{{Short description|British scholar on Women's Studies, Literary Studies, and Film Studies}} thumb|Susanne Kord in 2024 '''Theresia Susanne Kord''', or '''T. S. Kord''' is a scholar of women's studies, literary studies and film studies, and the author of 11 books and 70 scholarly articles published in four languages.<ref name="encyclopedia.com" />

== Academic career == Kord has been a professor at University College London since 2004,<ref name="UCL Profile">{{Cite web |date=June 21, 2019 |title=Susanne Kord |url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/european-languages-culture/people/susanne-kord |website=SELCS}}</ref> where she is the Chair of German. She was a visiting fellow at the All Souls College, Oxford;<ref name="UCL Profile" /> visiting scholar at the St John's College, Oxford;<ref name="UCL Profile" /> and a visiting professor the University of Edinburgh.<ref name="UCL Profile" />

Kord was elected Fellow of the British Academy in 2021;<ref>{{Cite web |title=Professor Susanne Kord FBA |url=https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/fellows/professor-susanne-kord-fba/ |website=The British Academy}}</ref> Fellow of the British Royal Historical Society in 2015;<ref>{{Cite web |title=Report Of Council Session 2015 – 2016 |url=https://files.royalhistsoc.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/17210009/RHS-Annual-Report-2015-16.pdf |publisher=Royal Historical Society }}</ref> and Honorary Secretary and Council Member of the English branch of the Goethe Society in 2008.<ref>{{Cite web |date=November 11, 2008 |title=UCL professor elected to English Goethe Society |url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2008/nov/ucl-professor-elected-english-goethe-society |website=UCL News}}</ref>

Kord spent 16 years as an academic in the United States: with tenured positions at Georgetown University (Washington, D.C., 1993-2004), where she was George M. Roth Distinguished Professor;<ref name="encyclopedia.com">{{Cite web |title=Kord, Susanne 1959- &#124; Encyclopedia.com |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/kord-susanne-1959 |website=www.encyclopedia.com}}</ref> and at the University of Cincinnati (Ohio, 1990–93).<ref name="encyclopedia.com" /> She was also visiting lecturer at Dartmouth College in the United States from 1988-1990.<ref name="encyclopedia.com" />

Kord earned an M.A. degree in English and American literature at Philipps Universität Marburg (Germany),<ref name="encyclopedia.com" /> and an M.A. and PhD in German literature (1990) at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (United States).<ref name="encyclopedia.com" />

== Research Focus == Kord's first two books, written in German, focused on little-known female German authors of the 18th and 19th centuries. Her 1992 book, ''Ein Blick hinter die Kulissen'' (''A Glance Backstage'', 1992<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kord |first=Susanne |title=Ein Blick hinter die Kulissen: Deutschsprachige Dramatikerinnen im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert |date=1992 |publisher=Metzler |isbn=978-3-476-00835-0 |location=Stuttgart |pages=509}}</ref>), was the first comprehensive historical study of eighteenth- and nineteenth century women playwrights and is credited with the rediscovery of many of these writers.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Molina |first=Caroline |date=Winter 1993 |title=Review: 'Ein Blick hinter die Kulissen' |journal=The German Quarterly |volume=66 |issue=1 |pages=116–7|doi=10.2307/408532 |jstor=408532 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wurst |first=Karin A. |date=Oct 1993 |title=Review: 'Ein Blick hinter die Kulissen' |journal=German Studies Review |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=555–7|doi=10.2307/1432167 |jstor=1432167 |url=https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/sophnf_nonfict/235 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fleig |first=Anne |date=1994 |title=Review: 'Ein Blick hinter die Kulissen' |journal=Zeitschrift für Germanistik |volume=Neue Folge 4 |issue=2 |pages=415–7}}</ref> The work won Swiss National Radio's Best Book of the Year Award in 1993. Her 1996 book, ''Sich einen Namen machen'' (''Making a Name for Herself''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kord |first=Susanne |title=Sich einen Namen machen: Anonymität und weibliche Autorschaft, 1700-1900 |date=1994 |publisher=Metzler |isbn=9783476014382 |location=Stuttgart |pages=240}}</ref>), delved into eighteenth- and nineteenth century women writers' strategies of using pseudonyms to conceal their gender.

