Shannan L. Hayes is theorist of feminist theory, cultural studies, and aesthetics & politics. Her research primarily operates in a Marxist feminist and critical phenomenology framework as she investigates the politics of contemporary feminist art, and aesthetics more broadly, in the context of late capitalism.  

Shannan has taught undergraduate courses in studio art, writing, visual cultural studies, and women’s and gender studies since 2006. In addition to classroom teaching, she has led tours as the Mellon Teaching Fellow at the Nasher Museum of Art and served for four years as the site coordinator and academic instructor of an 8-week race and gender social justice themed immersive learning program in New York City called The Moxie Project. 

Her publications include a forthcoming John Hopkins University critical keywords entry for "Feminism 4: Marxist Feminism," the 2020 article "Wanting More" in the feminist cultural studies journal differences, the 2019 article “Counterpublic and Counterprivate: Zoe Leonard, David Wojnarowicz, and the Political Aesthetics of Intimacy” (co-authored with Max Symuleski) in Women & Performance, and the 2013 article “Justice Regained: The Objects and Lessons of Object Lessons” in Feminist Formations. She defended her dissertation in March of 2020 from the Programs in Literature and Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies at Duke University, with the generous support of the 2019-20 Hurford Center Pre-Doctoral Fellowship at Haverford.

Shannan will be teaching Applied Political Ethics and Social Change & Institutions in Peace Justice and Human Rights in the fall, and Real Work & Dream Jobs: Visual Representations and Theories of Work and Feminist Aesthetics: Melodrama in Visual Studies in the spring.