MA - Year 2

Ashlynn d'Harcourt

Ashlynn received her doctorate in cognition and perception in the psychology department at The University of Texas at Austin, with a focus on how people produce and perceive language. Her appreciation of cinema and engagement with social activism led her to the radio-television-film department, where she continues to be intrigued by how the mind works and how people communicate, now from the perspective of how it's done through media. She is starting her second year of the media studies MA program, where she is a column editor for the department's media culture journal, FLOW. Her academic interests include alternative and activist media, representation in film and television, and feminist and gender media studies.

Russ Hatchell

Rusty Hatchell earned his BA from Georgia Gwinnett College in 2016, majoring in English with a concentration in Writing and Rhetoric while also minoring in Film. While at Georgia Gwinnett, Rusty focused his studies on representations of gender and sexuality on television, including the framing of bisexuality on the CW as a sign of the network's progressive stance on social issues. His research interests include Canadian television production practices, Canadian celebrity culture, music video studies, and the superhero genre. His forthcoming thesis looks at the production of science-fiction television in Canada with a noted interest in diegetic markers of Canadian identity. In his free time, he enjoys watching television, playing video games, driving aimlessly, and consuming tacos.

Toni Stickler

Toni grew up on a dairy farm in upstate New York and earned her B.A. in Political Science and Women’s Studies from Colgate University. Her research interests include how fandom and broader online cultures are informed by gender, sexuality, class, and intellectual property/copyright law. Her thesis project focuses on theater bootlegs and online bootleg trading. 

Jacob Thompson

Jacob Thompson earned his B.A. in English and B.S. in Plant Biology at NC State University in 2015. While there, he shifted from work on plant genetics to more media-focused projects. His research included an investigation of academic responses to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and an examination of shifts in the language of pop music from the 1960’s through the 2000’s. His interest in the role of media in culture and learning brought him to RTF, where his focus is on media audiences and reception practices, the effects of discussion networks on media consumption, and the relationship between media and identity.

Lichen Zhen

Lichen was born and raised in Hangzhou, China, and received her B.A. in Broadcast and Television Journalism from Wuhan University. Her academic interests include U.S.-China film co-productions and media globalization. She is especially interested in how Chinese corporate power and government policy jointly boost the domestic entertainment industry while simultaneously challenging the dominance of Hollywood. Her other interests focus on applying network analysis to the study of media industries.  

In her spare time, she enjoys cooking, sketching, and working out.