STATEMENT ON RESEARCH
My contributions to research continue to reflect my identity as a qualitative researcher interested in the various ways narratives can be understood and consumed. Much of my research has been conducted in the multidisciplinary areas of media studies and fan studies. Media studies is an interdisciplinary field that seeks to understand the content, history, and effects of various media over time. Drawing from primarily from film studies, mass communications, communications studies, and with the rapid development of social media platforms, information technology, media studies spans both humanities and social science disciplines and has a broad reach.
Fan studies is also an interdisciplinary field and is the study of people who consider themselves fans of something. To understand the effects of media, a researcher must endeavor to understand its fans and critics. My interest in fan consumption in media started with my graduate work: my Master’s thesis looked at adult female video game players and their ambivalence about the gaming communities they inhabited where my dissertation traced how fans reconceptualized narratives found in media through the fanwork (i.e., works of fiction, art, music, videos, and so forth that are based upon media narratives and shared online) practice of “fanvidding.” From those points, I have been able to expand into different types of narratives through collaborations with other colleagues and expanding on my completed dissertation research. The heart of my research is a sustained interest in stories and storytelling. Fan studies has largely been a field that draws upon media and literary studies, anthropology/cultural anthropology, and cultural studies, but “Fan Studies” as conceived of the study of people in primarily media fandoms has not seen much ground within the field of sociology. Instead, the largest concentration of academic research found in sociology around fans is likely contained within the subfield of sociology of sport. Likewise, despite the concern for narrative within fan studies, there has not been much incorporation of sociology’s “narrative turn” (Denzin and Lincoln 2000, Mishler 1995) into fan studies. Sociological interest in narrative has been an ongoing practice, particularly in the subfields of deviance (e.g., Mills 1940, Scott and Lyman 1968, Stokes and Hewitt 1976) and symbolic interaction (e.g., Becker 1953, Becker and McCall 1990, Goffman 1959, Goffman 1963, Goffman 1979, Goffman 1983), but exploded beginning in the 1980s and 1990s. Deviance, or the study of individuals and groups that deviate from societal norms, and symbolic interaction, or the study of human social life and society through a perspective that understands social processes (e.g., conflict, cooperation, identity) result from human interaction, are both areas of expertise that I hold and vehicles of powerful stories. Deviance tells the stories of the social outsiders and symbolic interactions allows a researcher to better understand how stories are transmitted.
The place of stories in the social context has also been acknowledged within sociology’s “narrative turn.” Stories are trusted sources and powerful agents of socialization and normative values; simultaneously stories are also things to be mistrusted as vehicles of indoctrination at worth and entertaining but trivial at best (Cazden and Hymes 1978, Polletta and Lee 2006). Sociological research on stories and narratives has three themes: “stories as central to self,” or how stories were not just things people told but rather things that people lived and experienced, “stories as the basis for disciplinary authority,” or the recognition that even things understood as “empirical facts” or “truths” within the discipline are also stories, and “stories as a critical and even liberatory discursive form,” or the telling of obscured or repressed stories to subvert authority (Polletta et al. 2011:113). Typically, stories in sociology are treated as distinct from the context of storytelling; sociologists look more at the content of the message than the context is which the story is used or told or how that story is being evaluated by its audience (Gubrium and Holstein 1998, Polletta et al. 2011). Gubrium and Holstein describe the combination of storytelling, the resources of storytelling, and the venue in which stories are told as “narrative practices” and argue for more conscious attention on both the “spontaneous and the conditional sides of storytelling” (1998:164-165).
Overall, my scholarship during my tenure at Northern State University (NSU) tends to fall under better understanding the following three types of storytelling: (a) better understanding how mass mediated narratives shape our conceptions of what is possible within day-to-day life, (b) understanding the ways in which the intersections of identity, especially race, class, gender, and sexuality, are presented and shaped within mass media narratives, and (c) how do audiences, particularly fan audiences whom presumably enjoy and endorse what they are consuming, understand, contextualize, and reformulate mass media narratives through fanworks and fan communities.
I seek to understand the cultural scripts and narratives that are available in the media. Stories are a large part of how we understand the world around us and become part of what Swidler calls a “cultural toolkit” that allow people to “construct diverse strategies of action” (1986:281). Humans draw on past experiences to construct meaning and make choices in both familiar and new situations. Given the overwhelming presence of mass media within our modern society and the media’s key role in socialization, understanding the stories and controlling images (Collins 2000) present within media is key to comprehending and exploring how group ideologies, beliefs, and attitudes form. I prefer to then take this research a step forward and look at the ways in which consumers specifically react and rework these media narratives. This research is especially relevant to looking at the ways the conception of race, class, gender, and sexuality have shifted and are being shifted by consumers. My currently in-progress paper, “It’s Only Fun When It Hurts”: The Acceptance of Narratives of Sexualized Violence in Fandom examines the ways in which media portrayals of violence are explicitly sexualized within fandom. Further, despite the insertion of sexualized violence where none existed in the original source, this insertion rarely happens according to more traditional gendered scripts (e.g., man as aggressor, woman as victim) and often drastically changes the roles within the portrayals to show alternate sexualities and configurations. The exploratory work that Dr. Courtney Waid-Lindberg and I presented in November 2019, titled “A/B/O, Sentinels, and Sex Pollen: Narratives of Consent in Fanfiction,” looks at similar narratives regarding consent, how consent can be violated by outside forces, and the ways in which fans negotiate the acceptability of rape/dubious consent narratives within fandom. Both projects are examples of the all three types of storytelling that I am interested. “It’s Only Fun When It Hurts” looks at the ways fans reinforce the ubiquity of sexualized violence, especially sexualized violence against women, in everyday life but also the way fans simultaneously reject and place that narrative on different identities. In “A/B/O, Sentinels, and Sex Pollen,” these are stories that grapple with the very real-world presence of sexual violence but do it in a way that changes the identities of those affected by it. Finally, the vehicle – fanvideos and fanfiction – are reformulated versions of media narratives.
