RTF Doctoral Graduates
The professional placement for scholars from the Department of Radio-Television-Film graduate programs is second to none. Below is a list of recent doctoral graduates, their dissertation titles, and when available, where they are presently teaching and researching.
2017
Xueting Liao, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Fashioning China: Precarious Creativity of Women Designers in Shanzhai Culture
Position: Assistant Professor, Chinese University of Hong Kong
Colleen Montgomery, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Animating the Voice: An Industrial Analysis of Vocal Performance in Disney and Pixar Feature Animation
Position: Assistant Professor, Rowan University, Glassboro, NJ
Vijay Parthasarathy, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Birth of the Cool: Global Flows and the Growth of English Language Stand-Up Comedy in Mumbai
Michael Rennett, Ph.D.
Dissertation: How Grown-Ups Are Born: The Emerging-Adult Genre and American Film and Television
Position: Visiting Professor, University of Texas Corpus Christi
Adolfo Mora, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Seeing Color and Television: What Do Millennials' Television Practices Tell Us About Post-Raciality?
Position: Adjunct, Texas A&M International University
Peter Kovacs, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Big Tobacco and Broadcasting, 1923-1960: An Interdiscipllinary History
Swapnil Rai, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Networked Bollywood: Star Switching Power and the Global Trajectories of Indian Cinema
Position: Visiting Assistant Professor of Film Studies, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT
Elizabeth Bolton, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Personalizing Politics: Producing Accountability on Pakistan's News Television
Caitlin McClune, Ph.D.
Dissertation: 'Digital Unhu' in Zimbabwe: Critical Digital Studies from the Global South
Position: Postdoc, the University of Texas at Austin
Amanda Landa, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Contemporary Japanes Seishun Eiga Cinema
Adam Clark Williams III, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Creating While Black: Digital Participation, Digital Expressions, and Cultural Capital Among Black Teens in Austin, Texas
2016
Jean Lauer, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Mexican Film Festivals and Industry Development: Guanajuato, Guadalajara, and Morelia, and the Reemergence of a National Film Industry
Position: Associate Professor, Austin Community College, Austin, TX
Joao Beira, Ph.D.
Dissertation: 3D Embodied Projection Mapping and Sensing Bodies: A Study in Interactive Dance Performance
Yago Parra Moutinho, Ph.D.
Dissertation: The Development and Experience of Gesture and Brainwave Interaction in Audiovisual Performances
Bahaa Gameel, Ph.D.
Dissertation: ICTS Readiness among MOOC Learners: A Cross-National Analysis
Position: Assistant Professor, University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, FL
Charlotte Howell, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Divine Programming: Religion and Prime-Time American Television Production in the Post-Network Era
Position: Assistant Professor, Boston University, Boston, MA
William Moner, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Toward a Storytelling Systems Analysis Model: A Situational Analysis of Three Global Crowdsourced Documentary Media Projects
Position: Assistant Professor, Elon University, Elon, NC
Paul Gansky, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Ill Communication: Designing Media, Preventing Risks, and Defining Responsibility
Katherine Haenschen, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Get @ The Vote: Using Facebook and Email to Increase Voter Turnout
Position: Assistant Professor, Virginia Tech University
Ikram Toumi, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Information and Computer Technology and the Digital Divide in the Post-Revolution Tunisia
2015
Laura Dixon, Ph.D.
Dissertation: The Influence of the World Wide Web on Documentary Form, Distribution, and Audience Relations: The Cases of Sin by Silence and This Is Not a Conspiracy Theory
Position: Media Dissemination Manager, Texas Policy Evaluation Project, The University of Texas at Austin
Stuart Davis, Ph.D.
Dissertation:Networking the Favelas: Leveraging International Outreach to Support Digital Journalism in Rio de Janeiro's Urban Peripheries
Position: Assistant Professor, Baruch College
Yoonmo Sang, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Copyright and the Future of Digital Culture: Application of the First Sale Doctrine to Digital Copyrigthed Works
Position: Assistant Professor, Howard University
Andres Lombana, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Networked and Disconnected: Latino/Hispanic Immigrant Youths, Digital Media, and Assimilation into the U.S.
Position: Research Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University
Alexander Cho, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Sensuous Participation: Queer Youth of Color, Affect, and Social Media
Position: Postdoctoral Scholar at University of California, Irvine at the Humanities Research Institute
Jeremiah Spence, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Exploring Trends in Brazilian Television Consumption: A Quantitative Study of Major Urban Centers from 2002 to 2014 and a Case Study of Two Rural Communities in Amazonian Region
Position: Assistant Professor, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, Amsterdam
Alfred Martin, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Trapped in a Generic Closet: The Black-Cast Sitcom and the Black Gay Man
Position: Assistant Professor, University of Colorado, Denver
Keara Goin, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Dominican Identity in Flux: Media Consumption, Negotiation, and Afro-Carribean Subjectivity in the U.S.
