Professor and Chair of the Fine Arts Department
From 2003-2007, Dr. Anderson served as Chair of the former Department of English, Music and Fine Arts and was the founding chair of the Department of Fine Arts in 2007-08, a position she resumed in August, 2013.
In 2000, Dr. Anderson received the Senior Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching from Franciscan University, and in 2005, she received the Excellence in Teaching and Service Award from the National Communication Association’s Theatre Division.
Since coming to Franciscan University, Dr. Anderson has directed a variety of shows, including classics like Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale and Coriolanus and Moliere’s The Bourgeois Gentleman, modern and contemporary plays like You Can’t Take It With You,Kindertransport, and Scapino!, and several original compilations. Dr. Anderson teaches a wide range of courses, including classes in Theatre History, Theatre Literature, Dramatic Theory and Directing, and her current research interests include devised theatre and Shakespeare in performance. Dr. Anderson has trained with Shakespeare & Company of Lenox, MA and is active in the Association for Theatre in Higher Education and in the National Communication Association, an organization she served for several years as an officer of the NCA Theatre Division. In 2013, NCA’s Theatre, Film and New Multimedia Division presented Dr. Anderson with the Lifetime Award for Artistic Scholarship and National Leadership, and in Februrary 2015, she was presented with the Excellence in Teaching Award from Franciscan University.