The more I read about culture and narrative, particularly within social problems and social psychological research, the more I realize exactly how key those simple stories are to creating social change. There is no direct connection or no “real world impact” but the stories we tell influence how we see the world and the people in it; the stories we tell and believe influence how we feel about ourselves (Gubrium and Holstein 1998, Maines 1993, McAdams 1996, Plummer 1995, Polletta et al. 2011). “Fan,” the people whom create and watch fanworks, becomes a central piece of their identity, with a backstory and a narrative of connection and interaction with others of its own. Watching and seeing someone like you on screen – what is the essential part of representation – makes a viewer feel like they are visible and the things the character is doing is possible for the viewer as well. Watching representations of people who are different than us can influence how we think about those groups in real life. For example, continually seeing representations of men of color as antagonists, villains, and criminals in movies and television. This sort of representation likely had no direct influence in the events that lead to events such as the shootings of Mike Brown (Ferguson, Missouri), Trayvon Martin (Sanford, Florida), or others like them that started the “Hands Up Don’t Shoot” movement within the U.S. But representations such as we see in media contribute and reinforce the cultural and historical ideology that men of color, especially black men, are dangerous (Swidler 1986). The reverse is also true. Many television shows and movies – on the surface, at least – presents women in roles of power, complexity, and relative equality to the men in the film. This picture of “equality” given in movies and television shows obscures the very real inequality that women face in the work force (Acker 1990), at home (Carter 2011, Hochschild and Machung [1989] 2003), and society more generally. One type of representation – ethnicity – reflects, exposes, and condones the inequalities people of color face, the other type of representation – gender – nominally ignores, obscures, and condones the inequalities women face. Two very different types of representation, one that is negative and one that is positive, end up doing the same thing within our culture.
By investigating not only the canons but fanworks, I can see the differences in narrative and representation. I can see what fans value in contrast to what media content producers believe we should value. I can see the differences in focus and relationships. Swidler describes the idea of a cultural toolkit as the “symbols, stories, rituals, and world-views, which people may use in configurations to solve different kinds of problems” (1986:273). Swidler then argues that researchers should use these cultural toolkits to understand the ways people use bits and pieces from their kits to form “strategies of action,” or a “general way of organizing action (depending on a network of kin and friends, for example, or relying on selling one’s skills in a market) that might allow one to reach several life goals” (1986:277). What throughout this research are people specifically negotiating those cultural toolkits they have available to them by confirming existing stories, rejecting existing stories, or offering alternate stories. Media and fan narratives become a proxy to see those changing cultural narratives and, more specifically, which pieces of and what ways those narratives are used as a specific type of organizing action, something that has been understudied in other research on fans.
Moving into future work, I fully plan to continue this research agenda but also branch out into different intersectional identities. For example, my collaborative paper with Dr. Cindy Aamlid published in 2019, “We Are Not Different: We Just Sit: A Case Study of the Lives Experiences of Five College Students in Wheelchairs” is an exploration of stories of disability on a college campus and marks the addition of another identity (ability) that I have not studied previously, even as someone with a chronic illness. While I understood the impact disability has on an individual’s life and the many ways society is not designed for people with disabilities, I had never researched the problem or representations of disability prior to 2018 in the same way I have spent the last ten years studying race/ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and to a lesser extent class. Disability studies is a broadly growing subfield in sociology and it currently has very little research on cultural representations and no research has been conducted within the domain of fan studies. This means the work I have been doing, particularly looking at video games and representations of disability, has the potential to be foundational in my field.
Research Activity and Evidence of Scholarly Impact
To date, I have 3 peer-reviewed scholarly publications, 1 invited book review, 1 encyclopedia entry, and 1 letter to the editor completed while in rank. I have also presented my research at national and regional conferences. While collaborative research is the standard within Sociology, my research agenda demonstrates both ability to work with others and complete research on my own. This section further details my contributions to scholarly work in Sociology, beginning with completed publications, in chronological order. I have also provided information regarding impact when possible as well as a short explanation of where this research falls into my larger agenda. Where possible, I have included specific links to the published works and copies of any presentation materials available such as PowerPoint presentations or links to conference program listings. ** denotes conferences that were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Publications
Waid-Lindberg, Courtney A., Daryl J. Kosiak and Kristi Brownfield. 2016. “The Representation of Prison Subculture Models in Mid-20th Century Hollywood Film.” The Annual Review of Interdisciplinary Justice Research 5:125-51.
