Media Studies Program
Our Media Studies Program offers a critical approach to scholarship and pedagogy through the work of our faculty and students. We support the education of our graduate students through our PhD and MA degrees and our undergraduate students through BS degrees integrating production with studies. We produce valuable research contributing to academic and policy debates on key communication and media issues.
Media Studies addresses the central role of media in arts, culture, society, and politics, within our historical as well as local, regional, national and global contexts. We research and teach how media engage cultural practices, political participation, and social interactions withineconomic structures and technological systems. We engage a wide range of broadcast and emerging media, including but not limited to film, television, radio, digital media, mobile communication, video, and interactive games. We explore media as sites for the articulation and struggle over identity, in terms of gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, class, religion, and generation. We value multiple theoretical and methodological approaches through the interdisciplinary study of texts, production, industry, policy, reception, and audiences. Through media literacy based in empirical work, we aim to inspire better media practices as well as informed citizen engagement.
FACULTY RESEARCH
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Faculty Member |
Research Interests |
Teaching Focus |
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Mary Beltran |
Television /Broadcasting history & criticism Mixed race studies Celebrity Culture Latina/o Media Studies |
History of Broadcasting Race, Class & Gender Celebrity Culture Latina/o Media Studies
|
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Jennifer Brundidge |
Political communication Information Technology & Society Public Opinion/ Sphere |
Democracy, Politics & the Media Internet & Politics Media Theory & Literature
|
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Wenhong Chen |
Globalization and Social Media Media industries Social capital and networks New communication technologies & information society |
Globalization and Social Media Media Industries Social Capital and Social Networks
|
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Caroline Frick
Jennifer Fuller |
Media & film history Archives Image/ screen studies
Television history & criticism Television industry Race, gender, & nation
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Cinema Studies Film history Media archeology
Race, ethnicity & media Critical analysis of race & representation Post-network TV |
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Lalitha Gopalan |
Film History and Criticism |
Screen Theory Film History and Criticism
|
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Mary Kearney |
Identity/ difference Gender, generation, sexuality, youth Feminist, queer, cultural theory Film/ TV/ Popular Music studies |
Women/ Girls’ and Media Culture Feminist Popular Music Studies Cultural Studies Queer Media Studies Humanities Research Methods
|
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Shanti Kumar |
Global Media & Television South Asian Media Studies Cultural Studies |
Global Media & Television Media and Cultural Hybridity Media Theory & Literature
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Madhavi Mallapragada |
Internet Cultures Asian American Studies Transnational, diaspora & immigrant studies Critical race theory |
Internet Cultures Asian American Media Cultures New Media Technologies New Media Methods
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Bruce Pennycook |
Music Composition |
Digital media
|
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Charles Ramirez Berg |
Film History & Criticism Latino Images in Film Mexican Cinema |
Film History & Criticism Latino Images Alternative Poetics
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America Rodriguez |
Race and ethnicity in media Latina/o media studies Media economics and industry |
Race, class and media Ethnic media/ immigrant studies Media economics
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Tom Schatz |
American film and television Media Industries Cultural studies & political economy |
Narrative strategies Film History and Criticism Contemporary Hollywood
|
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Janet Staiger |
Production of Culture/culture of production in film and television including theories of authorship
Historical analysis of film practices, esp. the classical Hollywood cinema and genres
Reception Studies (including cultural and political issues involving gender, sexuality, and race/ethnicity)
Critical analysis (including feminist/queer and poststructural approaches to media history) |
Approaches to Authorship
Feminist and Queer Film Theory
Genre Theory
Historiography
Reception Studies
Representing Reality
Sexualities and U.S. Cinema
Cult Movies and Gender Issues
Experimental Film and Video
Gender and Sexuality Issues in the Media
Horror Film
Media and U. S. Political Conflict
Screen Theory
|
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Laura Stein |
Communication Law and Policy Alternative and Activist Media Digital Media |
Communication Law and Policy Alternative media Social Documentary Media Technologies
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Joe Straubhaar |
Global media and television Digital inclusion Latin America/ Brazil |
Media Studies Globalization & Migration Global Media Research Methods
|
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Sharon Strover |
History & culture of communication technologies Digital media Communication Law & Policy Social Change and technology |
Media Policy & Law Technology and Culture Information Society Research Methods
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Kathleen Tyner |
Media Literacy & Education Youth media production Digital media |
Media Literacy Children & Media Serious Games & Virtual worlds
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Craig Watkins |
Digital & social media Youth culture Race and ethnicity |
Media theory and literature Youth and media Digital divide
|
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Karin Gwinn Wilkins |
Development & Social Change Global Communication Social Justice and Advocacy |
Communication for Social Change Media and the Middle East Research Methods |
Books
Mediated Girlhoods: New Explorations of Girls' Media Culture
Mary Celeste Kearney, professor, 2011
The Gender and Media Reader
Mary Celeste Kearney, professor, 2011
Political Emotions: New Agendas in Communications
Janet Staiger, professor, 2010
Chainsaws, Slackers and Spy Kids: Thirty Years of Filmmaking in Austin, Texas
Alison Macor, lecturer, 2010
Media Now: Understanding Media, Culture, and Technology
Joe Straubhaar, professor, 2010 update
The Young and the Digital: What the Migration to Social Network Sites, Games, and Anytime, Anywhere Media Means for Our Future
S. Craig Watkins, associate professor, 2009
Convergence Media History
Janet Staiger, professor, 2009
Media Literacy: New Agendas in Communication
Kathleen Tyner, associate professor, 2009
Hip Hop Matters: Politics, Popular Culture, and the Struggle for the Soul of a Movement
S. Craig Watkins, associate professor, 2005
Gandhi Meets Primetime: Globalization in Indian Television
Shanti Kumar, associate professor, 2005
Media Reception Studies
Janet Staiger, professor, 2005
Latino Images in Film: Stereotypes, Subversion, and Resistance
Charles Ramírez Berg, professor, 2002
