University of Wisconsin-Madison
Biography SM Fleming is a Film PhD candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research examines the intersections of sound, music, and narrative across film, television, and digital media. She is particularly interested in how audiences engage with difficult or alternative forms of storytelling. SM’s broader work considers how technological changes shape media production and …
Biography Garrett Hartman Strpko is a PhD candidate in Communication Arts (Film) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, having received his MA in Film and Media Studies from Washington University in St. Louis. His primary areas of interest lie in film and media philosophy and theory, especially phenomenology. His dissertation focuses on historical documentary produced for …
Biography Lissa is a PhD student in Media and Cultural Studies. Her research examines media industries, transmedia and franchise cultures, participatory media, and how immersive experiences are commercialized. She is particularly interested in how media worlds are produced and extended across platforms, technologies, industries, spaces, and sensory experiences, as well as how these processes complicate …
Biography Mari Henderson is a PhD student in Rhetoric, Politics, and Culture. Her research focuses on comedy as a form of political rhetoric, specifically how state legislators use it to achieve legislative goals.
Biography Matthew Jackson is a PhD student in Film within the Department of Communication Arts at UW-Madison. His research focuses on media histories of the far-right, propaganda film, and the function of popular culture in the formation of affect-driven political identities. Matthew’s additional areas of expertise include French and Italian film history and theory, horror …
Biography Mattie Jacobs is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. He works within the intersecting fields of Hollywood filmmaking, cognitive theory, and media production labor. His dissertation project focuses on Hollywood storytelling strategies and how viewers develop a theory of mind for characters in movies …
Biography Samantha Janes is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her research interests include classical Hollywood films, B-films, gender studies, media industries, and archival work in trade papers and ballyhoo. Her dissertation focuses on the creation of B-film stars of the 1930s—1950s. She works at the Wisconsin …
Biography Max Kaplan is a PhD candidate in the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Communication Arts Department. His research focuses on the politics of audiovisual cultures and the re-circulation of popular music catalogs through sync licensing. Education M.A. City University of New York Graduate Center, 2022 B.S. University of Pittsburgh, 2015 Publications, Public Writing, and Book …
Biography Nimisha Khan is a graduate student in the Rhetoric, Politics, and Culture area of the Department of Communication Arts at UW-Madison. She received her B.A. in Philosophy from Miranda House, University of Delhi, and her M.A. in Media and Cultural Studies from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. She has worked in political …