Associate Professor

About

  • Role:

    Faculty
  • Position:

    • Associate Professor
  • Concentration:

    • Media and Cultural Studies, Digital Media, Theories of Globalization, Transgressive Comedy
  • Department:

    • Communication Studies
  • Education:

    • Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, Madison
  • Curriculum Vitae:

Biography

I research and teach about the cultural politics of digital platforms, media industries, streaming media, and globalization. I recently published my first book, Locked Out: Regional Restrictions in Digital Entertainment Culture (NYU Press, 2019). Other writing on these subjects has appeared in Critical Studies in Media Communication, Media, Culture & Society, the International Journal of Cultural Studies, and several anthologies. In addition, I have taught a course on popular music and identity and have written about post-network television comedy’s aesthetics and politics. My current research examines how major streaming entertainment platforms attempt to position themselves at the center of contemporary culture and politics.

In my personal time, I hang out with my wife and cat, watch movies, and continue the project of transforming my yard from a patch of weeds into a thriving garden.

Publications

Books
Locked Out: Regional Restrictions in Digital Entertainment Culture. New York: NYU Press.

Articles
“Algorithmic Cosmopolitanism: On the Global Claims of Digital Entertainment Platforms.” Critical Studies in Media Communication 36.4: 376-389. 2019.

“Powered by Netflix: Speed-Test Services and Video-on-Demand’s Global Development Projects.” Media, Culture & Society 40.6: 838-855. 2018.

“Live Piracy: New/Old Directions in TV Flow.” Flow, October 2. 2017.

“The DVD Region Code System: Standardizing Home Video’s Disjunctive Global Flows.” International Journal of Cultural Studies 19.2: 225-240. 2016. 

Book Chapters

“‘Sorry About That’: Hopes and Promises of Geoblocking's End.” In Digital Media Distribution Portals, Platforms, Pipelines. Courtney Brannon Donoghue, Timothy Havens, Paul McDonald, eds. NYU Press. 2021.

“Streaming Diplomacy: Netflix’s Domestic Politics and Foreign Policy” in The Routledge Handbook of Media and Globalization. Dal Yong Jin, ed. Routledge. 2021.

“The Changing Scales of Diasporic Media Retail” in Point of Sale: Analyzing Media Retail. Derek Johnson and Daniel Herbert, eds. Rutgers University Press. 2019.

“Hulu: Geoblocking National TV in an On-demand Era” in From Networks to Netflix: A Guide to Changing Channels. Derek Johnson, ed. Routledge. 2018.

"The New Logic of the Absurd: The Eric André Show” in The Comedy Studies Reader. Nick Marx and Matt Sienkiewicz, eds. University of Texas Press: 57-70. 2018.

“The United States of America: Geoblocking in a Privileged Market” in Geoblocking and Global Video Culture. Ramon Lobato and James Meese, eds. Institute of Networked Cultures: 190-199. 2016.

Courses

  • 300 Level – SPCM 326: Digital Media Cultures and SPCM 342: Critical Media Studies

  • 400 Level – SPCM 453: Global Media Cultures and SPCM 479: Popular music, Culture and Power (Capstone)

  • 600 Level – SPCM 646: Media Theory

  • 700 Level – SPCM 792C: Media Globalization; New Media Theory and Criticism; and, Technology, Geography, Environment