Link to the full issue | Article
ABSTRACT: In the mid-20th century, penologists shifted their focus from attempts to understand penal reform and offender rehabilitation/punishment to determining if there existed an inmate subculture and what that subculture was. Specifically, questions about how inmates adapted to the “pains of imprisonment” came to the forefront of penological discourse, with various models such as Clemmer’s origin of the prison community (i.e., prisonization) and Sykes’s deprivation theory dominating academic discussion. While the contemporary literature of the time was premised on the observational research by the aforementioned penologists, scholarly research has not examined the effect mid-20th century prison movies had on the formation or modification of the behavior of the persons observed, thus potentially impacting the development of these models. While purely speculative, this paper presents a content analysis of four popular films produced during and shortly after the Great Depression. The argument is presented that these films could have potentially had a role in the development of the prison subculture models by these penologists, specifically as the media may have played a role in shaping the behavior of the subject (inmates and prison staff) they observed.
The Annual Review of Interdisciplinary Justice Research is a thematic double-blind peer review journal housed in Canada that uses a Creative Commons copyright. I was brought on by Dr. Courtney Waid-Lindberg and Mr. Daryl Kosiak as third author following their receipt of a “revise and resubmit.” The main comment from the peer reviewers is that the paper needed more of a methods and results section and was too heavy in the literature review section. For my contribution to the revisions of the paper, I undertook a content analysis applying the concepts outlined within the literature review of the four films within the paper. Following that, I began rewrites to the paper to include the methodology and the results of the content analysis. Following those rewrites, Dr. Waid-Lindberg and Mr. Kosiak proceeded to edit and finalize the paper for resubmission. While I was added as a co-author to this paper during the peer review process, Dr. Waid-Lindberg and Mr. Kosiak invited me specifically because it fit into my area of expertise in understanding cultural representations and identity narratives.
Brownfield, Kristi and Courtney A. Waid-Lindberg. 2017. “Frontier Justice: Examining Representations of Modern Rural Policing on Television.” Annual Review of Interdisciplinary Justice Research 6(1):168-98.
Link to the full issue | Article
ABSTRACT: For much of the 20th century, crime in rural areas was considered to be similar to urban crime; in turn, police operations in rural jurisdictions followed urban policing policy. In recent years, contemporary rural crime and policing have received more attention in the empirical literature, with broad conclusions leaning toward differentiation of social problems and crime among rural communities, and the social entrenchment of officers into the rural communities they serve. While general knowledge of rural crime and policing has increased, a broader understanding is necessary in light of the relatively informal and isolated nature of rural policing. Thus, not surprisingly, much of the public’s knowledge of rural policing comes from the media. Rural crime policy initiatives and the resultant issues/problems that impact the policing of rural crime have received increased attention in television show productions in recent years. The present paper presents an exploratory content analysis of contemporary “cop-dramas” set in rural locations. The conclusion is that these productions do not adequately represent the reality of contemporary rural policing; in turn, officers working in rural areas can be apprised of why the public may have misconceptions about rural crime and rural crime policy, and thus better equipped to perform their job duties.
I proposed this paper to Dr. Waid-Lindberg to fit the thematic topic of “Placing Justice” for volume six of the Annual Review of Interdisciplinary Justice. I completed the content analysis on a sample of five television shows set in rural areas and undertook most of the writing for the article, predominantly focusing on the introduction, methods, and results sections. Dr. Waid-Lindberg “bookended” the paper by contributing to the literature review and providing potential policy implications for rural policing in the conclusion. According to Academia.edu’s metrics, this volume has been accessed by 734 unique readers as of August 25, 2020. This paper combines my research interests in deviance and representations of deviance by looking specifically at cultural representations of places that have been forgotten within most media and research. As the majority of the U.S. population lives in urban areas, their only contact with understanding what rural life is like is from media. This paper seeks to understand the media narratives about crime and justice in rural areas to better understand the public perceptions of both.
Brownfield, Kristi. 2017. “Hacked: A Radical Approach to Hacker Culture and Crime by Kevin Steinmetz.” American Journal of Sociology 123(3).
Link to the full issue | Book Review
This is an invited book review to the American Journal of Sociology (AJS) and is in my area of expertise of online communities. AJS has a recorded impact factor of 4.458 according to the 2018 Journal Citation Reports and is Ranked #4 out of 148 in Sociology journals (American Journal of Sociology 2020).
Aamlid, Cindy and Kristi Brownfield. 2019. “We Are Not Different: We Just Sit: A Case Study of the Lives Experiences of Five College Students in Wheelchairs.” Journal of Ethnographic and Qualitative Research 13(3):155-68.
Journal Website | Article
ABSTRACT: In the present qualitative case study, we used the participatory action research method of photovoice to explore the lived experiences of college students in wheelchairs at a mid-sized, Midwestern university campus. Five undergraduate students with mobility impairments participated in the present study. Participants were asked to photographically record their daily life on campus by taking pictures which they felt represented their experience. We then asked participants to reflect on these experiences with us through individual interviews. Results revealed that participants spent much time and effort dealing with the intersection of accessibility and independence on campus. The photos and narratives suggested an important connectivity between academics and social relationships. Further, these participants shared deep social connections with friends as well as mentors, were highly concerned about their academic pursuits, and felt a particular desire to share their individuality as a student and person.
The Journal of Ethnographic and Qualitative Research (JEQR) is a quarterly, peer-reviewed, cross-disciplinary journal which “address topics relating directly to empirical qualitative research and conceptual articles addressing topics related to qualitative” (Journal of Ethnographic and Qualitative Research 2020). The research detailed in this article was conducted by Dr. Aamlid (first author) and I was brought on to help polish and edit the article for publication. This article was my first substantive foray into disabilities studies and sparked a wider interest in the stories related to ability, both in our cultural representations but also lived experiences of disability.
