Rachel Shteir is the author of three books: Striptease: The Untold History of the Girlie Show (Oxford University Press, 2004), Gypsy: the Art of the Tease (Yale University Press, 2009), and The Steal: A Cultural History of Shoplifting (The Penguin Press, 2011).
Striptease won the George Freedley Memorial Award and Gypsy was a San Francisco Chronicle Lit Pick. Rachel has also written for magazines, newspapers and blogs, including American Theatre, Bookforum, The Daily, The New York Times, Slate, The Guardian, Playboy, Los Angeles Times Magazine, Chicago Magazine, The Huffington Post, Chicago Tribune, (the late) New York Newsday, (the late) Lingua Franca, The Nation, Tablet, Theatre, The Village Voice and The Washington Post. Rachel also writes "The Rahm Report," a column about Rahm Emanuel for Tabletmag.com.
Rachel has lectured widely on popular culture and theatre and is often quoted in the national media. She is the recipient of six Yaddo residencies as well as MacDowell and Ragdale Colony residencies.
Rachel is Associate Professor at the Theatre School at DePaul University. Before going to Chicago in 2000, she taught at Yale, Carnegie Mellon University, NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, the Columbia University School of the Arts and the National Theatre Institute. Rachel holds a BA from the University of Chicago in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, and an MFA and DFA in Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism from the Yale School of Drama.
