“A ‘Normal’ Life”: Red Dwarf, Temporality, And The Neuroqueer Absurd,
2025
University at Albany, State University of New York
“A ‘Normal’ Life”: Red Dwarf, Temporality, And The Neuroqueer Absurd, Gretchen B. Graf
Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)
The science fiction series Red Dwarf, beginning in 1988 and broadcasting sporadically over the past nearly four decades, takes place more than three million years in the future where human beings have gone extinct. All, that is, except one; the show’s central character, Dave Lister, is the last known living human being in the universe, outliving humanity by remaining in stasis during a radiation leak that killed the rest of the crew of the titular mining ship. Besides Lister, the narrative also focuses on the nonhuman beings that keep him company. Besides residing in the genre of science fiction, …
A Monstrous [Un]-Becoming: Defining The Final Boy,
2025
Georgia Southern University
A Monstrous [Un]-Becoming: Defining The Final Boy, Rhys Crumpton
College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations
Through an exploration of horror theory, monster theory, queer theory, and disabilities studies, this thesis defines a 21st century archetype within the serial horror narrative, known as “the Final Boy.” This character is a manifestation of a queer, often neurodivergent man in peril at the hands of a monstrous society. This harmful socionormativity is narratively represented by a monster wearing the face of a man, one whom the Final Boy must subdue and overcome if he wishes to survive. The seven tenets found in this project highlight the fluctuating morality the Final Boy is forced to engage in per the …
Not The Absentminded Professor: Autistic Experience And Representation In Academia,
2024
Ohio Dominican University
Not The Absentminded Professor: Autistic Experience And Representation In Academia, Martin Brick
Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture
While there are many facets of a career in academia that may be amendable to autistics, the discipline also presents a number of challenges. These hardships can be exacerbated by misunderstandings or even discrimination from colleagues and administrator with pre-existing assumptions of autistic behavior erroneously based on media representations. This essay will examine literary and television representations of autistics working in university settings to argue that the nature of such portrayals negatively impacts the popular view of autistic scholars. Comedy is frequently used to highlight social awkwardness and other behavioral deviance, perpetuating Damian Milton’s double-empathy problem.
Attack On Titan Anime Memes: Possible Meanings And Interpretations By Young Adults.,
2024
UCSI University, Malaysia
Attack On Titan Anime Memes: Possible Meanings And Interpretations By Young Adults., Yee-Lin Teo, Sze Seau Lee, Xin Jie Lim
Journal of Media Literacy Education
Memes have unpredictable and diverse interpretations because of their tendencies to be parodies, remixes, or mashups. This study aims to examine the possible meanings which memes may express and the interpretations of memes by young adults within the affinity space of Attack on Titan anime memes. The two-phase methodology involves analysing the memes using Shifman’s analytical dimensions of content, form, and stance, before conducting in-depth interviews with ten young adults who represent insiders and outsiders of the affinity space. The findings discuss how Attack on Titan memes normalise sexualisation, violence, and struggles such as suicidal intentions in young adults. The …
Conversations With Neighbors,
2024
Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism
Conversations With Neighbors, Tatiana Pinheiro
Capstones
Conversations with Neighbors is a series of conversations that aim to explore the depths of our neighborhoods here in NYC. It’s a place where history, culture and location unite to connect with the people and experiences we often miss in plain sight.
Translating A Culture: How Subtitles In Popular Tv Shows Friends And La Que Se Avecina (The One That Looms) Maintain National Culture Within Translations,
2024
Bellarmine University
Translating A Culture: How Subtitles In Popular Tv Shows Friends And La Que Se Avecina (The One That Looms) Maintain National Culture Within Translations, Abigail Lamkin
Undergraduate Theses
This study aims to determine the best ways for comedy-based TV shows to be translated so their cultural significance can be maintained while also becoming a piece of media that is enjoyed across linguistic barriers. Data was gathered from the TV shows Friends and La que se avecina and analyzed through comparison with one another. Analysis reveals both shows use unique techniques as a result of the specific challenges subtitle translators faced for the shows, but in general, focusing on one aspect of the translation over another would prevent the audience from enjoying the show. Friends's translations rely on …
Extra-Terrestrial: A Television Pilot Script,
2024
Kennesaw State University
Extra-Terrestrial: A Television Pilot Script, Landon Adams
Symposium of Student Scholars
How do you make a home out of a place you don’t feel welcomed? This is the plight of Beatrix Ivy, a passionate fashionista, humanoid-martian who dreams of opening her own fashion business. The only issue: fashion does not exist on Mars. She impulsively decides to ditch her hypercritical mother in pursuit of Planet Earth. Destination? Paris, France. However, a GPS malfunction lands her in the unknown town of Paris, Georgia. Mistaken for a drag queen, Beatrix is met with hostility from the bigoted locals, including local darling SunRay, an equally talented fashion designer. Beatrix eventually finds companionship in a …
Conglomeration, Digital Disruption, And Covid-19: Upheaval-Driven Changes To The Roles Of U.S. Local Television News Directors,
2024
Chapman University
Conglomeration, Digital Disruption, And Covid-19: Upheaval-Driven Changes To The Roles Of U.S. Local Television News Directors, Suzanne Lysak, Keren Henderson
Film and Media Arts Faculty Articles and Research
This mixed methods study analyzes how broadcast news directors renegotiate their roles under organizational and cultural times of change. Even before COVID-19, local television news directors, one of the two predominant groups of journalism managers in the United States, were experiencing shifts in roles related to their growing work responsibilities. These changes were the result of long-term workplace upheavals including conglomeration and digital disruption. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, news directors found themselves managing through this additional, short-term upheaval. The authors of this study sought to discover how industry upheavals impact broadcast newsroom management roles.
