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Behind The Scenes: Uncovering Violence, Gender, And Powerful Pedagogy [Dialogue: The Interdiscplinary Journal Of Popular Culture And Pedogogy, Volume 5, Issue 3 (October 2018)], Anna S. Cohenmiller

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Behind the Scenes: Uncovering Violence, Gender, and Powerful Pedagogy [Dialogue: The Interdiscplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedogogy, Volume 5, Issue 3 (October 2018)]

Editorial

Persistent Need to Look behind the Curtain, Anna S. CohenMiller

Articles

Grounded Aesthetics: Pedagogy for a Post-Truth Era, Becca Cragin

We All Have Jobs Here: Teaching and Learning with Multiple Intelligences in The Walking Dead, Elizabeth Gartley

A Gendered Perspective on Policing Violence in Happy Valley and Fargo, T. Allen Culpepper

The Many Faces of Foley: A Journey of Discovery and Influence on Professional Wrestling, Adam Michael Nicks

A Gendered Perspective On Policing Violence In Happy Valley And Fargo, T. Allen Culpepper

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Portrayal of a police officer determined to fight crime and execute justice in a harsh, isolated environment has become a television and film subgenre, often featuring women facing gender-related challenges. The issues raised in Sally Wainwright’s British television series Happy Valley, can be made more accessible, particularly to American undergraduate students, via its commonalities with the Coen brothers film Fargo. In both, a tough but compassionate policewoman pursues the more sociopathic of a pair of criminals involved in a botched kidnapping attempt instigated by an inept businessman, taking on the case for personal and professional honor, and as …

Reading Into Creativity: New Approaches In Concept And Practice [Dialogue, Volume 5, Issue 2 (June 2018)], Anna S. Cohenmiller, Kurt Depner

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Reading into Creativity: New Approaches in Concept and Practice [Dialogue: The Interdiscplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedogogy, Volume 5, Issue 2 (June 2018)]

Editorial

Embracing Changes and Creativity in Popular Culture and Pedagogy, Anna S. CohenMiller and Kurt Depner

Working with Students

Teaching Technical Writing through Designing and Running Escape Rooms, Marijel (Maggie) Melo and Antonnet

Johnson Deconstructing "Proper Condom Use" as an Introduction to Literary Analysis, Julie Stewart, Tom Clark, and Marilyn Clark

Working with Teachers

The Stonewall Books: LGBTQ-Themed Young Adult Novels as Semiotic Beacons, Marcos Antuna, Janis Harmon, Roxanne Henkin, Karen Wood, and Kyle Kester

Working …

The Stonewall Books: Lgbtq-Themed Young Adult Novels As Semiotic Beacons, Marcos Antuna, Janis Harmon, Roxanne L. Henkin, Karen Wood, Kyle Kester

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

In a society where the LGBTQ community continues to feel the stings of prejudice and discrimination, a straightforward means of conveying accurate information about LGBTQ student lives is urgently needed. The Stonewall Awards, an annual literary prize for “exceptional merit relating to the gay/lesbian/bisexual/ transgender experience” (American Library Association, 2016), has the potential to serve as an appropriate semiotic beacon for both the acceptance of LGBTQ students as well as LGBTQ self-affirmation. This study investigated the perceptions of secondary school students and future high school teachers toward two Stonewall Award-winning novels. The findings revealed obvious similarities as well as critical …

Deconstructing "Proper Condom Use" As An Introduction To Literary Analysis, Julie Stewart, Thomas D. Clark, Marilyn Clark

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Popular culture figures in television, movies, comics, and video games have captured the imaginations of young people. The themes and characters of shows students watch regularly help shape their views on contemporary issues, especially as they compare their personal experiences with those portrayed on their favorite shows. This paper examines how "Proper Condom Use," an episode of South Park, one of the most popular shows among young viewers, can be used as a springboard for in-class discussion of tools for literary analysis through an exposition of this episode’s visual and aural humor, themes, characters, audience, and genre.

Our experience …

Teaching Technical Writing Through Designing And Running Escape Rooms, Marijel (Maggie) Melo, Antonnet Johnson

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

While many instructors recognize how the integration of popular culture and student interests can enhance student engagement and learning, this pedagogical approach remains rare in technical writing courses. In this article, we provide an end-to-end outline of an escape room project assigned to junior and senior level undergraduates, including an overview of our pedagogical rationale, institutional context, instructional materials, and synthesis of work produced by students. By collaborating on a range of technical documentation, students learn through experience that can be leveraged beyond the classroom and in their professional pursuits. Moreover, we aim to provide teachers with an example of …

Considering Ethical Questions In (Non)Fiction: Reading And Writing About Graphic Novels, Gene Mcquillan

