Fall 2014

MELISSA AMES 

PUBLICATIONS

“Where Have All the Good Men Gone?:  A Psychoanalytic Reading of the Absent Fathers and Bad Dads in ABC’s Lost.”  The Journal of Popular Culture 47.3 (2014):  430-450. 

“Bodies of Debt:  Interrogating the Costs of Technological Progress, Scientific Advancement, and Social Conquests through Dystopian Literature.”  Fabricating the Body.  Ed. Sarah Burcon.  New Castle: Cambridge Scholars, 2013.  81-106.

“Engaging ‘Apolitical’ Adolescents: Analyzing the Popularity & Educational Potential of Dystopian Literature Post-9/11.”  The High School Journal 97.1 (2013):  21-40.

PRESENTATIONS

“The Public Construction of Female Bodies:  Media Portrayals of Gender & Emotion Post-9/11.” The Midwest Modern Language Association Conference (MMLA).  Detroit, MI, November 2014. 

“Seriality as Narrative Form:  A Round Table Discussion.”  The National Popular Culture Association Conference (PCA/ACA).  Chicago, IL, April 2014. 

“A Country (Still) Divided:  How The Vampire Diaries & Other Recent Vampire Series Utilize Civil War Backdrops to Critique Contemporary Cultural Concerns & Express Nostalgia for the Past.”  The National Popular Culture Association Conference (PCA/ACA).  Chicago, IL, April 2014. 

“Exploding the Rhetoric of 9/11:   Using Affect Theory in the Classroom to Interrogate the Construction of Historical Events.”  Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC).  Indianapolis, IN, March 2014. 

“(Re)Constructing the Male Body (One Pill at a Time):  Analyzing How the Narratives Surrounding Pharmaceutical Products Reinforce Normative Masculinity.” Midwest Modern Language Association Conference (MMLA).  Milwaukee, WI, November 2013.

“Exploring the Morality of Advanced Robotics and Genetic Engineering through Film:  An Analysis of A.I.:  Artificial Intelligence; I, Robot; The Island; and Never Let Me Go.” Midwest Modern Language Association Conference (MMLA). Milwaukee, WI, November 2013.

“Writing about Television.”  Illinois Association of Teachers of English (IATE).  Bloomington, IL, October 2013.

“The Gendered Self-Help Reel: How Romantic Comedies Instruct Men and Women on Dating Dos and Don’ts.”  Gender Matters Conference.  Chicago, IL, April 2013. 

 “A Recipe for Success in Primetime Melodrama:  Two Parts Soap Stylistics and One Part Social Commentary (An Analysis of ABC’s Revenge).” National Popular Culture Conference (PCA).  Washington DC, March 2013.

ARTICLE

The Fault in Our Stars’s Authentic Portrayal of a Family Struggling with a Child’s Terminal Illness