Kord's interests branched out in the early 2000s into Comparative Literature and Film Studies and she began to publish in English. She explored subjects ranging from 18th-century women peasant poets in Germany and the British Isles,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kord |first=Susanne |title=Women Peasant Poets in England, Scotland and Germany: Milkmaids on Parnassus |date=2003 |publisher=Camden House |isbn=9781571132680 |location=Rochester, NY |pages=339}}</ref> real-life and fictional murderesses in 18th century Germany,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kord |first=Susanne |title=Murderesses in German Writing, 1720-1860: Heroines of Horror |date=2009 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0521519779 |location=Cambridge |pages=276}}</ref> gender in Hollywood films,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Kord |first1=Susanne |title=Contemporary Hollywood Masculinities: Gender, Genre and Politics |last2=Krimmer |first2=Elisabeth |author2-link=Elisabeth Krimmer |date=2011 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-0230338418 |location=New York |pages=291}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Kord |first1=Susanne |title=Hollywood Divas, Indie Queens and TV Heroines: Contemporary Screen Images of Women |last2=Krimmer |first2=Elisabeth |author2-link=Elisabeth Krimmer |date=2004 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-0742537095 |location=Lanham, MD |pages=192}}</ref> time travel in science fiction films<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kord |first=Susanne |title=12 Monkeys |date=2019 |publisher=Liverpool University Press |isbn=9781800342491 |location=Liverpool |pages=120}}</ref> and philosophy in modern horror films<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kord |first=Susanne |title=The Cabin in the Woods |date=2023 |publisher=Liverpool University Press |isbn=9781800856448 |location=Liverpool |pages=120}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Kord |first=T.S. |title=Little Horrors: How Cinema's Evil Children Play on Our Guilt |date=2016 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=9781476666068 |location=Jefferson, N.C. |pages=277}}</ref> to the rise of antisemitism in Germany and Austria before both World Wars.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kord |first=T.S. |title=Lovable Crooks and Loathsome Jews: Antisemitism in German and Austrian Crime Writing Before the World Wars |date=2018 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=9781476670126 |location=Jefferson, N.C. |pages=347}}</ref>

== Literary translations == Kord has translated the works of little-known female authors from German to English, including the naturalist playwright Elsa Bernstein<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Garland, Henry |first=and Mary Garland |date=2005 |title=entry 'Elsa Bernstein' |journal=The Oxford Companion to German Literature}}</ref> and Goethe associate, playwright and novelist Charlotte von Stein.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=2 January 2023 |title=Charlotte von Stein |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charlotte-von-Stein |journal=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=11 September 2023}}</ref> Her literary translations of dramatic plays from German to English include Elsa Bernstein's ''Dämmerung'' (1893), published as 'Twilight',<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bernstein |first=Elsa |title=Dämmerung / Twilight. Re-edition and translation, with an introduction. Ed. and trans. Susanne Kord |date=2003 |publisher=Modern Language Association |location=New York |pages=2 vols}}</ref> and Bernstein's drama ''Maria Arndt'' (1908),<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rosmer, Ernst |first=(that is: Elsa Bernstein) |date=1996 |title=Maria Arndt, trans. and ed. by Susanne Kord |journal=Modern Drama by Women, 1880s-1930s: An International Anthology, ed. Katherine Kelly |volume=New York |issue=Routledge |pages=80–107}}</ref> performed at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, March 2002.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Simonson |first=Robert |title=How do you revive a play like Maria Arndt? |url=https://playbill.com/article/how-to-you-revive-a-play-like-maria-arndt-steppenwolf-unearths-bernstein-feb-7-com-103837 |access-date=11 September 2023 |website=Playbill}}</ref>