Brownfield, Kristi. 2019. “Contrasting Sex and Gender.” Pp. 1-2 in The Encyclopedia of Women and Crime.
Link to entry | Article (Final Proof)
This is a short encyclopedia entry I contributed to the Encyclopedia of Women and Crime (EWC) and was using my expertise in gender studies, specifically looking at the history and evolution of the concepts. The EWC was published online on August 23, 2019 and is a comprehensive reference of both pioneers in women’s criminal justice and topics related to women and crime.
Congly, Stephen E. and Kristi A. Brownfield. 2020. “Distinguishing between Sex and Gender Is Critical for Research in Transplantation.” Transplantation 104(2):e57. doi: 10.1097/tp.0000000000002945.
Link to letter | Letter | Author’s response to letter
This is a letter to the editor on which Dr. Stephen Congly and I collaborated for the medical journal Transplantation. Dr. Congly reached out to me in summer 2019 to request assistance with the letter due to my expertise in gender following the publishing of an article that conflated sex and gender in ways that could potential be harmful to research participants. Transplantation is a peer-reviewed medical journal According to the Journal Citation Reports, the journal has a 2020 impact factor of 4.743, ranking it 41 out of 158 journals in the category “Immunology,” 10 out of 203 journals in the category “Surgery,” and 3 out of 25 journals in the category “Transplantation.” Dr. Congly and I made plans to build on this initial collaboration to do a content analysis of gender and its use in the literature in liver disease as well as some areas of GI to begin in spring 2020, though those plans have been delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Presentations:
“White Dudes Boinking: The Intersections of Race and Masculinity in Fanvids,” Kristi Brownfield. Midwest Sociological Society/North-Central Sociological Association Annual Meeting. March 2016.
MSS 2016 Post-Meeting Final Program | White Dudes Boinking MSS PowerPoint Presentation 03-23-2016
ABSTRACT: Fanvids are the creative work of primarily female fans that combine clips or images from a visual “canon” source (usually a television series or movie) to music to create an alternative narrative. Using a sample of 123 fanvids from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel: the Series, Supernatural, and Star Trek (2009), I discuss the ways fans alter presentations of white masculinity through the use of queer narratives. Vidders deconstructed masculinity through role reversals or the attribution of traditionally feminine characteristics to the male leads and the predominantly white male characters become less masculine by default when their sources of power are removed or they are put in situations in which others, generally women or men of color, have power over them. In this paper, I discuss the ways white masculinity is specifically reconstructed into something more complex and in extreme cases more villainous than the original sources and how that villainy is either rejected or enhanced through additions of queer narratives.
This presentation took place at the combined annual meeting for the Midwest Sociological Society (MSS) and the North-Central Sociological Association in Chicago, Illinois. MSS’s annual conference offers a peer-reviewed opportunity to present research and with over 1300 members primarily from the Midwest region is the largest of the “regional” sociological organizations (Midwest Sociological Society 2017). The 2016 meeting took place from March 23-26. My paper was part of a thematic panel on “Race/Class/Gender in Pop Culture.” This presentation used research from my dissertation to explore cultural narratives of how race and masculinity are connected within media and complicated by the inclusion of queer narratives when reconstructed by fans.
“Grindhouse and Girl Gangs: The Globalization of Women’s Violence in Fringe Films.” Kristi Brownfield, Greg DePies, Courtney Waid-Lindberg. Society for the Study of Social Problems Annual Meeting. August 2016.
2016 SPSS Post-Meeting Final Program | Grindhouse and Girl Gangs SSSP 2016 PowerPoint Presentation Final Version
ABSTRACT: Grindhouse, an American term for theaters that primarily showed exploitation films, rose to prominence in the 1960s and 1970s as the rise of television forced theaters to either close or try to offer experiences that viewers could not receive at home: adult films, slasher horror, or dubbed Hong Kong action cinema (Church 2011). In the U.S, grindhouse films provided new types of roles for women and men of color, both groups whom had been traditionally excluded from the protagonist role and provided powerful platforms for diverse representations and narratives, even while the audience the film makers were seeking were straight, white men.
At the same time in Japan, film studios fought against both television and American imports with a similar exploitation of sex and female violence. Taking note of the rise of “sukeban,” or all-girl gangs in the 1960s, Japanese filmmakers created a new genre of “Pinky Violence” films featuring aggressive and dangerous women protagonists. These films about delinquent “bad girls” spoke to the anxieties of men and women about life in Japan’s regimented, corporate-oriented “educational achievement society” and the overriding obsession with economic growth in the postwar era. While both grindhouse and pinky violence films fell out of fashion, neither genre completely disappeared; instead they evolved and diversified into genres such as “gorn” in the U.S. Filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez have created modern pastiches of early grindhouse films in their movies such as Kill Bill (2003, 2004), Grindhouse (2007), and Machete (2010) and the grindhouse aesthetic is seeing a resurgence in the U.S and Rolling Stone even published a list of the “25 Best Modern Exploitation Films” (Fear, Geist, Grierson et al. 2015) highlighting the continuance of the grindhouse aesthetic into the 21st century globally.