The Odyssey And Its Odyssey In Contemporary Texts: Re-Visions In Star Trek, The Time Traveler’S Wife, And The Penelopiad,
2024
Ryerson University
The Odyssey And Its Odyssey In Contemporary Texts: Re-Visions In Star Trek, The Time Traveler’S Wife, And The Penelopiad, Mary Economou Bailey Green
Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy
Homer’s The Odyssey is the archetypal quest story. The dialogue began with Homer, and contemporary texts and popular culture media have continued the tradition of deconstructing and recreating stories, addressing issues related to the human psyche. As Hardwick and Stray note, the relationship between ancient and modern is “not merely inherited but constantly made and remade,” one that we see in the following varied genres and versions that retell the Odyssean myth, relating re-visions of characters, relationships, structures, and themes. The original Star Trek episode “Who Mourns for Adonais” is an allegory of the Odyssean quest for human knowledge, while …
Three Characters And Me(Me): Positioning Popular Culture To Unpack Emerging Teacher Identity,
2024
State University of New York College at Cortland
Three Characters And Me(Me): Positioning Popular Culture To Unpack Emerging Teacher Identity, Gillian E. Mertens, Henry (Cody) C. Miller
Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy
In this article we narrate an instructional practice we implemented in two different teacher education courses that facilitated conversations about teacher identity through the use of fictional characters who were educators. This practice served two purposes in our course work: firstly, this activity presents students with an opportunity to demonstrate their media interests and career goals; secondly, this activity provides a quick, baseline assessment of how aspiring teachers view their profession and future practice. We detail student responses to this activity and consider how their choices of fictional educators fit into broader patterns we see in popular culture, specifically depictions …
Ways Of Decoloniality By The Painted Lady: Avatar: The Last Airbender’S Katara Demonstrates How To Revive A Community In Ecological Distress Brought By The Colonial Expansion Of The Fire Nation,
2024
Texas Tech University
Ways Of Decoloniality By The Painted Lady: Avatar: The Last Airbender’S Katara Demonstrates How To Revive A Community In Ecological Distress Brought By The Colonial Expansion Of The Fire Nation, Jose Santos P. Ardivilla
Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy
In the third episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender’s Book 3: The Book Of Fire, the “Gaang” consisting of Avatar Aang, Toph, Sokka, and Katara chanced upon a fishing village on stilts,ravaged by the pollution of its waterways. The pollution comes from the industrial activity of the Colonial Masters’ Fire Nation which greatly affected the village. This animation is from Nickelodeon, a channel geared for children’s entertainment, thus implicates humorous asides in what purports to be a serious epicurean reclaiming of a lost balance through indigenous visual culture, solidarity, media studies, and ecocriticism. Katara disguises herself as …
Gender, Age, Class And Racial Stereotypes, And Power Relations In Television Ads: 2011-13 Vs 2021-22,
2024
Xavier University
Gender, Age, Class And Racial Stereotypes, And Power Relations In Television Ads: 2011-13 Vs 2021-22, Thomas D. Clark, Julie Stewart
Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy
This article demonstrates how faculty and DEI experts can use resources included in this paper to highlight how a range of stereotypes are created and reinforced in television ads, and it identifies several topics for future analysis. To understand how depictions of gender, class, age, and race intersect in 8 television ads featuring the relationship between the race of individuals depicted in romantic and platonic relationships this article examines 4 pairs of commercials from 2011-2013 and 2021-2022. Drawing on concepts of intercategorical complexity, it describes product, setting, characters and relationships to help gain a deeper understanding of how various stereotypes …
Mixedness Comes Of Age: Learning From Multiracial Portrayals In Young Adult Tv Series,
2024
Ohio State University
Mixedness Comes Of Age: Learning From Multiracial Portrayals In Young Adult Tv Series, Marc P. Johnston-Guerrero, Lisa Delacruz Combs
Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy
Representation in literature, popular culture, and media has been shown to influence identity development and belonging as exemplified in the enduring hashtag #RepresentationMatters. However, mixed race representation on television has received little attention in research and scholarship. Hence, this essay examines how multiracial characters are portrayed in coming of age and young adult storylines from four TV series (All American, Charmed, Trinkets, and Dear White Peoples) representing two different networks (Netflix and The CW). Through a close reading of dialogue within the context of larger story arcs, we identify and critique common tropes in order …
Cake And Conclusions: Rhetorical Roots In “Sheetcaking” And Fallacious Community Responses,
2024
University of Colorado, Boulder
Cake And Conclusions: Rhetorical Roots In “Sheetcaking” And Fallacious Community Responses, Marissa Lammon
Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy
The convergence of politics and comedy within political entertainment has created a new environment, dissemination of information, and formation of public opinion. In response to white nationalist rallies, comedian Tina Fey utilized her political comedy platform to satirically comment on the inaction of several privileged consumers. Community response to the satirical skit reflected the complexity of satire as rhetorical strategy, notably when present online and within popular culture discourse, and the cognitive demands that result in fallacious tendencies. The following examines the fallacies that arise in response to Fey’s satirical message and the implications for political entertainment media.