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Teachers often feature graphic novels in college courses, and recent research notes how these texts can help make the process of reading more engaging as well as more complex. Graphic novels help enhance a variety of “literacies;” they offer bold representations of people dealing with trauma or marginalization; they explore how “texts” can be re-invented; they exemplify how verbal and visual texts are often adapted; they are ideal primers for introducing basic concepts of “post-modernism.” However, two recurring textual complications in graphic novels can pose difficulties for students who are writing about ethical questions. First, graphic novels often present crucial …

“This Cabal Guy Could Be Right”: Numeric Correlations In Maury Yeston’S In The Beginning, Leonard Vandegrift

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

The study of gematria and isopsephy, the numeric conversion of Hebrew and Greek words, yields an abundant harvest of biblical insight. Though applying this method to more secular literature is rare, we have a unique set of circumstances in Maury Yeston’s musical In the Beginning that renders its use appropriate. Derived from Hebrew and Greek, the names of the show’s principal characters can be converted to numeric values, all of which share at least one of three common factors. Moreover, the names are often connected thematically, and their factors reflect key elements in the first five books of the Bible. …

Using Popular Culture In The Classroom In High Schools And Universities, Laurence Raw

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Reviews of:

Edward Janak and Ludovic A. Sourdot, editors. Educating through Popular Culture: You’re Not Cool Just Because You Teach through Comics. Lexington Books, 2017. Hardback, 341 pages. ISBN: 9781498549372.

David Buckingham, editor. Teaching Popular Culture: Beyond Radical Pedagogy. Routledge, 1998. Paperback, 207 pages. ISBN: 1857287932.

Elana Reiser. Teaching Mathematics Using Popular Culture. McFarland, 2005. Paperback, 235 pages. ISBN: 9780786477067.

Lan Dong, editor. Teaching Comics and Graphic Narratives: Essays on Theory, Strategy, and Practice. McFarland, 2012. Paperback, 272 pages. ISBN: 9780786462462.

Applications In The Classroom: Teaching Disney/Pixar’S Inside Out Within The Tradition Of Allegorical Personification, Jason John Gulya

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Several years ago, I noticed that the widespread distinction between high and low culture was wreaking havoc on my classroom. My students would read and analyze texts like Robinson Crusoe and Pride and Prejudice with little to no prompting because (in their minds) these texts were already part of the recognized canon and it was therefore permissible to pick them apart and analyze them closely. But I would get strange looks when I asked undergraduates to think critically about how the mock-news programs The Daily Show and The Colbert Report worked or when I asked them to discuss how the …

Four Decades, Three Songs, Too Much Violence: Using Popular Culture Media Analysis To Prepare Preservice Teachers For Dealing With School Violence, Edward Janak, Lisa Pescara-Kovach

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Since teacher education has morphed from normal schools into colleges of education, the goals of preparing teachers have expanded. While it is essential to prepare teachers to utilize scientifically proven methods as well as to read and use research in the field, there are ever-expanding other goals that must be met as well. For one example, with the increase of school violence taking place in the United States, it is imperative to include preparation for preservice teachers on how to prevent bullying and how to handle traumatic events, such as school shootings, with their future students. However, broaching such a …

Hyping The Hyperreal: Postmodern Visual Dynamics In Amy Heckerling’S Clueless, Andrew Urie

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

An iconic staple of 1990s Hollywood cinema, director-screenwriter Amy Heckerling’s Clueless (1995) is a cult classic. This article examines the film’s postmodern visual dynamics, which parody hyperreal media culture and its connection to feminine teen consumerism amidst the image-saturated society of mid-’90s era Los Angeles.

More Than Simple Plagiarism: Ligotti, Pizzolatto, And True Detective’S Terrestrial Horror, Jonathan Elmore

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Of course, True Detective is neither a philosopher’s bedtime story nor supernatural horror, and yet there remains a productive affinity between Ligotti’s work and the HBO series. Where Ligotti provides substantial portions of the hallmark character’s identity and dialogue, True Detective puts Ligotti’s thought experiment to far more practical uses than does Ligotti himself. By intertwining hurricanes and flooding alongside industry and pollution into the background and negative space of the setting, the series implicates the urgent material reality of climate change and environmental collapse into the setting: “all of this is going to be under water in thirty years” …

Eastern Imaginaries, Erika Quinn

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Orientalist tropes shaped Western ideas about the East in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries through travelogues and fiction, and have persisted into the twenty-first. One central set -piece of these stereotypes is the imaginary Eastern European country, “Ruritania.” The advantages and drawbacks of such an imagined place are explored more thoroughly through two recent pieces of pop culture, Wes Anderson’s film “The Grand Budapest Hotel”, and China Miéville’s novel The City and the City. While Anderson’s film entertains and sustains Orientalist stereotypes, Miéville’s novel demands the reader go deeper to empathize with characters and grapple with key issues about …