The theme of female aggression first featured in 1970s Japanese Pinky Violence films has subsequently been appropriated into mainstream offerings in both live action and anime formats. Varieties of “bad girls” appear in starring roles ranging from shocking to comedic in the Female Prisoner:701, Dirty Pair, Bayonetta, and Blood C franchises, to name a few. At the same time, female delinquency and aggression has received more serious treatments in dramas such as the award winning 2012 film Donzumari Benki (English: Toilet and Women). Such examples suggest a wider willingness to acknowledge and problematize the idea of women as equals to men even in the sphere of violence.
While the Western media driven by Hollywood has long been influenced (but often not acknowledged) by the cultures of other countries (e.g., spaghetti westerns are derived from Japanese samurai films), the current trend of globalization and exportation of culture means those lines have blurred even further. Scholars and critics have argued about the ultimate results of this cultural blending: are we moving toward a more unified global culture, toward a fragmentation of diverse cultural forms that exist side-by-side (Baudrillard 1988), or new cultural hybrids composed of contrasting elements from different cultural sources (Hall 1992)? This argument has played out predominantly dealing with “mainstream” cultures and, in particular, “mainstream” media. We seek to investigate this cultural transmission at the margins by looking specifically at changing gender roles for women in “grindhouse” films. We begin by looking specifically at changing representations and definitions of femininity, strength, and aggression both in the original 1970s grindhouse and pinky violence films in the U.S. and Japan before moving to the evolution of these two genres in the 21st century by asking the following questions: (a) How have those early and – at the time – shocking representations of powerful, strong, violent women changed, progressed, regressed? (b) How do those gender roles and representations reflect cultural expectations and cultural ideals about women and the place of women in society? (c) How do these representations reflect both the realities of crime, violence, and the criminal justice systems in the U.S. and Japan? (d) Ultimately, where do we see cultural overlap and cultural divergence between the U.S. and Japan at the fringes in these films?
This presentation took place at the meeting for the Society for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP) in Seattle, Washington. Dr. DePies and I undertook the data gathering and analysis for the paper while Dr. Waid-Lindberg gave the formal presentation at the meeting. SSSP is an international organization (The Society for the Study of Social Problems 2017) and the meeting took place from August 19-21, 2016. The paper was placed on a panel titled “Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Crime.” This presentation attempted to understand cross-cultural narratives of violence, especially gendered-violence, in a comparative way that is rarely accomplished in fan studies.
“The Representation of Military Masculinity in Comedic Film.” Kristi Brownfield. Great Plains Sociological Association Annual Meeting. October 2016.
GPSA 2016 Meeting Program | The Representation of Military Masculinity in Comedic Film GPSA 2016 PowerPoint Presentation
ABSTRACT: Within this paper, I seek to explore the different portrayals and representations of military masculinity offered in film, particularly through the genre of comedy. In dramatic or action-oriented films, masculinity is predominantly restricted to hegemonic masculinity (Connell 1987). However, comedy and farce often can simultaneously provide more freedom in representations and further reinforce existing gender norms. I see to explore how masculinity is portrayed through the following research questions: (a) is hegemonic masculinity the focus of the jokes within the film or is it upheld as the norm similar to other military films; (b) what alternate masculinities are portrayed in those films and are they condoned or condemned; (c) what effect or influence does the specifically military context of the film have on the representation of gender roles more generally? To investigate these questions, I conducted a content analysis of 20 military comedies looking specifically at identity presentation, character and narrative arcs, and cultural narratives present within the films.
This presentation took place at the Great Plains Sociological Association (GPSA) annual meeting on October 20-21, 2016 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. GPSA is a small regional organization made of members primarily from South Dakota, North Dakota, and Minnesota. My paper was presented as part of a thematic panel on “Military Sociology” and I served as the session presider. This presentation looks specifically at representations of deviant masculinity and ways that deviance is presented in positive ways through the lens of comedy.
“Frontier Justice: Examining Representations of Masculinity of Modern Rural Policing on Television.” Kristi Brownfield, Courtney Waid-Lindberg. Midwest Sociological Society Annual Meeting/Couch-Stone Symposium. March 2017.
2017 MSS Post-Meeting Final Program | MSS 2017 Rural Policing on TV PowerPoint Presentation
ABSTRACT: For much of the 20th century, crime in rural areas was considered to be similar to urban crime; in turn, police operations in rural jurisdictions followed urban policing policy. In recent years, contemporary rural crime and policing have received more attention in the empirical literature, with broad conclusions leaning toward differentiation of social problems and crime among rural communities, and the social entrenchment of officers into the rural communities they serve. While general knowledge of rural crime and policing has increased, a broader understanding is necessary in light of the relatively informal and isolated nature of rural policing. Thus, not surprisingly, much of the public’s knowledge of rural policing and rural police comes from the media. Rural crime and the policing of rural crime have received increased attention in television show productions in recent years. The present paper presents an exploratory content analysis of contemporary “cop-dramas” set in rural locations, specifically focusing on the presentations of masculinity.
This presentation, using data from Dr. Waid-Lindberg and my publication “Frontier Justice: Examining Representations of Modern Rural Policing on Television,” took place at the combined annual meeting for MSS and the Couch Stone Symposium from March 30-April 2, 2017 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This paper was presented within a panel titled “Location Matters: Studies on Rural Crime and Community Identity and Attachment.” I served as the session presider for this panel. This presentation uses the research Dr. Waid-Lindberg and I conducted for our article of the same title.
“Thinking about Assessment in a Programmatic Way.” Cindy Aamlid, Kristi Brownfield, Courtney Waid-Lindberg. Great Plains Sociological Association Annual Meeting. October 2017.
