EDUCATION

PhD. Candidate in Cinema & Media Studies
University of California Los Angeles – Los Angeles, CA – 2010-Present

  • Working on dissertation: The Work and Time of Celebrity on Reality Television
  • Advisor: Dr. John T. Caldwell

Master of Arts in Cinema & Media Studies
University of California Los Angeles – Los Angeles, CA – 2008-Present

Bachelor of Arts in American Studies
DePaul University – Chicago, IL – 2002-2005

  • Honors Program
  • Graduated with Highest Honors
  • Senior Thesis: “Here She Is…” but Does She Have IT?: Women as Spectacle in 1920’s America

AREAS OF INTEREST

My research applies cultural studies, gender studies, celebrity, popular culture, and branding when examining how relationships between popular media and audiences shape social and cultural identities.  I am interested primarily in television and film as sites of popular culture, entertainment, branding, and commerce; especially endeavors directed at women, teens, and children.  My dissertation focuses on the relationship between contemporary reality television and celebrity as sites for network and individual branding.  I am interested in the labor and temporality involved in creating and maintaining celebrity and how issues surrounding media convergence have affected the proliferation (and dilution) of celebrity in the past decade.

AWARDS/HONORS/FELLOWSHIPS/GRANTS

  • UCLA Cota Robles Fellowship Recipient (2010-2014)
  • Plitt Southern Theater Employees Trust Fellowship (2014)
  • UCLA Graduate Summer Research Mentorship (2012)
  • UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television Executive Board Grant (2012)
  • UCLA Film and Television Archive Research and Study Center Student Research Award (2009)
    • Paper: “Surf, Song, and Cricket Blake: Capturing the Emerging Teen Girl Market with Hawaiian Eye
  • UCLA Regents Registration Grant (2009)
  • DePaul University Honors Program (2002-2005)
  • DePaul University Presidential Scholarship (2002-2005)
  • DePaul University College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Dean’s List (2002-2005)

PUBLICATIONS

“Kollecting Kim K. Skills: Kardashianized Celebrity in Kim Kardashian: Hollywood.” in Antenna: Responses to Media and Culture, July 25, 2014.

“On Wearing Two Badges: Indifference and Discomfort of a Scholar Fan,” in Antenna: Responses to Media and Culture, July 31, 2013.

“Mr. Seaborn Goes to Pawnee,” In Media Res, June 8, 2012.

Review of Television and New Media: Must-Click TV, by Jennifer Gillan, Transformative Works and Cultures, 9 (2012).

“Maybe Romance Will Crop Up,” In Media Res, May 10, 2011.

PAPERS AND PRESENTATIONS

2014.  “24 fps, 24/7?: Striving for Work/Life Balance,” Workshop presented at Society of Cinema and Media Studies Conference, Seattle, WA.

2013.  “I Want to be on Top: The Labor of Branded Celebrity on America’s Next Top Model: All Stars,” Society of Cinema and Media Studies Conference, Chicago, IL.

2012.  “I Want to be on Top: The Labor of Branded Celebrity on America’s Next Top Model: All Stars,” Celebrity Studies Conference, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia.

2012.  “’Everybody is Taking My Baby From Me’: Star and Studio Negotiation in Susan Slade Discourse,” Society of Cinema and Media Studies Conference, Boston, MA.

2011.  “Meet My Millionaires!”: Selling Traditional Romance on The Millionaire Matchmaker,” Society of Cinema and Media Studies Conference, New Orleans, LA.

2011.  “Hungry Girls?: Consuming Female Food Personalities,” Thinking Gender Conference, Los Angeles, CA.

2010.  Featured Participant in “Featuring Music From”: Song, Song, and Remix panel discussion, FLOW Conference, Austin TX.

2010.  “You too can make your own Lifetime movie:” Empowering Female Technological Usage for Brand Reinforcement via Lifetime’s Movie-Mash-Ups,” Console-ing Passions Conference, Eugene, OR.

2010.  “Surf, Song, and Cricket Blake: Capturing the Emerging Teen Girl Market with Hawaiian Eye,” Console-ing Passions Conference, Eugene, OR.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Teaching Assistant for FTV 110A: History of American Television – Spring 2013
University of California, Los Angeles – Los Angeles, CA 

  • Responsible for teaching two weekly sessions about television history and the television industry for undergraduate students

Teaching Assistant for FTV 184: Overview of Contemporary Film Industry – Summer 2012, Summer 2013, Summer 2014
University of California, Los Angeles – Los Angeles, CA – Online Course

  • Facilitated online learning environment (including managing discussion boards, weekly blog entries, and video participation)

Teaching Assistant for FTV 106C, Introduction to Asian, African, and Latin American Cinema – Summer 2012
University of California, Los Angeles – Los Angeles, CA

  • Responsible for teaching two weekly sessions about film history and film terminology for undergraduate students.
  • Prepare students to write two essays and master material for two exams.  Responsible for grading and providing feedback on all course assignments.

Teaching Assistant for FTV 106A, Introduction to American Film – Fall 2011 and Winter 2012
University of California, Los Angeles – Los Angeles, CA

  • Responsible for teaching two weekly sessions about film history and film terminology for undergraduate students.
  • Prepare students to write two essays and master material for two exams.  Responsible for grading and providing feedback on all course assignments.

