CV

Shayne Pepper

Associate Professor

Department of Communication, Media, and Theatre

Northeastern Illinois University

(PDF Version)

EDUCATION:

• 2011 Ph.D. North Carolina State University
  • Communication, Rhetoric, & Digital Media
• 2007 M.A. University of Iowa
  • Film Studies
• 2004 B.A. University of New Orleans
  • Major: Drama & Communication
  • Minor: English

ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS:

• 2017 – Present: Associate Professor, Northeastern Illinois University
  • Department of Communication, Media, and Theatre
• 2017 – 2021: Department Chair, Northeastern Illinois University
  • Department of Communication, Media, and Theatre
• 2014 – 2017: Director of Graduate Studies, Northeastern Illinois University
  • Department of Communication, Media, and Theatre
• 2011 – 2017: Assistant Professor, Northeastern Illinois University
  • Department of Communication, Media, and Theatre
• 2007 – 2011: Graduate Instructor, North Carolina State University
  • Communication, Rhetoric, & Digital Media Program

RESEARCH AND TEACHING INTERESTS:

• Film history and theory, Television studies, Cultural studies, New media technologies
• AIDS media, HBO and cable television, Popular media and political activism

PUBLICATIONS:

Journal Articles:

• “Cultural Programming and the Early History of HBO’s Signature Style, 1978-1988.” Journal of Cinema and Media Studies 61.5 (2021-2022), 86-112.
• “Subscribing to Governmental Rationality: HBO and the AIDS Epidemic.” Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies 11.2 (June, 2014), 120-138
• “Invisible Children and the Cyberactivist Spectator.” Nebula 6.4 (December, 2009), 40-55

Book Chapters:

• “Public Service Entertainment: HBO’s Interventions in Politics and Culture” in Media Interventions. Kevin Howley (ed). (New York: Peter Lang, 2013), 127-142
• “Joanna Newsom Covers in the Blogosphere” in Visions of Joanna Newsom. Bradley W. Buchanan (ed). (Sacramento, CA: Roan Press, 2010)

Book Reviews:

• Review of Contagious: Cultures, Carriers, and the Outbreak Narrative (Durham: Duke University Press, 2008) by Priscilla Wald. The Journal of Popular Culture 42.6 (December, 2009), 1160-1161
• Review of Looking Past the Screen: Case Studies in American Film History and Method (Durham: Duke University Press, 2007) by Jon Lewis and Eric Smoodin (eds.). Film Criticism 33.3 (Spring 2009), 72-75
• Review of Conspiracy Panics: Political Rationality and Popular Culture (Albany: SUNY Press, 2008) by Jack Z. Bratich. Culture Machine (May 2009)
• Review of Hollywood Goes to Washington: American Politics on Screen (London: Reaktion Books, 2008) by Michael Coyne. Scope: An On Line Journal of Film and TV Studies Issue 13 (February 2009)

Invited and Other Publications:

• “HBO and the Story of HIV/AIDS.” Communication Currents 9.3 (June, 2014).
• Encyclopedia of Social Media and Politics. Kerric Harvey (ed). (Thousand Oaks, CA: CQ Press, 2014).
  • Entries for “Digg,” “Tumblr,” and “Reddit.”
• “Beyond Netflix and TiVo: Rethinking HBO Through the Archive.” FlowTV.org, May 21, 2010

TEACHING EXPERIENCE:

Northeastern Illinois University (2011 – Present)

Graduate Courses:

• CMTM 468: Seminar in New Media
• CMTM 467: Special Topics in Film and Television (Reality Television)
• CMTM 467: Special Topics in Film and Television (HBO – TV History and Theory)
• CMTM 466: Media and Cultural Studies
• CMTM 465: Mass Communication Theory
• CMTC 401: Introduction to Graduate Study

Undergraduate Courses:

• CMTM 390: NEIU Cinémathèque
• CMTM 380A: Television Genres
• CMTM 380: Special Topics in Television (HBO: Past and Present)
• CMTM 377: Gender and Media
• CMTM 373: World Cinema
• CMTM 365: Contemporary Issues in Mass Media
• CMTC 300: Mediated Communication
• CMTM 265: Mass Media & Society
• CMTM 160: Introduction to Cinema
• ZHON 191: Honors – Introduction to the Arts

North Carolina State University (2007 – 2011)

• COM 467: Gender, Sexuality, & Media
• COM 267: Electronic Media Writing: Theory and Practice
• COM 110: Public Speaking
• ENG 282: Introduction to Film