GPSA 2017 Program | Thinking About Program Assessment GPSA 2017 PowerPoint Presentation
ABSTRACT: Assessment is a process designed to improve student learning and our teaching. Our panel will share how we have moved through the steps of the assessment cycle. Specifically we will discuss: how to rework and refine student learning outcomes, moving from grading course assignments to assessing student learning, and using the results to make decisions for a program review.
This panel presentation took place at the GPSA annual meeting from October 26-27, 2017 in Fargo, North Dakota. The panel was originally proposed by Dr. Cindy Aamlid, a Professor of Sociology at Southwest Minnesota State University. She proposed the idea to Dr. Waid-Lindberg, who had recently presented on completing a program evaluation, and Dr. Waid-Lindberg suggested adding me to the panel due to my work on re-writing the Sociology program assessment plan in Fall 2017. I contributed information specifically on backwards design in curriculum development and program assessment as well as analyzing and rewriting student learning outcomes.
“Violence, Villainy, and Vigilantism: The Positioning of Restorative Violence in Genre Television.” Kristi Brownfield, Courtney Waid-Lindberg. American Society of Criminology’s Annual Meeting. November 2017.
ASC 2017 Program | Violence, Villainy, and Vigilantism ASC PowerPoint Presentation
ABSTRACT: This paper explores the formula stories associated with the depictions of restorative violence in three television shows: Angel: the Series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Supernatural. All three television shows are conflict-driven narratives about the fight against evil beings such as vampires, demons, or ghosts; this fight is predominantly lead by outsiders essentially practicing vigilantism. However, the actions taken by the “good” vigilante protagonists are – in abstract – often completely indistinguishable from the actions taken from the “bad” villains. This paper explores the ways in which the line between “acceptable” and “unacceptable” violence is drawn in genre television, particularly in situations regarding restorative violence, or violence perpetuated to “restore” something that has been lost, where motivations are coded the same for antagonists and protagonist characters.
This presentation took place at the American Society of Criminology’s (ASC) annual meeting from November 15-18, 2017 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Despite the name of the organization, ASC is an international organization and has members worldwide (American Society of Criminology 2017). This was an invited presentation on an international thematic panel titled “Crime and Media” at ASC’s 2017 annual meeting. The data presented was from my dissertation research and Dr. Waid-Lindberg and I worked together to reanalyze my data through the lens of violence as an act of “justice.”
“Roundtable: Social Reactions to Crime and Victimization: The Benefits and Challenges of Analyzing Twitter Data.” Panel Discussant. American Society of Criminology’s Annual Meeting. November 2017.
This roundtable took place at the American Society of Criminology’s (ASC) annual meeting from November 15-18, 2017 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Despite the name of the organization, ASC is an international organization and has members worldwide (American Society of Criminology 2017). I was invited to take part in the panel due to my expertise in internet data analysis.
“The Reality of Safe Spaces: Tracking Deviance in Online Support Forums.” Kristi Brownfield and Kirsten Krueger. Midwest Sociological Society annual meeting. March 2018.
2018 MSS Meeting Program | The Reality of Safe Spaces Presentation MSS 2018 PowerPoint Presentation
ABSTRACT: This project looks at the interpretation of deviant behavior in communities that are designed to be “accepting.” While there has been sociological research on both online harassment and bullying, there has not been much research or attention paid to practices within anti-discrimination or “inclusive” communities created informally by laypeople (e.g., not people working specifically in anti-discrimination fields) to provide information, support, resources, and build bridges between different identity-based communities. Despite the goal of inclusion and civility within these communities, many still have reoccurring incidences of harassment. This paper looks at the “triggers” that start those incidents, the types of behaviors that are present which could be seen as “bullying” (e.g., dogpiling, trolling, etc.), and how these incidents are dealt with by community administrators and members. This project track and investigates these online communities in a longitudinal manner across several different communities and community types (e.g., communities devoted to supporting parents and grief support groups) to see patterns both within and between the differing support functions and platforms.
This presentation took place at the Midwest Sociological Society’s annual meeting from March 22-25, 2018 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This research, assisted by Kirsten Krueger, a research assistant in the counseling master’s program, combined my interest in deviance, gender, and the internet by looking at the evolution of the phenomenon of “trolling,” or deliberately starting arguments on the internet. The acceptability of trolling has changed in the last thirty years and the act itself has also changed in gendered ways, particularly in terms of the motivation for the act of trolling. This research project explores trolling and other deviant behavior in “safe spaces” online to better understand how these practices are justified in areas where the behaviors should presumably be condemned.
“Panel: Thinking About Assessment in a Programmatic Way.” Cindy Aamlid, Kristi Brownfield, Courtney Waid-Lindberg. Midwest Sociological Society’s annual meeting. March 2018.
2018 MSS Meeting Program
ABSTRACT: Assessment is a process designed to improve student learning and our teaching. As educators, we regularly engage in assessment in our classrooms though papers, exams, quizzes, and other various learning activities. Despite our commitment to assessing the classroom, we tend to be less engaged in programmatic assessment; that is, we rarely look at the learning that is happening across our major in a systematic way. This panel seeks to begin to remedy that by approaching the various steps of program assessment. We will be discussing: how to rework and refine student learning outcomes, understanding and mapping curriculum to learning outcomes, moving from grading course assignments to assessing student learning, and using the results to make decisions for a program review.
