I research digital media and social media. Specifically I use trauma, loss and grief to examine how digital and social media enable certain forms of coping and community formation. As such, my work touches on cultural studies, media studies, gender studies, disability studies and is interdisciplinary. My first book looks at Twitter, Instagram and other internet spaces to examine how communities form and mediate trauma at multiple levels, from direct trauma to what I call symbolic trauma. My current research looks at how loss and grief are mediated online, particularly during times of uncertainty. In addition, current research examines affect and embodiment for suffering bodies, specifically through studies of the language and representation used in digital fitness platforms.
keywords
Trauma and Digital Media, Social Media, Popular culture and health, Disability and Media, Gender Studies, Feminist Pedagogy, grief, ambiguous grief, digital fitness, health and fitness in media, social media and fitness, grief and movement
CMCI 1040 - Foundational Concepts and Creativity in Communication, Media, Design and Informat
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Fall 2021 / Spring 2022 / Fall 2022
Provides first-year students with an understanding of key principles and practices used in the fields of media, communication and information. Develops insight into processes of storytelling, conversation, information, design and images as foundational to learning in communication, media, design and information, and supports students in learning to use creativity and multiple modes of expression to produce projects relevant to a range of disciplines across the college. Formerly CMCI 1040.
MDST 2002 - Media and Communication History
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2019
Examines the historical development of communication forms, tools, technologies and institutions (orality, writing, printing, photography, film, radio, television, computers, internet); their influence on culture (forms of expression and social relationships); and their impact on social and individual experience. Applies knowledge of communication history to contemporary social issues and problems in media and society, domestically and internationally.
MDST 3711 - Media and Popular Culture
Primary Instructor
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Summer 2020 / Summer 2023 / Summer 2024 / Summer 2025
Examines culture in the form of discourse, symbols, and texts transmitted through the media. Explores the relationship between such mediated culture and social myth and ideology.
MDST 4221 - Media Technology and Cultural Change
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Fall 2020 / Fall 2022 / Fall 2023
Explores how media technologies affect social orders and shape cultural practices across the globe. Compares and critically evaluates different theories of technology, emphasizes the social construction of technology, asks how media technologies inform conceptions of social reality and individual identity and considers how media technologies can be understood across a range of academic disciplines.
MDST 4331 - Gender, Race, Class, and Sexuality in Popular Culture
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Fall 2025 / Spring 2026
Studies the construction, interconnections, and replications of gender, race, class, and sexuality in popular culture and how these constructs become cultural norms and mores. Uses critical methods with a focus on producing responsible viewers and readers.
MDST 4371 - Media and Religion
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Spring 2022
Examines the way religion uses media as a social and political force. Introduces the major themes and trends in the mediation of religion and the religious inflection of the media in professional, popular, and emerging media contexts.
MDST 4931 - Internship
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Summer 2022 / Fall 2022 / Fall 2023 / Spring 2024 / Summer 2024 / Fall 2024 / Spring 2025 / Fall 2025 / Spring 2026
MDST 6871 - Special Topics
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Spring 2022 / Fall 2023 / Fall 2025
Special topics. May be repeated up to 15 total credit hours hours
MDST 7051 - Qualitative Research Methods in Media
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Spring 2020 / Spring 2021 / Spring 2024 / Spring 2025 / Spring 2026
Provides a survey of various qualitative modes of inquiry, attending to the philosophical, conceptual, and practical foundations of qualitative research in media, communication, and information. The course is designed to support students in developing a critical understanding of the different considerations in and stages of qualitative research, including the development of research questions, theoretical and conceptual frameworks, methodological approaches, data collection, data analysis, and assessment of reliability and validity of qualitative data.
