Melanie Kohnen
Associate Professor of Rhetoric & Media Studies
Mon 4:30-5:30pm & Tue: 3:30-5:00pm (EOW). Please click here to schedule an appointment.
Melanie E.S. Kohnen is a media scholar who investigates the contemporary media industry and its audiences. How do media industries and audiences negotiate diversity in film, television, and digital media? How do industry and audiences interact at events like San Diego Comic-Con? How can media scholars reimagine the tools and platforms they use to analyze film and TV? These questions characterize her research on media industries, audiences, and digital platforms.
Melanie publishes scholarship in conventional venues such as journals and anthologies, but is also invested in exploring innovative digital formats, including the video essay and the associated methodology of videographic criticism, and Storymaps, a digital multimedia storytelling platform.
For more information on Melanie’s research, teaching, and digital projects, visit her website at https://melanieeskohnen.com/
Academic Credentials
Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
PhD, American Studies, May 2010
MA, American Studies, 2002
Heinrich-Heine-Universitat, Dusseldorf, Germany
Magister Artium (combined BA and MA), English Languages and Literatures with minor in Media Studies, 2001)
Teaching
- Introduction to Rhetoric and Media Studies
- Media Design and Criticism
- Media Theory
- Digital Media and Society
- Queer Film and Television
- Television and American Culture
Syllabi and sample assignments available at: https://melanieeskohnen.com/teaching/
Teaching (With) Videographic Criticism:
Curious about video essays made by RHMS students? Visit the department’s Vimeo channel to see work from Media Theory, Media Design and Criticism, Television and American Culture and more!
Research
Recent Publications:
- Kohnen, M. E., Parker, F., & Woo, B. (2023). From Comic-Con to Amazon: Fan conventions and digital platforms. New Media & Society, online first. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448231165289
- “Distributing Whiteness: Please Like Me and Global Television Circulation.” Published as “online first” in Television and New Media, November 2021. https://doi.org/10.1177/15274764211052894
- “The Experience Economy of TV Promotion at San Diego Comic-Con.” Published as “online first” in International Journal of Cultural Studies, July 2020. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367877920935888
- See the digital companion piece: SDCC Offsites: The Experience Economy of Media Promotion at SDCC
- “Time, Space, Strategy: Fan Blogging and the Economy of Knowledge at San Diego Comic-Con.” Popular Communication Vol 18.2 (2020). http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15405702.2019.1627547
- “Becoming Videographic Critics: A Roundtable Conversation.” In: The Videographic Essay: Criticism in Sound & Image, edited by Christian Keathley, Jason Mittell, and Catherine Grant. Caboose books, 2019. Open access version at http://scalar.usc.edu/works/videographic-essay/becoming-videographic-critics-a-roundtable-conversation
- “Tumblr Pedagogies.” Invited contribution to Companion to Fandom and Fan Studies. Ed. Paul Booth. Wiley-Blackwell, 2018.
- “Fannish Affect, ‘Quality’ Fandom, and Transmedia Storytelling Campaigns” Invited contribution to The Routledge Companion to Media Fandom. Eds. Suzanne Scott and Melissa Click. Routledge, 2017.
- “Cultural Diversity as Brand Management in Cable Television.” Media Industries 2.2 (Winter 2015). http://dx.doi.org/10.3998/mij.15031809.0002.205
- Queer Representation, Visibility and Race in American Film and Television: Screening the Closet. Routledge, November 2015.