Position: Lecturer at University of Virginia, Department of Media Studies
2014
Suzanne Schulz, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Lucknow Screens: Cinema, State and Everyday in Postcolonial India
Position: Professor, Bard High School Early College in Queens, NY
Joshua Gleich, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Hollywood Location Shooting in San Francisco and the Aesthetics of Urban Decline, 1945-1975
Position: Assistant Professor, the University of Arizona
Christopher McConnell, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Digital Inclusing and Techno-capital in Austin, Texas
Position: Data Analyst for the City of Austin, Texas
Ana Boa-Ventura, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Social Features of Web Assisted Tobacco Interventions (WATIS): Case Studies
Position: Consultant and Writer, Houston, Texas
Eliot Chayt Ph.D.
Dissertation: Disaster, Dystopia, and Exploration: Science-Fiction Cinema 1959-1971
Position: Postdoctoral Researcher, The University of Texas at Austin
Elizabeth Maclean, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Not Your Abeula's Telenovela: Mujeres Asesinas as a Hybrid Latin American Fiction Format
Position: Education Consultant, Houston, Texas
2013
Jessalynn Marie Keller, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Still Alive and Kicking: Girl Bloggers and Feminist Politics in a “Postfeminist” Age
Position: Assistant Professor, the University of East Anglia, School of Art, Media and American Studies ( U.K.)
Jose Rafael Lopez Islas, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Digital Literacy and Academic Success in Online Education for Underprivileged Communities: The PREP@NET Case
Position: Director, Office of Assessment, Tecnologico de Monterrey (Mexico)
Richard Colin Tait, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Robert De Niro’s Method: Acting, Authorship and Agency in the New Hollywood (1967 – 1980)
Position: Assistant Professor, Texas Christian University
Morgan Blue, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Performing 21st Century Girlhood: Girls, Postfeminist Discourse, and the Disney Star Machine
Ji-Hyun Ahn, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Visualizing Race: Neoliberal Multiculturalism and the Struggle for Koreanness in Contemporary South Korean Television
Position: Assistant Professor, University of Washington, Tacoma
Curran Nault, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Queer as Punk: Queercore and the Production of an Anti-Normative Media Subculture
Position: Lecturer, The University of Texas at Austin, WGS and AAS; and Artistic Director of OUTsider Film & Arts Festival
2012
Manuel G. Aviles-Santiago, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Digitizing Ethnonational Identities: Multimediatic Representation of Puerto Rican Soldiers
Position: Assistant Professor, Arizona State University
Hans-Martin Liebing, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Transforming European Cinema: Transnational Filmmaking in the Era of Global Conglomerate Hollywood
Position: Visiting Assistant Professor, University of California, Los Angeles
Jacqueline Ryan Vickery, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Worth the Risk: The Role of Regulations and Experiences in Shaping Teens’ Engagement with Digital Media
Position: Assistant Professor, University of North Texas
Sujin Choi, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Flows of Information/Influence and Diversity of Content within Online Public For a in the Context of Civil Society
Position: Assistant Professor, Kookmin University (Korea)
Holly Ann Custard, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Pursuing Development with Educational Technology Standards: Complicating Narratives of ICTS in the Classroom
Position: Pearson Online Learning Services, Austin, Texas
Ali Fuat Sengul, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Cinema, Space and Nation: The Production of Dogu in Cinema in Turkey
Position: Assistant Professor, Mardin Artuklu University (Turkey)
2011
Anne Helen Petersen, Ph.D.
Dissertation: The Gossip Industry: Producing and Distributing Star Images, Celebrity Gossip, and Entertainment News 1910-2010
Postiion: Features Writer for Buzzfeed
Shu-Ching Chan, Ph.D.
Dissertation: The Bamboo Cinema: A Formal, Cultural and Industrial Analysis of Hong Kong Cinema In The 1990
Elissa Helen Nelson, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Teen Films of the 1980s: Genre, New Hollywood, and Generation X
Position: Assistant Professor, Bronx Community College
Hermin Erin Lee, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Korean Immigrant Adolescents' Engagement with the Internet: Understanding the Importance of Cultural Orientations and Bicultural Competence
Position: Assistant Professor, Hankuk University (Korea)
Courtney Brannon Donoghue, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Lighting Up Screens Around the World: Sony's Local Language Production Strategy Meets Contemporary Brazilian and Spanish Cinema
Position: Assistant Professor, Oakland University (Michigan)
Brett Robert Caraway, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Resistance Commons: File-Sharing Litigation and The Social System Of Commoning
Position: Assistant Professor, University of Toronto (Canada)
R. Christopher Lucas, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Crafting Digital Cinema: Cinematographers in Contemporary Hollywood
Position: Independent Film Producer (Oregon)
Matthew Thomas Payne, Ph.D.
Dissertation: The Ludic Wars: The Interactive Pleasures of Post-9/11 Military Video Games
Position: Assistant Professor, University of Notre Dame
David Anthony Uskovich, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Radio Friendly Paradigm Shifter: Progressive College Broadcasting in The 1980s
Elissa Arra Fineman, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Becoming a Media Activist: Linking Culture, Identity, and Web Design
Position: Instructional Design Specialist, Pearson North America/Embanet Compass
Najin Jun, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Strong-tie Diversity and Weak-tie Diversity: The Paradoxical Roles of Internet Use and Political Tolerance in Supporting Political Diversity and Participation
Position: Assistant Professor, Hannem University (South Korea)
Kevin Lee Sanson, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Goodbye Brigadoon: Place, Production, and Identity in Global Glascow
Position: Assistant Professor, Queensland University of Technology (Australia)