Adapting Our Approaches: (In)Formal Learning, Stereotypes, And Traumas [Dialogue, Volume 3, Issue 2 (Fall 2016)], Lynnea Chapman King, Anna S. Cohenmiller

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Adapting Our Approaches: (In)Formal Learning, Stereotypes, and Traumas [Dialogue, Volume 3, Issue 2 (Fall 2016)]

Editorial, Lynnea Chapman King and A.S. CohenMiller

Guest Editorial

Binarisms, Adaptation, and Love: Albuquerque 2016, Laurence Raw

Formal and Informal Learning

The Power of Books: Teachers’ Changing Perspectives about Using Young Adult Books to Teach Social Justice, Janis M. Harmon and Roxanne Henkin

High Culture as Entertainment”: Hybrid Reading Practices in a Live Book Club, Magnus Persson

From the Vertical to the Horizontal: Introducing Mikhail Epstein’s Transculture to Perplexed Educators, Sheldon Kohn

Stereotypes and Reality

The Diyinii of Naachid: Navajo Rhetoric as Ritual, Edward …

Review Of Love Between The Covers By Laurie Kahn (Blueberry Hill Productions, 2015), Lexey A. Bartlett

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

A review of Love Between the Covers by Laurie Kahn (Blueberry Hill Productions, 2015).

Destructive Plasticity, “Surplus Of Consciousness,” And The “Monster” In True Detective, Courtney Patrick-Weber

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

The first season of HBO's cult hit True Detective introduced viewers to a southern gothic murder mystery that many will not easily forget. Since many of us focused primarily on the whodunit narrative, we may have missed the narrative of trauma simmering under the surface of the story. This narrative of trauma reveals a deeper layer to the story between Detective Rust Cohle and serial killer Errol Childress, one that also reveals our own fears regarding trauma in our lives. By applying first the nihilist philosophies of Peter Zapffe with Cohle and Catherine Malabou's concept on destructive plasticity in Childress, …

The Roots Of Authoritarianism In Amc’S The Walking Dead, Adam M. Crowley

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

AMC’s The Walking Dead (2010- ) is a unique artifact in the twenty-first century’s expansive catalogue of undead-themed entertainments. To date, the show’s producers, commentators, and critics have noted the relevance of psychological trauma to the series. If the experience of realistic psychological trauma is relevant to The Walking Dead, then it should be possible for critics to articulate detailed assessments of the particular kinds of traumatic experiences that are foregrounded in the program. Trauma is, after all, an extremely nuanced and highly theorized facet of the human condition. This paper provides one such assessment and considers the significance …

The Diyinii Of Naachid: Diné Rhetoric As Ritual, Edward L. Karshner

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Rhetoric is far more than a theory of communication or the antiquated ancestor of freshman composition courses. As a system, rhetoric is the process that directs, on the one hand, individual experiences with the world and structures, and on the other, the stories cultures tell about themselves. These foundational narratives (myths) reveal a culture’s metaphysical understanding of the nature of reality, the psychological understanding of human nature, and the epistemological notion of what can be known. Using the Diné Bahané, this paper will explore Diné rhetoric as naachid, an inclusive, outward-directed communication model of problem solving which functions …

From The Vertical To The Horizontal: Introducing Mikhail Epstein’S Transculture To Perplexed Educators, Sheldon S. Kohn

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

A shift in focus from supporting or opposing vertical, grand narratives to the horizontal, the ordinary and the everyday, can lead educators to transformative developments. Educators find themselves in a false dichotomy of being restricted to supporting or opposing competing vertical utopian visions of education. Mikhail Epstein’s ideas about transculture can help perplexed educators make a shift from the vertical to the horizontal, focusing their praxis and pedagogy on the ordinary and the everyday, including objects and artifacts of popular culture. In a radical move, Epstein argues that commodification represents resistance to totalitarian controls and impulses; he urges educators to …

“High Culture As Entertainment”: Hybrid Reading Practices In A Live Book Club, Magnus Persson

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

The Bushwick Book Club (BBC) is a live book club in which invited pop musicians perform musical interpretations of a predetermined literary work in a nightclub environment. What can a typical BBC show, with its strong emphasis on popular music and performance, teach readers about the uses of literature? This case study will investigate which reading practices are at work and in what ways they challenge traditional ideas of the forms, functions, and values of reading. Another important aspect concerns how the borders between high and popular culture, and between the printed word and other media are renegotiated. Based on …

The Power Of Books: Teachers’ Changing Perspectives About Using Young Adult Books To Teach Social Justice, Janis Harmon, Roxanne L. Henkin

