Shannon Mancus

Dr. Shannon Davies Mancus is an Associate Teaching Professor and Associate Department Head  in the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences Department at the Colorado School of Mines. She holds a B.A. in musical theater from Wagner College, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in American Studies from George Washington University.

In her first career, Dr. Mancus has performed in benefit concerts on Broadway, sang jingles for Altoids, and house managed off-Broadway shows. While she was in graduate school, she brought together her burgeoning research interest in interactive narratives with her performance background by devising and performing theatre with Dog & Pony DC. She served as the touring director for their off-Broadway run of Beertown as well as their performance and workshop at the Lincoln Center Director’s Lab in 2014.

Her research brings together environmental communication and performance studies, and she also writes frequently about visual culture and the role of genre in media and politics. Her work has been published in The Cambridge History of Science Fiction and The Bloomsbury Handbook of 21st Century Theory, and in the journals Performing Ethos and Gothic Natures.

Nationally, she serves as the Digital Liaison for the Environment and Culture Caucus of the American Studies Association. At Mines, she is the coordinator of the Nature and Human Values program, and faculty advisor for Mines Little Theater, Ballroom Dance, and Circle K.  Dr. Mancus was also a 2021-2022 DI&A fellow, and a co-recipient of a Faculty Senate Signature Experience Award that she and Dr. Joseph Horan have used to launch the Environmental Leadership Lab and Environmental Scholars Program. She was named outstanding faculty member for the 2020-2021 academic year for the HASS department.

Curriculum Vitae