and privilege inform our collective expectations for human agency?   2) How might we better imagine gendered representations in a culture steeped in hierarchical relations and ill-equipped to consider perspectives of the Other?  3) How can we shift from a cultural predisposition toward victim blaming and scapegoating to begin demanding systemic accountability and change?  To address these questions, she critiques the ways in which various cultural artifacts intersect to create hegemonic public vocabularies regarding issues of sex, gender, nation, race, sexuality, agency, and power as they relate to intimate violence.  This inquiry demands a multi-disciplinary approach, drawing from critical/cultural communication frameworks, media and film studies, gender studies, American studies, social theory, and cultural studies.

Publications

Enck-Wanzer, Suzanne M. and Scott Murray.  “How to Hook a Hottie”: Teenage Boys, Hegemonic Masculinity, and CosmoGirl! Magazine,” ed. Annette Wannamaker, Mediated Boyhood: Boys, Teens, and Tweens in Popular Culture and Media (New York: Peter Lang, forthcoming 2010).

Enck-Wanzer, Suzanne M.  “Resisting Gendered Violence through the Classroom: A Feminist Activist Approach to Communication Studies,” eds. Lawrence R. Frey and David L. Palmer, Communication Activism Pedagogy (Cresskill, NJ:  Hampton Press, forthcoming 2010).

Enck-Wanzer, Suzanne M.  “All’s Fair in Love and Sport: Black Masculinity, Domestic Violence, and the Media.”  Communication & Critical/Cultural Studies 6.1 (2009): 1-18.

Also invited as a “translation essay” entitled “Black Athletes and Domestic Violence in the News” for Communication Currents (February 2009).

Enck-Wanzer, Suzanne M.  “Seeing Family Violence Differently: Shifting Perspectives from Social Science to Rhetorical,” eds. Dudley D. Cahn and Sally A. Lloyd, Family Violence: Communication Processes (New York: State University of New York Press, 2009).

Enck-Wanzer, Suzanne M.  “Beyond the Burning Bed:  The Life, Trial, and Aftermath of Francine Hughes,” ed. Steve Chermak and Frankie Bailey, Famous American Crimes and Trials, Volume 4, 211-31 (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2004).

Notable Activities & Awards

Suzanne has received Top Paper honors at the National Communication Association (NCA) from the Critical and Cultural Studies Division, Kenneth Burke Society, and the Feminist & Women Studies Division. Currently, Suzanne is serving as the Chair of the Women’s Caucus of NCA. A former John H. Edwards fellow for her integration of scholarship with public service, Suzanne has been named a Vagina Warrior, won the City of Bloomington, Indiana’s “Heart and Hand” Award, and was named a “Sunbeam” by the Sunshine Lady Foundation, Inc. who recognized her with their biennial national peace award.