This presentation took place at the Midwest Sociological Society’s annual meeting from March 22-25, 2018 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I served as the session organizer.
“Panel: ‘So I’m An Academic, Huh?’: Demystifying the Experience.” Panel Discussant. Midwest Sociological Society’s annual meeting. March 2018.
This presentation took place at the Midwest Sociological Society’s annual meeting from March 22-25, 2018 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This was an invited panel put together by Dr. Rachel Bridges Whaley, the 2018 chair of MSS’s Committee for Women in the Profession.
“Television’s Representation of Autism Spectrum Disorder.” Kristi Brownfield and Courtney Waid-Lindberg. Accessing Justice: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Access, Justice, Law, and Order. May 2018.
2018 Accessing Justice Meeting Program | Television’s Representations of Modern-Day Crime Fighters Accessing Justice 2018 PowerPoint Presentation
ABSTRACT: The portrayal of savant crime fighters is a literary tradition that dates back to Edgar Allen Poe’s C. Auguste Dupin in “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” widely regarded as the world’s first detective story. Dupin, and his more famous literary counterpart Sherlock Holmes, set the stage for the characteristics of fictional detectives: hyper intelligent, meticulous, obsessive about solving crimes, unusual body language, and struggling with the broader social sphere. These are also traits that are, today, highly associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This paper looks at the presentation of the modern-day presentations of television crime fighters, particularly ones that have been confirmed or “adopted” as on the spectrum to better understand the media portrayal. We look specifically at the following television shows: Bones (2005-2017), Criminal Minds (2005-present), Numb3rs (2005-2010), and Scorpion (2014-present). Within these shows, we analyze how the characters are presented and narratively coded as either positive or negative both within and outside the context of the canon. Further, we look at the idealization and idolization of the “savant” within the context of the television shows.
Accessing Justice is an annual interdisciplinary thematic conference sponsored and hosted by the Center for Interdisciplinary Justice Studies at the University of Winnipeg. The conference took place from May 9-11, 2018, in Winnipeg, Manitoba in Canada. Our paper was an invited submission, solicited by one of the conference organizers, Dr. Steven Kohm. The idea was sparked by a research project in the spring 2018 Capstone course where a student surveyed officers in the Aberdeen Police Department (APD) to better understand the knowledge base, policies, and practices about police-citizen interactions when the citizen has autism and may not conform to normative behaviors and expectations. After reading her research paper, I suggested to Dr. Waid-Lindberg we use autism and the representation of the disabled “savant” as our focus of this research. This was the first time I had used disability as a lens in any of my media research and what, later, encouraged Dr. Aamlid to ask for my assistance with her paper.
“Heal Plz: Representations of Ability and Able-Bodiedness in Video Games.” Kristi Brownfield. Midwest Sociological Society Annual Meeting. April 2019. [Session Presider]
2019 MSS Meeting Program | “Heal Plz” MSS 2019 PowerPoint Presentation
ABSTRACT: Modern video games have gone far beyond their humble beginnings in terms of technology. These advances in technology that allow game developers to create more realistic stories and environments have brought wonder to players and concern to video game and media critics due to their concerns about representation. Representation, broadly defined as the ability to see ourselves in the culture surrounding us, within video games, has largely centered on three categories of concern to media scholars: whiteness, masculinity, and heterosexuality. In this paper, I will explore themes underlying the representation of ability within video games. Using a content analysis of the top ten grossing video games from the years 2013-2018 and fan discussion boards of the games, this paper tackles the questions of (a) how is disability shown within different video game genres, (b) how do mechanisms of healing change how the body and disability are portrayed within video games, and (c) how do players understand and respond to those representations?
This presentation took place at the Midwest Sociological Society’s annual meeting from April 17-20, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois. After my work with Dr. Waid-Lindberg looking at autism representation and Dr. Aamlid at understanding wheelchair use on a college campus, this project seemed a good marriage of an interest I had put aside since my master’s thesis — video games — and my current interest of disability. It was also the beginning of an still-ongoing project looking not only at representations in video games but also the audience responses.
“Concern Trolling: The Nature of Digitized Public Discourse Encompassing Police-Citizen Interactions.” Kristi Brownfield and Courtney Waid-Lindberg. Digitizing Justice: Law, Crime, and Order in an Online World. May 2019.
2019 Digitizing Justice Meeting Program | Concern Trolling Digitizing Justice PowerPoint Presentation
ABSTRACT: “Concern trolling” is defined as the act of falsely expressing concern about an issue to derail or undermine discussion in online forums and communities. Concern trolls express the opinion of “U support you but you’re doing it wrong,” whether “it” might be surviving cancer, participating in the online gaming community as a woman, or walking down the street in a hoodie as a black man. In this research, we took a case study approach to better understand the forms in which concern trolling can take during online discussions of police interactions by examining a sample of comments surrounding three newsworthy negative police interactions that occurred in the past two years. We examined newspaper articles characterized by three main status interactions: (1) race/ethnicity, (2) gender, and (3) ability, and used comments posted on these news stories from major newspapers as defined by the PEW Research Center. These comments
will serve as a proxy for public attitudes surrounding the selected police interactions for analysis. By examining those comments over a diverse range of reports of police interactions, we will better understand the prevalence, form, and contexts in which concern trolling occurs online.
