@ASoulAFire @JaniceOCG Learn more about Dr. Karen A. Ritzenhoff, @Ritzenhoffk co-editor of The Handmaid’s Tale: Teaching Dystopia, Feminism, and Resistance Across Disciplines and Borders, by reading her bio at Central Connecticut State University. Dr. Ritzenhoff will join “If America Fails?” on October 14th as a subject matter expert.
Dr. Karen A. Ritzenhoff, Professor, Department of Communication, Central Connecticut State University. Co-Chair, the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program, as well as Cinema Studies and the Honors Program. Co-editor, The Handmaid’s Tale: Teaching Dystopia, Feminism, and Resistance Across Disciplines and Borders. –CCSU
Dr. Ritzenhoff earned a B.A. at the University of Tübingen, Germany; and a B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota. She was also a visiting student in the Department of Radio/TV/Film at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
Professor Ritzenhoff’s teaching experience includes:
- Women and Film
- Visual Communication
- History of Film
- Television and documentary production
- Converging Media
- American Cinema
- Horror Film
- Post 9/11 literature and film
Learn more about the teaching experience and research interests of Dr. Ritzenhoff by viewing her CV.
Dr. Ritzenhoff co-edited two volumes in 2019:
- The Handmaid’s Tale: Teaching Dystopia, Feminism, and Resistance Across Disciplines and Borders (with Janis L. Goldie, Rowman and Littlefield…). It “features 23 chapters that discuss Margaret Atwood’s dystopian fiction and its TV and Film adaptations to model strategies and social issues of social concern. 16 academics who are affiliated with CCSU [were] featured.
- “The second book deals with New Perspectives on the War Film, co-edited with Clémentine Tholas and Janis L. Goldie (Palgrave…). This volume addresses the perspectives of marginalized groups who have been written out of the script of mainstream war history.”

Works in progress include TerrorScapes which engages with the representation of terrorism in film and television…and a book on Black Panther: Afro-Futurism, Gender, Identity and the Re-Making of Blackness…
Dr. Ritzenhoff has edited a number of books, including:
- Border Visions: Diaspora and Identity in Film (with Jakub Kazecki and Cynthia Miller, 2013)
- Selling Sex on Screen: From Weimar Cinema to Zombie Porn (with Catriona McAvoy, 2015)
- Screening the Dark Side of Love: From Euro-Horror to American Cinema (with Karen Randell, 2012) and
- Apocalypse in Film: Dystopias, Disasters, and Other Visions about the End of the World (with Angela Krewani, 2015).
“She has been co-Chair of the Women’s Caucus at the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS) from 2015 to 2019 and is now co-Chair of the SCMS Special Interest Group on “War and Media Studies” with Stacy Takacs. In addition to war studies, future research will continue to center on the films by Stanley Kubrick.
“During her one year sabbatical from teaching in 2018/2019, Ritzenhoff discovered a new passion for painting in oil, acrylics and water color. Her first show completed the sabbatical with “Morocco Memories” at the Serendipity Gallery in Litchfield, CT in June 2019, featuring pictures and photographs from a trip to Marrakesh and Essaouira in the winter 2019.” See her website.
— CCSU — LMO, Editor

MARK YOUR CALENDAR NOW for the online launch of “If America Fails?: The Coming Tyranny.” Join us for a SNEAK PEEK – Thursday, October 14, 2021, 8:00 pm ET in the Zoom chatroom; or WATCH the LIVE CHAT on the TruthWorks Network YouTube Channel or Black Women in the Prism Facebook page.

CONTACT US “If America Fails?: The Coming Tyranny” for access to the Zoom chatroom—L. Michelle Odom, Senior Producer
LMOdom@OurCommonGround.com or TWN@TruthWorksNetwork.com
Watch Thursdays, 8 pm ET, January 13 to April 7, 2022, on the TruthWorks Network YouTube Channel. All Are Welcome!
SEE Guest Bio | Karen A. Ritzenhoff, Professor, Department of Communication, Central Connecticut State University