curriculum vitae

by Julie Levin Russo — Stanford University
October 23, 2006 – 23:07

Julie Levin Russo
Brown University, Department of Modern Culture and Media
155 George St. Box 1957 - Providence, RI 02912

EDUCATION

Brown University

PhD in Modern Culture and Media - 2009 (expected)
MA in Modern Culture and Media - 2006

Swarthmore College

BA in English Literature with High Honors - 2001
- Theater Studies minor
- Interpretation Theory concentration
- thesis: Cyborg Sex in Public, Fan Fiction On-line, and a Fantasy of Political Consumption

HONORS

Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory Scholar (2008-2009)

Brown University

Richard and Edna Salomon Endowed Fellowship (2007-2008)
Humanities Research Group Grant, Cogut Center for the Humanities (Spring 2005)

Swarthmore College

Hicks Prize for Literary Criticism, English Department (2001)
Dean’s Award for creating community (2001)
Intercultural Center award for leadership (2001)
Freshman Writing Prize, English Department (1997)

DISSERTATION

Indiscrete Media: Television/Digital Convergence and Economies of Online Lesbian Fan Communities

Director: Lynne Joyrich, Associate Professor of Modern Culture and Media

Readers: Wendy Chun, Associate Professor of Modern Culture and Media

Philip Rosen, Professor of Modern Culture and Media

My dissertation analyzes how the convergence of television and the internet is transforming the relationship between the media industry and its consumers. Taking women’s production of fan music videos, fiction, critique, and community as an exemplar of economic, regulatory, and technological struggles emerging today, I undertake three case studies of online lesbian fan formations around three television series. Through these artifacts, and drawing from media archaeology, autonomist Marxism, queer theory and cultural studies, I argue that fan engagement is a contested axis of immaterial labor in late capitalism. By framing convergence’s technologies, discourses, and subjectivities as queer, I offer a schema for mapping its challenges to systems of ownership, circulation, and value. My work uniquely synthesizes media studies, fan studies, and industry studies, and makes critical contributions to scholarship on television, digital media, and lesbian representation.

PUBLICATIONS

“Show Me Yours: The Perversion and Politics of Cyber-Exhibitionism.” Camera Obscura: forthcoming. Duke U Press, 2009.

“Inside the Box: Accessing Self-Reflexive Television.” The Journal of E-Media Studies: forthcoming. Dartmouth, 2009.

“User-Penetrated Content: Fan Videos in the Age of Convergence.” Cinema Journal (Vol. 48, No. 4): forthcoming. SCMS and U Texas Press, 2009.

“Hera Has Six Mommies (A Transmedia Love Story).” FlowTV (Vol. 7, Special). U Texas Austin, 2007.

“Hairgate! TV’s Coiffure Controversies and Lesbian Locks.” Camera Obscura (Vol. 22, No. 2). Duke UP, 2007.

“‘The Real Thing’: Reframing Queer Pornography for Virtual Spaces.” C’Lick Me: A Netporn Studies Reader. Institute of Network Cultures, 2007.

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

LA Queer Studies - Tenth Anniversary Conference, UCLA

October 2008: “Labors of Love: Economies of Identity in The L Word’s Fan-Driven Online Promotions”

Console-ing Passions - International Conference on Television, Audio, Video, New Media & Feminism, UCSB

April 2008: “Labors of Love: Who Charts The L Word?” (“Gendered Fan Labor in New Media and Old” workshop participant)

Society for Cinema and Media Studies - International Conference, Philadelphia

March 2008: “The Shape of Things to Come: Online Promotions, Fan Videos, and Other Queer Technologies in the Progeny of ‘Battlestar Galactica’”

Media in Transition 5: Creativity, Ownership and Collaboration in the Digital Age - International Conference, MIT
April 2007: “Labors of Love: Capitalizing on Fan Economies” (“TV 2.0: Remixing Battlestar Galactica” panel chair)

Society for Cinema and Media Studies - International Conference, Chicago
Freud and the Humanities - Cogut Center for the Humanities, Brown University
March 2007, October 2006: “Show Me Yours: The Perversion and Politics of Cyber-Exhibitionism”

Popular Culture Association - National Conference, Atlanta
April 2006: “Hybrid TV: Fandom and Technology”

Society for Cinema and Media Studies - International Conference, Vancouver
March 2006: “Inside Out: Television on Television”

The Art and Politics of Netporn - Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam
September 2005: “The Real Thing: Reframing Queer pornography for Virtual Spaces”

Technotopias - University of Strathclyde, Glasgow
July 2002: “Cyborg Sex in Public: Fan Fiction On-line, and a Fantasy of Political Consumption”

EVENTS & INVITED TALKS

Presenter - “Out of Place/Out of Time: Queer Studies in Theory and Practice”

April 19, 2008: LGBTQ Resource Center Graduate Student Colloquium, Brown University

Organizer and Speaker - Media Fetish: The Vidshow!