Digitizing Justice is an annual interdisciplinary thematic conference sponsored and hosted by the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Winnipeg. The conference took place from May 15-17, 2019 in Winnipeg, Manitoba in Canada. This project, similar to my 2018 work on deviance in safe spaces, looking at instances of “trolling” online. In this case, the focus is specifically how citizens respond to the deviant behavior of police offices following news reports of negative police-citizen interactions.
“A/B/O, Sentinels, and Sex Pollen: Narratives of Consent in Fanfiction.” Kristi Brownfield and Courtney Waid-Lindberg. Great Plains Sociological Association Annual Meeting. November 2019.
2019 GPSA Meeting Program | Consent in Fanfic GPSA 2019 PowerPoint Presentation
ABSTRACT: Fanfiction is largely a female and queer dominated spaces, especially online. “Alpha/beta/omega” universes, (A/B/O), Sentinel universes, and stories in which characters are magically, environmentally, or mechanically forced into sexual encounters (“sex pollen” or “fuck or die” narratives) have been extremely popular within both off- and online fandom for years. All three of these tropes are heavily centered on ideas of instant sexual connection, gender and sexuality hierarchies, and biological imperatives surrounding sexual activity. This indicates that the individuals which are participating within fandom spaces are highly interested in negotiating cultural narratives of consent and sexuality. This paper is a pilot study that looks at the occurrences of stories that are predicated on questions of consent. We looked at a sample of fanfic from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) on the popular fanwork website Archive of Our Own (AO3) that had been tagged with these tropes to analyze and understand the ways in which gender, sexuality, and consent are being renegotiated within fan spaces.
This presentation took place at the 2019 Great Plains Sociological Association annual meeting from November 6-7, 2019 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. As noted in my research statement, the research presented here was largely exploratory but in the near future I plan on expanding this into a full content analysis. This research fits nicely with my earlier dissertation work looking at sexualized violence in narrative.
“Hegemonic Masculinity, Disability, and Restorative Violence Within Video Games.” Kristi Brownfield. Midwest Sociological Society Annual Meeting. Scheduled for April 2020.**
2020 MSS Meeting Program – final draft for cancellation
ABSTRACT: This paper explores the representations of disability in video games as they are linked specifically to masculinity. Representation, broadly defined as the ability to see ourselves in the culture surrounding us, within video games, has largely centered on three categories of concern to media scholars: whiteness, masculinity, and heterosexuality. In this paper, I will explore themes underlying the representation of the intersections of masculinity and ability within video games. Looking at a sample of video games produced from 2010-2019, I will be exploring how disabled male characters engage in masculinity. Specifically, I will be looking at: (a) how masculinity is “done” for male characters, (b) how disability is represented within video games, (c) how hegemonic masculinity and restorative violence are framed within these narratives.
The annual meeting of the Midwest Sociological Society, scheduled for April 2-5, 2020 in Omaha, Nebraska, was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This research is the second piece of my research on disability in video games. In my 2019 presentation, “Heal Plz,” I looked strictly at the presentations of disability within video games. Within this work, I extended that earlier research to look at the intersections of masculinity, violence, and disability. Essentially, how the predominantly masculine characters in video games responded to injury or permanent disability, largely through violence, to restore their sense of masculinity.
“Surviving the Gig Economy: Adjuncting in Higher Education” Session Presider. Midwest Sociological Society Annual Meeting. Scheduled for April 2020.**
2020 MSS Meeting Program – final draft for cancellation
ABSTRACT: The Women in Profession (WIP) committee is sponsoring a panel to discuss the changes in the higher education workforce structure as higher education has moved from stable, full-time employment reliant on a tenure system to a just-in-time adjunct workforce with weakened tenure protections. Panelists will discuss both structures and the choices that lead individuals into the gig economy, the commitments and responsibilities faculty feel to teaching, research, and service faculty in a gig economy, issues of faculty governance as an adjunct, what it means to work alongside people who have better pay, employment protections and promotion opportunities than you do, and suggestions for how tenured and tenure-track faculty can be better allies to adjuncts.
This is a thematic panel organized by the Midwest Sociological Society’s WIP committee. As part of the WIP committee, I took charge in organizing the panel. The annual meeting of the Midwest Sociological Society, scheduled for April 2-5, 2020 in Omaha, Nebraska, was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Toward Sustaining Women in Academia: Understanding their Invisible Labor.” Panel Discussant. Midwest Sociological Society Annual Meeting. Scheduled for April 2020.**
2020 MSS Meeting Program – final draft for cancellation
ABSTRACT: In a panel sponsored by the Committee on the Status of Women in the Profession, panelists will discuss the invisible labor that women are often expected to engage in. Invisible labor includes the emotional labor and other, often hidden work, that women do (and are expected to do, with special attention to women of color) including informal mentoring and nurturing of colleagues, students, and relationships; behind the scenes service work; public speaking; and managing classrooms and the emotions of students and oneself in and outside the classroom around sensitive topics. Panelists include graduate instructors, assistant thru full professors, and those with administrative experiences located in teaching and research universities as different forms of invisible labor manifest accordingly. After presenting their experiences, panelists will engage in discussion with audience members to brainstorm additional forms of invisible labor, challenges for women in statuses not represented, and solutions and strategies for reducing it and getting credit for it.
This is a thematic panel organized by the Midwest Sociological Society’s WIP committee. I was invited as a panel discussant by the session presider, Dr. Rachel Whaley. The annual meeting of the Midwest Sociological Society, scheduled for April 2-5, 2020 in Omaha, Nebraska, was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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