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

This study examined teachers’ knowledge about social justice and their perspectives and understandings about the use of young adult books to teach social justice. The participants were 14 graduate students in a graduate literacy course. The course provided learning experiences about social justice, including the use of young adult books. These learning experiences were designed to deepen students’ understanding of how to address social justice issues with students in the elementary, middle and high school classrooms. Using qualitative measures, the researchers found changes in participants’ understanding of social justice and the use of young adult books as a powerful resource …

Binarisms, Adaptation, And Love: Albuquerque 2016, Laurence Raw

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

I was fortunate enough recently to attend the Southwest Popular Culture Association meeting in Albuquerque, New Mexico in February 2016. This was the third time I had attended the conference; I find it rather unique in its capacity to embrace academics and graduate learners in a non-threatening ambiance, where participants genuinely try to help each other rather than to try and score cheap scholarly methodological points for their own personal self-gratification.

Connecting The Disconnected: Pedagogy Goes Digital Native, Kurt Depner

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

We must redefine online pedagogy as here to stay. Is it any wonder that popular culture pedagogy is moving more from a focus on liberation pedagogy to a commodity based one? While traditional “brick and mortar” course enrollment has flattened or even dropped recently, online courses continue to see increased enrollments. In the case of the university system I’m in, we’ve seen an overall drop in enrollment of 10-15% since 2010 but an increase in online sections of over 30%, and we know the reason, in most cases: as tuition increases and salaries remain flat, more students are forced into …

A Pedagogical Journey: Albuquerque 2015, Laurence Raw

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

The subject of pedagogy and popular culture has assumed increasing significance in academic circles, especially since the publication of Phil Benson’s and Alice Chik’s anthology Popular Culture, Pedagogy and Teacher Education (2014), a series of interventions discussing how popular culture can be implemented in a variety of teaching situations across the globe. The book offers valuable insights into how popular culture can inspire learners through materials drawn from everyday life but tends to avoid essential questions such as what constitutes popular cultural material (and how it differs from other textual forms) and what learning outcomes might be accomplished through its …

Applications In The Classroom: Pop Culture And Ed Psychology: What I Learned From Larry David, Rick Grimes, And Hank Hill, Melissa Vosen Callens

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

In teacher education courses, it is common to teach educational psychology concepts using case studies. Many publishers provide these case studies in textbooks and/or in ancillary materials, and there are many advantages to using them. For example, an instructor does not have to spend extra time finding or writing the case studies, both of which can be very time consuming. In addition, if students have the textbook, they have immediate access. One major disadvantage, however, is that students may find themselves uninterested and disengaged with the cases, depending on the students’ interests and the cases. This paper argues that studying …

Applications In The Classroom: The Potential Of Scholarly Studies In Harry Potter In Higher Education, Anne Collins Smith

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Of what use is a book about the Harry Potter series that was published before the series was complete? Having taught an upper-division college course on Philosophy in Harry Potter multiple times, I believe that the early publication of Scholarly Studies in Harry Potter actually increases its potential utility in the classroom. Not only does this book include thoughtful and insightful scholarship, but it is also pedagogically valuable. It raises thought-provoking topics that can serve as the basis for research papers and class presentations, as well as providing important resources for students to use while conducting such research.

A Framework For Using Popular Music Videos To Teach Media Literacy, Jordan M. Mcclain

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

This article discusses the use of popular music videos as a tool for teaching media literacy. First, the article addresses the importance of music videos as popular culture, what other music video research has examined, and what features make music videos a good fit for in-class work investigating media and popular culture. Then the article details a single-class activity for introducing and teaching media literacy through the use of music videos. To achieve this objective, the article also proposes a set of original music video-specific discussion questions. Finally, a particular music video is considered to illustrate possible results of this …

Lady Gaga Meets Ritzer: Using Music To Teach Sociological Theory, Kenneth Culton, José A. Muñoz

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

This paper presents methods for instructors to deal with student anxiety over theory courses. The method is an interactive class exercise that provides instructors with direction as to using popular music. The paper accomplishes this through the use of several cases for including music in order to spark discussion and suggestions for helping students to interpret the theory presented. Additionally, suggestions for incorporating writing assignments with the exercise are provided here. A table linking music to a theorist is also provided.

Reflections On Building A Popular Writing Course, Emily Howson, Chris Massenburg, Cecilia Shelton

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Composition pedagogy has typically employed traditional academic texts in the instruction of first-year writing courses. In this article, three first-year writing instructors reflect on their experiences employing popular culture artifacts in lieu of more traditional academic texts in writing classrooms at a small, private, historically black institution (HBCU). By retrospectively analyzing the intersections between theory and practice, the instructors’ autoethnographic reflections explore the utility of popular culture artifacts as tools for teaching and learning writing, with an emphasis on rhetorical knowledge and transfer. Though preliminary, their conclusions point to the potential of popular culture for integration into traditional best practices …