Welcome to spring in Montreal—it is snowing in April! While winter won’t end, my course COMS 310: Media and Feminist Studies is sadly coming to a close. I feel privileged to have taught such a fantastic course with a truly amazing group of students. Several writing projects are coming to fruition: a chapter on bystander video witnessing that will appear in an edited collection with Routledge; an article on domestic violence media activism in the fax age; an article on social media responses to rape culture; a special issue of the journal Girlhood Studies on current Cultural Studies approaches to girls, new media and issues of sexuality; an edited book on issues of place and girlhood; and an article on filmic witnessing of the Kitty Genovese murder that I am writing in Scalar (a digital publishing platform created at USC) for a special issue of Urban History. In late April I head to New York to conduct additional research on the Kitty Genovese murder and the legacies of responses to bystander non-intervention in activist groups like Hollaback!
After a summer of travel to London, Berlin and Paris for Crossroads in Cultural Studies, and the preparation of several grant applications, I commenced the fall term with a new graduate seminar in affect theory, emotion and media studies, with a wonderful group of students from McGill University, Concordia University and the University of Montreal. I continue to write my book on Kitty Genovese, and will be giving talks based on the sections I am currently writing on the construction of the bystander problem and social movement and educational initiatives that target bystanders as potential change agents. I will be speaking on this work at the National Women’s Studies Association and American Studies conferences, and at the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. I am also starting my second year as Director of IGSF and continue to build the visibility and profile of our work and programming. Highlights for the fall include an international symposium on Girlhood Studies and the Politics of Place, the event “The Future of Feminist Theory” featuring Stacy Gillis, Ann Braithwaite, Myra Hird and Anna Feigenbaum, and a grad/post-grad conference “Whose Business is Risk?”
I am starting my second semester as Director of the Institute for Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies. This term we are co-hosting a panel discussion and viewings of the award winning film “Miss Representation,” hosting a knowledge lab workshop series on the Occupy movements, and organizing talks by sociologist Lisa Adkins, philosopher Karen Houle and others. To find out more about our Events, click here to be directed to the IGSF’s Events page. The term is also commencing with an invited lecture at Carleton University on the case construction of bystanding around the Kitty Genovese murder. Research on my book on the case continues — I’ve scheduled the first of several interviews I hope to complete this spring with major figures in the field of social psychology and have planned a trip to NYC to complete research at the New York Public Library of Performing Arts. I will be attending the SCMS conference 21-25 March in Boston. I am not teaching this term, which means more time for research and writing!!
My sabbatical ended on August 31st and I am back in residence at McGill University. On September 1st I took up a new position at McGill as Director of the Institute for Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies. In addition to learning how to be an administrator and hosting fantastic speakers like Heather Love and Judy Norsigian (of Our Bodies Ourselves), we’re in the process of planning events for next year, including a symposium on Girls Studies. I continue to research the 1964 Kitty Genovese case. This fall I’m studying the court transcripts and giving three related talks. I am teaching the graduate course COMS 633: Feminist Media Studies.
My sabbatical official ends August 31, 2011. Until then, I continue to reside in California where I am writing a proposal for my book project on the 1964 Kitty Genovese Murder, writing an article about films related to the Genovese case and attending the NEH Summer Institute in Digital Humanities and American Studies at USC in Los Angeles, July 18-August 11.
I am still on sabbatical at Stanford University and working on my Kitty Genovese book project. On March 11th, my book Second Wounds (Duke UP) will be out, making its first appearance at the Society for Cinema and Media Studies conference in New Orleans, LA, March 9-13. In addition to attending and presenting at SCMS, I will also be visiting Los Angeles and will give two talks at the University of Oregon in June.
I am on sabbatical this fall at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and the Department of Communication at Stanford University. While there, I am researching and writing a book on the 1964 Kitty Genovese murder, applying for grants, and reading!
I am mostly in Montreal, at work on a SSHRC standard research grant application, a new book project on the Kitty Genovese murder and the legacies of failed witness, and a few articles. My book, Second Wounds: Victim’s Rights and the Media in the U.S., has gone into production at Duke University Press. I will be a visiting scholar in the Department of Communication, Stanford University for the 2010-11 academic year.
I am teaching COMS 492: Affect Theory and COMS 643: Cultural Studies of News. My book, Second Wounds: Victim’s Rights and the Media in the U.S., has gone into production at Duke University Press and I am working on a new project on Kitty Genovese and the legacies of failed witness. I am also undergraduate program director for Communication Studies. And this site is getting put together.