April 6, 2008: special event with Francesca Coppa at Brown University

Speaker - “SkewTube: Fan Videos, Brokeback Trailers, and the Future of User-Penetrated Content”

March 4, 2008: campus talk at Swarthmore College

Guest Presenter - “Fandom from Cult to Convergence”

March 4, 2008: Bob Rehak’s course Fan Cultures at Swarthmore College

Guest Presenter - “Global Fan Labor”

October 9, 2007: Wendy Chun’s course Imagined Networks at Brown University

Organizer and Speaker - (Re)Producing Cult TV: Battlestar Galactica

March 2, 2007: special event with Mary McDonnell at Brown University

ONLINE PRESENTATIONS

Videos - HASTAC blog on creative uses of technology and participatory learning, 2008-2009

Video Interview - “Diane E. Levin: Child’s Play as Transformative Work,” March 2009

Forum Discussion (co-facilitator) - Academic Publishing in the Digital Age, November 2008

Videos - personal archive of talks and course lectures, 2006-present

Podcast (audio production) - “Gendered Fan Labor in New Media and Old” workshop, with Bob Rehak, September 2008

Slidecast (powerpoint plus audio) - documentation of “SkewTube” talk, March 2008

Guest Dialogue (blog article) - Henry Jenkins’s “Gender and Fan Culture” series, with Hector Postigo, October 2007

Podcast (audio production) - “TV 2.0: Remixing Battlestar Galactica” panel, May 2007

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Teaching Fellow - Brown University (designed and taught an undergraduate seminar)

Television on the Internet, Spring 2007

Teaching Assistant - Brown University (led discussion sections for lecture courses)

Television Studies, Fall 2006
Cinema and Stardom: Image/Industry/Fantasy, Spring 2006
Introduction to Digital Media, Fall 2005
- Lecture: Cyborgs, Online Community, and Affinity Politics
Introduction to the Study of Television, Spring 2005
- Lecture: Television Fandom
Introduction to Modern Culture and Media, Fall 2004
- Lecture: Pierre Bourdieu

PEDAGOGICAL TRAINING

The Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning, Brown University

Certificate I • Teaching Seminar, 2007

A year-long training program for graduate students in reflective teaching methods which includes lectures, workshops, a micro-teaching evaluation and a personal teaching consultation.

Certificate II • Classroom Tools Seminar, 2009

A year-long workshop series covering a variety of pedagogical tools and strategies that instructors may wish to utilize to reach the broadest possible learning population.

Certificate III • Professional Development Seminar, 2009

A year-long workshop series that trains participants to document the scholarship of their teaching in preparation for the academic job market.

SERVICE

Departmental Grad Student Liaison - The Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning at Brown University, 2008-2009

Symposium Editor - Transformative Works and Cultures (an open access, international, peer-reviewed journal), 2008 term

Peer Reviewer - Popular Communication: The International Journal of Media and Culture, 2008

Peer Reviewer - differences: a journal of feminist cultural studies, 2007

Guest Associate Editor - “Re/Producing Cult TV: The Battlestar Galactica Issue” of FlowTV, December 2007

Coordinator - Humanities Center Working Group “Critical Theories of Pornography” at Brown University, Spring 2005

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Computer Consultant - Tekserve Apple Specialist, September 2001-March 2003
Sales, technical support, and diagnostic testing for Apple computers and related products.

Outreach Intern - William Way LGBT Community Center, Philadelphia, Summer 2000
Wrote and received a Swarthmore Foundation grant to research underrepresented groups and develop the Transgender Programming Committee, composed of leading community activists.

Tour Guide and Representative - Admissions Office, Swarthmore College, 1998-2000
Selected from the group of student guides to represent Swarthmore at information sessions and large group panels.

Writing Associate - Swarthmore College, Fall 1998 and 1999
Nominated position as a peer editor and writing tutor.

Counselor and Instructor - Concordia Language Villages, Minnesota, Summer 1997 and 1998
Taught campers aged 14-17 French language skills and French Canadian history.

VOLUNTEER SERVICE

Peer Educator - Alliance for Queer Understanding and Awareness, Brown University, 2006-Present

Guest Presenter - Female Sexuality Workshop, Brown University and Harvard University, 2004-Present

Peer Facilitator - Topics in Human Sexuality, Swarthmore College, Fall 2000

Outreach Intern - William Way LGBT Community Center, Philadelphia, Summer 2000
- Received a Swarthmore Foundation grant to support underrepresented groups

Co-Coordinator and Board Member - Swarthmore Queer Union, Swarthmore College, 1998-2000

—>