2011, Ph.D., Indiana University, Communication and Culture
2006, M.A., University of Vermont, English
2003, B.A., Western Washington University, English and Liberal StudiesTeaching

Research

My research builds upon my teaching interests by focusing specifically on the history, cultural politics, and economics of sports media; documentary film and television; and the institutions that produce, sponsor, and distribute these types of texts. My work has appeared in journals that include The Moving Image, Journal of Sport History, International Journal of Sport Communication, Film & History, Interdisciplinary Humanities, Journal of Popular Culture, and Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film.

I am currently working on a book manuscript that offers a cultural and institutional history of NFL Films, the National Football League's subsidiary film production company. I examine how this company has shaped the ways professional football-and sport in general-is imagined and represented. I also use NFL Films to trace the development of sports media from something that mainly appeared on live telecasts of sporting events, the daily sports page, and the nightly news into a 24-hour, year-round phenomenon.

Teaching

My courses examine the relationship between communication and contemporary American culture, with a focus on media. In them, we consider how media representations-from Hollywood blockbusters to advertisements for beauty products to sports radio programs-impact our society and everyday lives. What types of people do these texts tend to celebrate? How do they suggest we ought to think about certain issues? What do they encourage us to purchase? What do they ignore?

Beyond examining these texts, we locate the political, cultural, historical, economic, and industrial contexts that shape their production, the form(s) they take, and how various audiences interpret them. Attached below, are a few syllabi from courses I have recently taught.

English 110: Introduction to Human Communication
English 115: Introduction to Mediated Communication
English 325: Media Writing