Explore Chicago Student Leader – Fall Quarter 2003 and Fall Quarter 2004
DePaul University – Chicago, IL

  • Co-taught Chicago themed class with a DePaul faculty and staff member.  Mentored incoming students for all matters regarding class material, university bureaucracy, and the DePaul community.
  • Liaison between students and faculty member

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

Research Assistant to Professor Allyson Field
UCLA Department of Film, Television and Digital Media – 2010-Present

  • Conducting online, library, and archival research related to specific topics in African American film history from the silent era through the civil rights movement.
  • Currently researching African-American silent film actor and filmmaker Noble Johnson as well as social uplift films created for African-American communities in the silent era.

Research Assistant to Professor and Dean Emeritus Robert Rosen
UCLA Department of Film, Television and Digital Media – 2009-2010

  • Assisted coordinating various projects including the implementing an online graduate degree program in Narrative Literacy and an accompanying media lab.
  • Researched how narrative factors into all facets of human life and interactions as a way for people to make sense of their worlds and communicate them to others.
  • Administrative duties including managing discretionary funds, managing other work-study student employees, and coordinating Professor Rosen’s schedule

ASSOCIATIONS

Society for Cinema & Media Studies (SCMS): 2009-Present

Student Member, Academy of Television Arts and Sciences: 2012-Present

VOLUNTARY AND ELECTED POSITIONS

Graduate Student Representative to the Board of Directors, Society for Cinema & Media Studies (2013-Present)

TV Scholarly Interest Group Graduate Student Representative, Society for Cinema & Media Studies (2011-2014)

Editor, Features, Mediascape.  University of California, Los Angeles (2010-2012)

Graduate Student Representative, Cinema & Media Studies. University of California, Los Angeles (2009-2011)

Vice-President, LUDUS (Graduate Student Video Game Organization), University of California, Los Angeles (2009-Present)

Member/Programmer, The Crank Film Society.  University of California, Los Angeles (2009-Present)

  • Program Notes Editor, The Crank Film Society, University of California, Los Angeles (2012-Present)
  • Secretary, The Crank Film Society, University of California, Los Angeles (2010-2011)

Student Representative, Honors Program Student Government. DePaul University (2003-2005)

GUEST LECTURES

2013. Reality Television, Branding, Celebrity.  Presented to FTV 110: History of American Television, Professor John Caldwell, University of California, Los Angeles, June 4, 2013.

2012.  Celebrity and Reality Television, Presented to Film and Media 185: Reality Television, Professor Allison Perlman, University of California, Irvine, November 20, 2012.

2010.  “‘I Am… Somebody’: Story Construction and Narrative Biases in the Wake of the Watts Riots,” Presented to FTV 112: Film and Social Change, Professor Allyson Field, University of California, Los Angeles, June 29, 2010.

2010.  Guest lecture for South Elgin High School BEACON Academy sophomores on careers in media, South Elgin, IL, September 8, 2010 .

2010.  Guest lecture for South Elgin High School BEACON Academy juniors on mise-en-scene, genre, and audiences on television, South Elgin, IL, September 8, 2010 .

PROFESSIONAL INTERNSHIPS

Anisa Productions – February 2013-October 2013
Los Angeles, CA

  • Assist in office duties involved with production for Cycle 20 of America’s Next Top Model.
  • Run errands as needed for the Production Office

ADDITIONAL PROJECTS

ClipNotes Development Team  2014
University of California, Los Angeles

  • Contributing to the development of the software, building and maintaining the website, and organizing the XML database for ClipNotes, a software program that uses XML mark-up of film to facilitate quick segmentation, annotation and presentation of film clips.

UCLA Cinema & Media Studies Website Writer   2014

  • Researching and writing copy for a UCLA Cinema & Media Studies specific website which holds general information regarding the program.  The site serves as a means to raise the profile of the program, faculty and students and as a portal for prospective students.

Participant in the Newberry Library Undergraduate Research Seminar – 2005

  • One of twenty students from Chicago area universities chosen to participate in a semester long research seminar at the Newberry Library seminar focused on 1890-1930 American Popular culture, which resulted in a research paper using the library’s extensive holdings.
  • Final Research Paper: “Fairy Tale Realities: Representations of the Working Girl in 1920’s Popular Magazines”

RELEVANT WORK EXPERIENCE

ED-RED – Administrative Assistant – 2006-2008
Park Ridge, IL

  • Administer day-to-day office operations including maintaining and updating member databases and organization’s website
  • Keep Executive Director informed of local media coverage of issues pertaining to ED-RED member school districts and state and local government personnel and policies
  • Schedule and coordinate activities and speakers related to all the organization’s regular monthly meetings.  Responsible for recording and transcribing meeting minutes.
  • Arrange, plan, and coordinate activities related to the annual Legislative Dinner fundraiser
  • Research policy initiatives as assigned by the Executive Director

Northwestern University – Graduate School Student Services Counselor – 2005-2006
Evanston, IL

  • Counsel students on academic policy issues regarding registration, special classes, probation, advancing to candidacy, and graduation
  • “All-purpose” advising for graduate students and serve as first point of contact for students requiring Graduate School services or attention
  • Advise students on all aspects of financial aid and loan counseling
  • Assist in orientation and commencement planning

DePaul University – Liberal Arts and Sciences College Office – Assistant for First Year Students – 2004-2005
Chicago, IL

  • Assist in organizing and facilitating college office material to incoming first-year students
  • Present Internet resources during LA&S College sessions at orientation sessions
  • Coordinate student and faculty advising, and serve as resource during advising sessions
  • Audit student files
  • Advising for first-year students

ADDITIONAL SKILLS

Computer Proficiency: Apple iOS, Microsoft Office Suite
Social Media: Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr
High level research, writing, editing skills