== Poetry == In the 1990s, Kord published poetry in English and German in various journals, holding public readings at the German Embassy in Washington, D.C. In 1994, she was awarded the Robert L. Kahn Lyrik-Preis by the Society for Contemporary American Literature in German, for her poem ‘grammatik’ <ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kahn |first=Lisa |date=1994 |title=Susanne Kord, Washington, DC, was awarded the 1994 Robert L. Kahn Lyrik-Preis |journal=TRANS-LIT, Publication of SCALG |volume=III |issue=2 |pages=3}}</ref> (published in Trans-Lit, 1994).<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kord |first=Susanne |date=1994 |title=grammatik |journal=TRANS-LIT, Publication of SCALG |volume=III |issue=2 |pages=4}}</ref> The themes of Kord’s published poetry draw on her professional research on challenges faced by female authors, and on the poverty she observed in Cincinnati and Washington, D.C. neighborhoods.

== Alternate author names == Kord sometimes employs a gender-concealing alias. Her books ''Little Horrors'' (2016) and ''Lovable Crooks'' (2018) were published under the gender-neutral author name T. S. Kord, leading some reviewers of both works to assume she was male.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Tiburcio Moreno |first=Erika |date=2018 |title=Review of 'Little Horrors' |journal=Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television |issue=1 |pages=213–15}}</ref>

== Awards == Kord has won six awards for her writing, including the 2012 Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year (for her book with Elisabeth Krimmer, ''Contemporary Hollywood Masculinities'')<ref>{{Cite web |date=December 19, 2012 |title=some CHOICE titles for the year |url=https://sites.temple.edu/filmandmediaarts/2012/12/19/some-choice-titles-for-the-year/}}</ref> and the Forum Prize, Best Article of the Year, for ''The Rule of Law and the Role of Literature: German Public Debates on Husband Killers and Human Rights'', Forum for Modern Language Studies, (January 2012).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Forum Prize Winners |url=https://academic.oup.com/fmls/pages/Forum_Prize_Winners |website=Oxford Academic}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kord |first=Susanne |date=January 2012 |title=The Rule of Law and the Role of Literature: Public Debates on Husband-Killers and Human Rights (1788-1845) |journal=Forum for Modern Language Studies |volume=48 |pages=59–73|doi=10.1093/fmls/cqr038 }}</ref>

== Academic style == Kord's scholarship, which originated in the effort to make lost work by women accessible to a modern readership, employs a straightforward writing style that is often noted in reviews.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Schmitt |first=Gavin |date=2016 |title=Review of 'Little Horrors' |journal=Killer Reviews.com |pages=1–3}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kitley |first=John |date=2016 |title=Review of 'Little Horrors' |journal=Kitley's Krypt |pages=1–4}}</ref> This has on occasion put her at odds with the idea that "academic communication is fundamentally different from everyday vernacular discourse."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Graff |first=Gerald |date=2000 |title=Scholars and Sound Bites: The Myth of Academic Difficulty |journal=PMLA |volume=115 |issue=5 |pages=1041–52}}</ref> Kord holds that serious scholarship is not compromised by approachable language: "I've never been a fan of the academic credo that if a book is comprehensible to more than three people, the author must have sold out."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kord |first=Susanne |title=Little Horrors: How Cinema's Evil Children Play on Our Guilt |date=2016 |publisher=McFarland |location=Jefferson, N.C. |pages=2}}</ref>

== References == {{reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kord, Susanne}} Category:Academics of University College London Category:Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford Category:People associated with St John's College, Oxford Category:People associated with the University of Edinburgh Category:University of Cincinnati faculty Category:Georgetown University faculty Category:Dartmouth College faculty Category:Marburg University alumni Category:University of Massachusetts Amherst alumni Category:Date of birth missing (living people) Category:Living people Category:1959 births Category:Literary scholars Category:Goethe scholars Category:Women's studies academics Category:Fellows of the Royal Historical Society Category:Fellows of the British Academy Category:21st-century non-fiction writers Category:20th-century British non-fiction writers Category:English-language writers Category:English-language poets Category:German-language poets Category:Nationality missing Category:German–English translators Category:Women encyclopedists