SUPERVISED STUDENT RESEARCH:

Graduate Theses (Directed):

• Susanne Pawlikowski- “Tuning In to Immigration: A Critical Analysis of the Americans All, Immigrants All Radio Series” (Spring 2021)
• Anthony Guerrero- “The Power of Drag: Performance, Activism, and Self-Expression (Fall 2020)
• Mary Kroeck- “Missing Pieces: The Life and Work of Shel Silverstein” (Spring 2016)
• Benjamin Van Loon- “Toxic Cults: Repo Man, The Toxic Avenger, and Street Trash” (Spring 2015)

Graduate Theses (Committee Member):

• Elise Taylor- “Isolated With Friends: Online Communities in the Gig Economy” (Fall 2017)
• Samentha Sepulveda- “Where (Species) Inequality Lives” (Spring 2017)
• Christopher Churchill- “Tell Me About My Mother: How Honesty, Love, and Humor Help Families Dealing With Mental Illness” (Spring 2017)
• Avrohom Steinberg- “Quality of Life in Long-Term Eldercare Organizations: Bridging Relational Chasms Through Sites of Meaningful Communication (Spring 2015)
• Kristina Saldarelli- “Technology’s Influence on Theatre and Dance” (Spring 2013)

Graduate Independent Studies Supervised:

• Anthony Guerrero- Analyzing RuPaul’s Drag Race (Fall 2019)
• James Fuentes & Leland Humbertson- Star Trek and Culture (Fall 2016)
• Rana Alrobbie- Media and Politics in the Arab World (Fall 2015)
• Rafal Rybak- Media, Power, and U.S. Race Relations (Fall 2015)
• Yelitza Hernandez- Contemporary Cinema and Production Culture (Spring 2015)
• Anthony Colon- Fan Studies and Transmedia Storytelling (Fall 2014)
• Benjamin Van Loon- Digital Media and Philosophy (Fall 2014)
• Caitlin Inman- Mobile Technologies and Social Change (Fall 2013)
• Vita Schweighart- Privacy, Surveillance, and Technology (Fall 2012)

Undergraduate Independent Studies Supervised:

• Samantha Stawiarski- “(Post)Feminism and Pornography” (Spring 2015)
• Tracey Washington- “Representations of African-American Women in Media” (Spring 2014)
• Yesenia Taveras- “Fan Cultures and Video Games” (Spring 2014)

Undergraduate Honors Projects (Faculty Advisor):

• Melissa Brand- “Critical Analysis of Female Journalists in HBO’s The Newsroom” (Fall 2014)

CONFERENCE ACTIVITY:

Presentations:

• “Nostalgia, AIDS History, and HBO’s It’s a Sin”
  • Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference (Chicago) April 1, 2022
• “The Absence of Queer Stories in HBO’s Early AIDS Programming”
  • Midwestern Conference on Literature, Language and Media (DeKalb/Virtual) April 2, 2021
• “What Sesame Street Can Teach Us About HBO”
  • NEIU Faculty Research and Creative Activities Symposium (NEIU) November 15, 2019
• “Adapting AIDS Literature: HBO and The Normal Heart”
  • Midwest Popular Culture Association Conference (Chicago) October 6, 2016
• “HBO and the Logics of Public Television: Reframing the Prehistory of HBO’s Signature Style”
  • NEIU Faculty Research and Creative Activities Symposium (NEIU) November 13, 2015
• “Screening Italy’s National Psychodrama: Melodrama, Public Service, and The Best of Youth”
  • National Communication Association Conference (Chicago) November 23, 2014
• “AIDS Activism and Public Policy in PBS and HBO Documentaries”
  • Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference (Chicago) March 9, 2013
• “When Quality Television Meant Public Television: HBO’s Evolution in the 1980s”
  • National Communication Association Conference (Orlando) November 16, 2012
• “HBO’s Cultural and Public Service Programming in the 1980s”
  • Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference (Boston) March 24, 2012
• “Rethinking Ownership and Accessibility in The Age of Digital Reproduction”
  • National Communication Association Conference (New Orleans) November 20, 2011
• “When Public Television Goes Private: Early AIDS Documentaries on PBS and HBO”
  • NEIU Second Annual Faculty Research & Creative Activities Symposium (NEIU) November 4, 2011
• “Social Media: Logics of Gaming/Logics of Markets”
  • NETT Day 2.0 (NEIU Empowerment Through Technology) (NEIU) October 27, 2011
• “Public Service Entertainment: HBO’s Interventions in Politics and Culture”
  • 9th Annual Cultural Studies Association Meeting (Chicago) March 24, 2011
• “HBO’s Memorial Documentaries: “Remember. Reflect. Respond.”
  • Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference (New Orleans) March 12, 2011
• “Watching Tina Fey Make Liz Lemonade: 30 Rock’s Post-Feminist Feminism” (w/ Dawn Shepherd)
  • National Communication Association Conference (San Francisco) November 17, 2010
• “HBO, New Queer Cinema, and the AIDS Epidemic”
  • National Communication Association Conference (San Francisco) November 14, 2010
• “Politics, History, & HBO Documentary Films” Flow Conference 2010 (Austin) October 2, 2010
• “HBO and the AIDS Epidemic: Subscribing to a Neoliberal Solution”
  • National Communication Association Conference (Chicago) November 13, 2009
• “Invisible Children and the Cyberactivist Spectator”
  • National Communication Association Conference (Chicago) November 13, 2009
• “A Love Unspecified: Scrubs and Network Television’s Recoding of Masculinity”
  • National Popular Culture Association Conference (New Orleans) April 10, 2009
• “’If PBS Doesn’t Do It, Who Will?:’ HBO and the Negotiation of Profit and Public Service”
  • 6th Annual Visual Cultures Symposium, “Unthinking Television: Visual Culture[s] Beyond the Console” (George Mason University) March 26, 2009
• “The Importance of the Image: Visual Rhetoric and Oliver Stone’s JFK”
  • National Communication Association Conference (San Diego), November 21, 2008
• “My So-Called Life: The Text as a Battlefield for Identity”
  • National Popular Culture Association Conference (San Francisco) March 19, 2008
• “Transitions in Sound and Regulation: Shirley Temple and the Baby Burlesks”
  • Film Indiana: Screening Shorts Conference (Indiana University) September 14, 2007

Other Conference Activity:

• Panel Chair. “The Culture Industry 2.0: Refreshing the Political Economy of the Culture Industry”
  • National Communication Association Conference (Orlando) November 15, 2012
• Panel Chair and Organizer. “Beyond the Sunday Night Lineup: 40 Years of HBO (1972-2012)”
  • Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference (Boston) March 24, 2012
• Panel Chair. “Girls and Boys (Who Like Boys) Who Like Girls: Cultural Performances of Gender and Sexuality”
  • National Communication Association Conference (New Orleans) November 17, 2011
• Panel Respondent. “The Representation and Practice of Activism: Communication For and Against Resistance”
  • National Communication Association Conference (New Orleans) November 17, 2011
• Moderator. “Ethics and Video Games Panel”
  • NETT Day 2.0 (NEIU) October 27, 2011
• Panel Chair and Organizer. “Technologies of Cultural Maintenance”
  • National Communication Association Conference (Chicago) November 13, 2009

HONORS AND AWARDS:

• NEIU Educational Leave – Research Sabbatical (2019)
• NEIU Faculty Excellence Award for Service (2016)
• NEIU Faculty Excellence Award for Teaching (2014)
• NEIU College of Arts and Sciences Faculty-Student Team Summer Research Grant, $4,200 (2014)
• NEIU Summer Research Stipend, $5,000 (2013)
• Graduate Teaching Assistantship- North Carolina State University (2007-2011)
• Full Frame Documentary Fellowship (2008)
• Graduate Assistantship- University of Iowa (2005-2007)
• Phi Beta Kappa (2004)

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE:

• Reviewer- Refractory: Journal of Entertainment and Media (2021)
• Reviewer- Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies (2015, 2016)
• Reviewer- The Popular Culture Journal (2015)
• Reviewer- SAGE Open (2015)
• Book Reviewer- Choice Magazine (2012-present)
• Reviewer- Radical Pedagogy (2012)
• Reviewer- Kaleidoscope (2012)
• Reviewer- Central States Communication Association Conference (2011)
  • Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Caucus
• Reviewer- Journal of Communication Inquiry (2010, 2014, 2021)
• Reviewer- National Communication Association Conference  (2009-present)
  • Critical/Cultural Studies Division
  • Mass Communication Division
• Selection Committee Member- Full Frame Documentary Film Festival (2009-2010)
• Reviewer- eSharp (2007-2011)

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS:

• Society for Cinema and Media Studies
• National Communication Association
• Central States Communication Association
• Cultural Studies Association
• Popular Culture Association
• Midwest Popular Culture Association