Aca-Media

Chris has relearned how to sleep, and she’s back behind the Aca-Media mic. She and Michael bring you interviews with Alfred Martin and Michael Newman, members of the SCMS Katherine Singer Kovács Essay and Book Award committees respectively, as well as the inspiring backstory of the awards’ namesake. Then we head back in time to just before the 2014 SCMS conference, when we told you all about things to do in Seattle. Luckily, not that much has changed in the Emerald City since then, and Perry Como’s “Seattle” is still a killer earworm, so we’ve included the whole segment again on the eve of the 2019 SCMS conference. If you’re headed to Seattle, you’ll definitely want to listen to this one on your trip there to maximize the recommendations.

Aca-Media is back to ring in 2019! Join our hosts Michael Kackman and guest host Stephanie Brown as they explore what it means to build and nurture communities inside and outside academia. We first talk with scholar/filmmaker/activist/all-around legend B. Ruby Rich from UC-Santa Cruz about her illustrious career, representation and diversity in academia and industry, Film Quarterly and cross-cultural exchange, and the “dignity of the image” in a global context. We then hear from Derek Kompare on his experience as chair of the SMU Meadows Film and Media Arts department. We delve into the administrative, social, and even emotional aspects of this rewarding and critical role, providing some guidance on how to make it a success.

As fall semesters kick off, we’re back with the second part of Producer Stephanie Brown’s two-part series on job searching in this precarious academic job market! Stephanie takes us back into a multi-layered conversation with the job seekers, adjuncts, and search-committee members from the last episode as well as some new faces. After a montage of concrete advice for job seekers and search-committee members to make the process more bearable, our guests share their experiences with alternative career paths, open access publishing, and much more. Stayed tuned until the end for a happy ending!

Share this one with everyone you know who is on the academic job market!  We present the first of a two-part series on job searches, with advice and empathy from those who are currently contending with the vagaries of the market. Producer Stephanie Brown talks with job seekers, adjuncts, and search-committee members in order to gain insight into the often frustrating process of gaining academic employment. Commiseration is provided!  Then Christine Becker talks with Felan Parker about his new CJ article on Roger Ebert and the wars over video games as "art," including their relevance for more recent cultural struggles over games and gamers. 

Aca-Media presents a Very Special Episode, albeit one without an easy, “feel-good” ending. The topic is precarity in academia. We bring you three segments: a roundtable (with Jamie Rogers, Jennifer Hyland Wang, and Bruce Brasell) on contingent and precarious academic labor (and what SCMS might do about it), an interview with Alex Russo on the turmoil at Catholic University, and a report from Brett Mills on the UCU strike in the UK.

As spring zooms along as a semester and lags behind as a season, we bring you a new episode of Aca-Media with two segments that speak to our current times. First, we present different reflections on and strategies for “Teaching in Trump Times,” composed of submissions from educators across cinema and media studies, representing diverse contexts and experiences in the field. Second, from Fieldnotes, the ongoing oral history project by the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, we present a wide-ranging interview with Hamid Naficy conducted by Kaveh Askari. http://www.aca-media.org/episode42

There's a new editor at Cinema Journ-- um, we mean, The Journal of Cinema and Media Studies. Chris talks with Caetlin Benson-Allott about her plans for the next five years and what SCMS members can expect from the journal formally known as CJ. Then Alisa Perren and Charlotte E. Howell converse about their relationship as advisor and advisee, providing insights into what makes for a great mentoring experience in grad school and beyond. Finally, Chris and Michael put out the call for YOUR stories of teaching in the age of Trump. Check out the call and send your stories to us here: www.aca-media.org/episode41.

In our final episode of 2017, we feature an interview with outgoing Cinema Journal editor Will Brooker addressing the past and future of the Society for Cinema Studies’ journal. In addition, we feature an interview with Maggie Hennefeld on her work as co-chair of the Comedy and Humor Studies Scholarly Interest Group (SIG) and her upcoming book Specters of Slapstick and Silent Film Comediennes.

In this episode of Aca-Media, we feature Amanda Lotz discussing her recent work on internet-distributed television and her Media Business Matters podcast. In addition, Brandon Arroyo presents excerpts of his Porno Cultures Podcast including interviews with Peter Alilunas on his entry into the field and an audio tour of the Little Theater in Newark, New Jersey with Whitney Strub.

To help you with your SCMS proposal this month, we reprise an interview with Angelo Restivo on SCMS’s paper-selection process.  Then we bring you a FieldNotes interview with groundbreaking television scholar Lynn Spigel, interviewed by Elana Levine.  Finally, Chris offers to review your SCMS proposal over a pint, with her eyes closed! 

We’re back from the spring semester and talking about graduation and protest, balancing SCMS leadership and research, and a digital research project in transnational streaming radio for your summer listening. We discuss the recent Notre Dame student walkout before presenting an interview with Steven Cohan on his article in the latest issue of Cinema Journal on Danny Kaye, Cohan’s role as SCMS president, and the current functioning of the conference. Then we talk with Alec Badenoch on the web project Radio Garden (radio.garden) and its impact in radio studies and wide usage by listeners.

In this episode, we talk to media studies researchers and teachers involved in protest, organizing, and public scholarship initiatives following the presidential election of 2016. Speaking with Carol Vernallis, Amanda Ann Klein, Chuck Tryon, Jorie Lagerwey, Jason Ruiz, we address a range of issues, from preparations for a Protecting the Commons workshop at SCMS 2017, to Console-ing Passions 2017 as a response to the political situation in North Carolina including HB2 and Moral Mondays, organizing local town halls, public scholarship and working abroad, the sanctuary campus movement, and pedagogical responsibilities. Throughout we feature audio excerpts (some submitted by listeners) from the Women’s March, town hall protests, and other events from recent weeks.

Recorded just before the inauguration, this episode takes two oblique angles on politics. First, Stephanie Brown discusses helping students’ find their voice through a podcast assignment for her “Sex and Gender in the Media” class and shares snippets her students’ work. Speaking of podcasts, Chris and Michael discuss PodcastRE.org, an exciting new project for podcast fans and (especially) scholars. Then we bring you an interview with Paul Douglas Grant on political filmmaking and the role of the translator in film studies. Finally, as part of a new project on Protecting the Commons, we encourage you to send in YOUR audio of your responses and reactions to the new regime for episode 36: info@aca-media.org.

In our last episode of 2016, we present Susan Ohmer discussing the experience of teaching a course on US presidential elections. We also feature SCMS Conference Manager Leslie LeMond on the work that goes into preparations for the annual SCMS conference, including the 2017 Chicago edition.

Recorded after Game 1 of the World Series and before the conclusion of the US presidential election, here we feature interviews with Kirk Combe and Sangeet Kumar on political satire media in an international context, as well as Cynthia Meyers on broadcast advertising and the red scare. Visit the website for full show notes!: http://www.aca-media.org/episode33