David Jenemann teaches courses in film and television theory, critical theory, genre, and global cinema. He has published essays on the film theories of Gilles Deleuze and Theodor W. Adorno as well as on the poet and novelist Kenneth Fearing. His areas of research interest include film and television, critical theory, modernism, and twentieth century literature. He is currently working on a book on anti-intellectualism in America.
Professor and Dean of the Honors College
Publications
Books
![]() | The Baseball Glove: History, Material, Meaning, and Value (Routlege Taylor & Francis Group, 2018) |
![]() | Adorno in America (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2007) |
Selected Articles and Book Chapters
“Racket and Relevance” | nonsite.org special issue on Max Horkheimer’s “On the Sociology of Class Relations” nonsite, 18 (2016) |
“Stupider and Worse: The Cultural Politics of Stupidity” | parallax, Volume 19, Issue 3 (2013), 134-149 |
“Strangling the Malcontents: Critical Theory and Pseudo-Conservatism Today” | Constelaciones. Revista de Teoría Crítica, Vol. 3 (2011): “Teoría Crítica de la industria de la cultura.” 227-233 |
“Camouflage Work: The Hidden Subject of Modernism” | Individualism: The Cultural Logic of Modernity, Edited by Zubin Meer (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2011) 191-202 |
“Stop Being an Elitist, and Start Being an Elitist” | Flow 13.5, (December 2010) |
Awards and Recognition
Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, co-PI, $12,500 for a statewide lecture series on “Happiness,”
CAS Small Grant Award, University of Vermont ($2000), 2015-2016
Nominated For the Kroepsch-Maurice Teaching Award, 2004, 2006, 2009, (2010 declined).
Nominated for the James Russell Lowell Award for Adorno in America (Modern Language Association 2008)
Nominated for the Modernist Studies Association Book Award for Adorno in America (2008)
Summer Research Grant, The Humanities Center, University of Vermont (funds provided for a research assistant, 2006)
Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship and Research Grant, University of Minnesota (2002 – 2003).
DAAD Fellowship for Study and Research, Berlin (Summer, 2002).
Graduate Research Partnership Program Summer Fellowship and Research Grant, University of Minnesota (Summer, 2002).
Harold Leonard Memorial Film Study Fellowship and Study Grant, University of Minnesota (2000 – 2001).
Comparative Studies in Discourse, Departmental Language Study Fellowship (1999, 2000).
Comparative Studies in Discourse and Society, Departmental Fellowship (1995 – 1996).
Thomas B. McCabe Achievement Award, Swarthmore College (1989 – 1993).
Associations and Affiliations
National Association of Fellowship Advisors
Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes
Modern Language Association
Society for Cinema Studies
Modernist Studies Association
American Comparative Literature Association

Areas of Expertise and/or Research
Film and television, critical theory, Modernism, 20th-century literature
Education
- Ph.D. University of Minnesota, 2003
Contact
50 Universityy Heights
Courses Taught
- Seminar in Film and Television: Sports Broadcasting
- Seminar: Film Noir & Hardboiled Fiction
Seminar: Hollywood Fictions
Seminar: Documentary Evidence
Seminar: Major Author Sinclair Lewis & Dos Passos
Seminar in Literature: Themes, Genres, Folklore, Film Noir & Hardboiled Fiction
Honors Seminar: The Pursuit of Knowledge
Honors Seminar: Screening the Modern
Film and TV Genre and the Auteur
Contemporary Topics in Film and Television
History of Television
Film Criticism
Readings and Research
Film and Television Theory
Intro Special Topics in Film and Television: Lane Series
Intro Special Topics in Film and Television: Cinemas of the Fantastic
Intro Special Topics in Film and Television: Intro to T.V.
American Film Genres: Politics of Genres
Study of Documentarys and Avante Garde Cinema: Avante-Garde
Studies in Documentary and Avante Garde Cinema: New German Cinema
Development in Motion Pictures I: Origin - 1930
Development in Motion Pictures II: 1930 - 1960
Development in Motion Pictures III: 1960 - 2000