Pop Culture And Politics: Engaging Students In American Government Through Art, Music, And Film,
2024
University of Indianapolis
Pop Culture And Politics: Engaging Students In American Government Through Art, Music, And Film, Laura Merrifield Wilson
Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy
Strategically and thoughtfully employing popular culture in teaching political science can enable students to better understand, analyze, and relate to the material. In a discipline that can be viewed by students as too boring, too distant, and too polarizing, the use of relevant music, TV/film clips, toys, memes, and other popular culture artifacts can engage otherwise unengaged students in a meaningful way. This paper argues that using popular culture in teaching political science can demonstrate relevance, serve as a generational translator, expose the bias of experience, and enable an expression of self. In demonstrating relevance, popular culture makes material fresh …
A Heartbeat Away: Popular Culture’S Role In Teaching Presidential Succession,
2024
Daemen College
A Heartbeat Away: Popular Culture’S Role In Teaching Presidential Succession, Jay L. Wendland
Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy
The role of popular culture in civic education is important. Many television viewers learn about the American political process through various dramatized depictions. The 25th Amendment has often received much attention from Hollywood, as it provides writers, directors, and producers a tool with which to further dramatize presidential succession. Through the television shows West Wing, Designated Survivor, Commander in Chief, Madam Secretary, and Political Animals, viewers are exposed to storylines revolving around the 25th Amendment. By viewing these dramatized versions of presidential succession, viewers are better able to understand the process and political science instructors …
Afrosurrealism, Aristotle, And Racial Presence In Netflix’S Luke Cage,
2024
Texas Christian University
Afrosurrealism, Aristotle, And Racial Presence In Netflix’S Luke Cage, Angela D. Mack
Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy
This essay examines Netflix’s Luke Cage as a rhetorical reading of racial embodiment and productions of the cultural identity of Blackness and People of Color, and the tensions they produce to help audiences understand the current climatic flux between racial hostility and American idealism. With only two seasons in the small-screen version of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), Cheo Hodari Coker’s adaptation of the 1970s Blaxploitation Power Man comic foregrounded the recent wave of superhero narratives that expanded minority/gender representation from both major comic houses (MCU and DC Extended Universe [DCEU]). This examination employs the lens of Afrosurrealism, a conceptual …
Guest Editorial: Cruel Summer,
2024
San Jose State University
Guest Editorial: Cruel Summer, Travis D. Boyce
Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy
2020 has been one of the most eventful and consequential years in the United States as well as around the world. Along with COVID-19, the sociopolitical climate that has allowed White supremacy and cruelty to thrive consequently resulted in a Cruel Summer. As we reflect on this Cruel Summer, popular culture can serve as a powerful lens to understand history as well as our contemporary world. We must remain vigilant and use our scholarship to push back against anti-Black racism and White supremacy. I look forward to your thoughts on this issue and hope you enjoy, Engaged Popular …
“No Te Voy A Dejar Nunca”: Culture And Second Language Acquisition For Survival In Fear The Walking Dead,
2024
University of Georgia
“No Te Voy A Dejar Nunca”: Culture And Second Language Acquisition For Survival In Fear The Walking Dead, Sharon M. Nuruddin
Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy
Popular culture reinforces and shapes the beliefs and values of the individual, the community, and the masses. It can also transmit hidden messages about aspects of human behavior that are reiterated in scholarly research. In the field of education, particularly in world language teacher education, film and television can be used as an effective tool for examining how we acquire a second language. Using a symbolic convergence theory perspective (SCT) (Bormann, 1972), I employ Sellnow’s (2014) three-step process for the rhetorical analyses of mediated popular culture texts to reveal “covert messages” (p. 9) within the popular American Movie Channel (AMC) …
“I Am A Conversation”: Media Literacy, Queer Pedagogy, And Steven Universe In College Curriculum,
2024
University of New Mexico
“I Am A Conversation”: Media Literacy, Queer Pedagogy, And Steven Universe In College Curriculum, Misty Thomas
Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy
The recent cartoon show on Cartoon Network Steven Universe allows for the blending of both queer theory and media literacies to create a pedagogical space for students to investigate and analyze not only queerness, but also normative and non-normative identities. This show creates characters as well as relationships that both break with and subvert what would be considered traditional masculine and feminine identities. Additionally, Steven Universe also creates a space where sexuality and transgender bodies are represented. This paper demonstrates both the presence of queerness within the show and the pedagogical implications for using this piece of media within a …
