Focus: Entertainment and media studies

ABSTRACT: In 1994, economist Abdel Güerere classified telenovelas as Venezuela’s most important non-traditional export and envisioned a prosperous future for this media product. In 1999 the country produced 8–12 telenovelas a year. Today no telenovelas are produced in Venezuela and the country’s once powerful telenovela industry is virtually invisible in the international market. Based on […]

Abstract: Hollywood Shutdown examines how the COVID-19 pandemic affected film and television production, influenced trends in distribution, reshaped theatrical exhibition, and altered labor practices. From January movie theater closures in China to the bumpy September release of Mulan on the Disney+ streaming platform, Fortmueller probes various choices made by studios, networks, unions and guilds, distributors, […]

Abstract: Despite their considerable presence in Hollywood, extras and working actors have received scant attention within film and media studies as significant contributors to the history of the industry. Looking not to the stars but to these supporting players in film, television, and, recently, streaming programming, Below the Stars highlights such actors as precarious laborers […]

This paper won First Place in the Faculty Paper Awards also known as the Robert L. Stevenson Open Paper Competition. It also won Best Paper in African Journalism Studies Award. Abstract: Drawing on an African feminist autoethnography framework grounded in a decolonial philosophy of Bilchiinsi, I present critical reflections on my experiences as an African scholar conducting […]

Abstract: This article responds to calls for more detailed analyses of localization around the world (Castelló, 2009; Levine, 2009) by examining a Mexican dubbing company and its translation of LGBT characters for Latin American audiences. Gay, lesbian, and transgender characters’ identities are alternately maintained and mitigated because of industrial norms and technical constraints. While LGBT […]

Abstract: Several African scholars have theorized about the evolution of feminist movements on the continent but there has been little focus on the importance of employing an intersectional feminist framework to understanding and unpacking feminist discourses in Africa. Through an intersectionality framework, I map the evolution of feminist discourses in Ghana paying attention to the […]

Abstract: When television programs are translated for global audiences, languages are changed, but so too are constructions of diverse identities. Characters who are Black, Indigenous, or people of color (BIPOC) undergo transformations in order to be intelligible outside of their original national contexts; such transformations might reinforce these characters’ difference or eliminate it, effectively whitewashing […]

Abstract: When television programs are translated for global audiences, languages are changed, but so too are constructions of diverse identities. Characters who are Black, Indigenous, or people of color (BIPOC) undergo transformations in order to be intelligible outside of their original national contexts; such transformations might reinforce these characters’ difference or eliminate it, effectively whitewashing […]

Abstract: African Media Studies which is marginalized in the Global North academy lacks not only representation from African students/scholars but is also under-theorized. Employing a decolonial approach, this article presents a critical analysis of African Media Studies from the perspective of a recent PhD graduate and early career scholar. Using what I call an African […]

Nathaniel Kohn and Kristi Amatucci, Roger Ebert’s Film Festival: A Space of Wonder. To be presented at the Reframing Film Festivals: Histories, Economies, Cultures International Film Studies Conference, University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, Bari, Italy, 25-26 March, 2020. Abstract: Turner’s notion of liminal space as a transformative space between phases of separation and incorporation is […]