Installation shot of Waterways at the Okanagan Heritage Museum

This post was written by Eun Jee, an Art History and Visual Culture major in FCCS. Eun Jee is currently working this fall as the Communications Assistant as part of the UBCO Co-op program. 

Waterways – Past, Present and Future is the materialization of a four-year collaborative project between faculty and students at UBC Okanagan, Elders and Knowledge Keepers of the Syilx Okanagan community, Kelowna Museums Society, Okanagan Basin Water Board and the Okanagan Collaborative Conservation Program. This exhibition intends to raise awareness of the “fragile relationship between people and water in the Okanagan Valley and catalyzing sustainable water practices among residents.”

Waterways – Past, Present and Future is comprised of two main spaces and three main components. The outer walls highlight the Indigenous Syilx teachings, wisdom related to human-water relations, and the value of water, while the inner walls are centered around sharing the stories of knowledge and importance of water and water ecosystems management and sustainability. The three main components involve a physical “playground” with interactive elements for children, a virtual interactive storybook about the Okanagan Valley, and a documentary about the restoration projects.  

What struck me the most was the usage of interactive media and the constitution of the exhibition. The cyclical presentation of the documentaries and storytelling creates an immersive feature that engulfs the viewers – and the combination of the auditory, visual and physical interactions furthers this sensation. In addition, the woodcut pieces that hold up the monitors depict aerial photos of the Okanagan Valley from 1948 onwards, which added to the changing environment. These woodcut pieces also have mobile cutouts of different species that were negatively affected and displaced due to the water practices and industrialization. It was interesting to see how the exhibition used these mobile woodcut pieces to further the narrative of the catalyzing effects of the water practices. These pieces enabled the audience to move these animals around the exhibition, displacing them and rearranging the initial presentation. It also furthered the child-like, storybook, playground aspect the exhibition was promoting.   

Another key feature of this exhibition was to raise awareness of the Indigenous led twenty-year salmon restauration project in the Okanagan Valley, and other ongoing environmental restoration projects. The purpose of sharing the water ecosystem management and sustainability was to raise awareness of the declining salmon population and how our actions of industrialization have caused a near extinction of a species native to our water.  

Panel depicting information from the Okanagan Nation Alliance

Furthermore, Waterways is a travelling exhibition that has efforts to travel around BC. Knowing how educative the exhibition is in nature, I find the travelling aspect (and potentially other provinces) to spread awareness and education about the indigenous led restauration projects and water ecosystem management to the rest of Canada. Knowing how educative the exhibition is in nature, I find the travelling aspect of this exhibition as one of its key features. While water ecosystem management, sockeye salmon restoration etc., are more focused on the Okanagan Valley, the overall message and teachings of the Syilx Indigenous community in their efforts to restore their traditional lands and water are stories to celebrate and spread more awareness of.  

After viewing Waterways, it made me reevaluate how we view industrialization and the change in our landscape. While the Okanagan’s water practices and industrialization has their benefits and plays a crucial role in the economy and production of goods and services, it’s also essential to recognize the damage and harm it did. Like a double-edged sword, without these water practices, the economy and standard of living would not be the best, however, because of these practices, local species are going extinct, and infrastructure issues such as floods exist.

The interviews and stories the Syilx Indigenous community shared, especially how they demonstrate their resilience in the face of the mistreatment of their lands and water and overall injustice have enlightened me with the various forms of expressing resilience through peaceful and beneficial actions and endeavors. 

Another key feature of the exhibition was its way of highlighting the collaboration between the Indigenous and Settler communities to come together to protect and restore the Okanagan waterways. The exhibition brings together two incompatible communities that are often in deplorable affairs and demonstrates how one can come together for a shared cause. It shares the message that regardless of our cultural background, history, and differences, all those can be tossed to the ground to campaign for our shared believes and objectives. 

Detail of salmon spawning video

About Eun Jee Lee

Born in South Korea and raised in the Philippines, Eun Jee Lee is the 2021 Fall Co-Op Communications Assistant for the Faculty of Creative Critical studies, directly working under Shauna Oddleifson. Majoring in Art History and Visual Culture, her passions lie in exploring how the arts affect society and culture and the various ways to celebrate the arts. As her first editorial, this article explores her understanding and takeaways from the featuring exhibition Waterways: Past, Present and Future. 

This videos talks about the Waterways – Past, Present and Future project and exhibition – the materialization of a four-year collaborative project between faculty and students at UBC Okanagan, Elders and Knowledge Keepers of the Syilx Okanagan community, Kelowna Museums Society, Okanagan Basin Water Board and the Okanagan Collaborative Conservation Program. The final project was exhibited at the Kelowna Museum from September 2021 to the end of January 2022.

This interdisciplinary symposium on Gender, Race and Medicine will take place at UBC Okanagan on December 3 and 4, 2021. Current and former students of the course “Gender, Race and Medicine: The Construction of the Hysteric” will participate in a series of panels that consider the entanglement of medicine, science, culture, and power as well as the shifting definitions, diagnoses, treatments and representation of ‘hysteria’ over time.

Two keynote speakers, Dr. Maddalena Canna (Northwestern University, Department of Anthropology)  will reflect on her research and work and engage in a discussion with the audience and conference participants.

The conference is open to the public. All presentations will take place in ART219 and will also be accessible via Zoom.

Conference Schedule

Friday, December 3^rd | 11:30 am – 5:15 pm (ART219)

11:30 – Introductory Remarks

•  11:45- 1:00 – Panel 1: Gender and Hysteria in Literature (Chair: Cameron Crookston)
  • Kyla Morris, “Medical Mythologies and Hysterical Documents: Theorizing Hysterical Bodies as Space in Angela Carter’s “The Lady of the House of Love”
  • Emily McNutt, “Creation of Mass Hysteria within Lord of the Flies”
  • Joseph Veltri, “Hysteria in The Crucible and the U.S.A.”
• 1:00 – 2:00 Lunch
• 2:00 – 3:30 – Panel 2: Emotion, Excess, and Grief (Chair: David Jefferess)
  • Amal Alhomsi, “Crazy in Love: The Hysteria of Qais Ibn Al-mulawwah”
  • Karis Dimas-Lehndorf, “Wandavision, Midsommar, and The Babadook: An Exploration of Grief and the ‘Hysterical’ Woman”
  • Alison Kloosterman, “Devotional Hysteria: Mourning, Melancholia, and the Mystical”
• 3:30 – 3:45 Break
• 3:45 – 5 :15– Panel 3: Culture, Affect, Intersubjectivity (Chair: Melissa Jacques)
  • Jen Ducharme, “The Bakkhai: Cult, Theatre, Mass Hysteria”
  • Karleen Rutter, “The Affect of Emotions in Mass Hysteric Episodes: A Theoretical Analysis of The Falling and Post 9/11 America”
  • Carrie Terbasket, “The Privilege of Happiness: Exploring the Ideas of Sara Ahmed and Laura Briggs”

Saturday, December 4^th | 10 am – 2 pm (ART 219)

• 10:00 – 11:15 – Panel 4: Hysteria and Popular Culture (Chair: Kelly Panchyshyn)
  • Brian Kerr-Bassett, “Hystericizing Britney Spears”
  • Alex Labarta-Garcia, “Western influences of the “Hysteric” in the construction of “Hwabyung” in Tale of the Nine Tailed”
  • Mariza Micallef, “Dancing Mania: A Phenomenon that Transcends the Barrier of Time”
  • Melissa Plisic, “Hysteria Christianity Capitalism” (Zine)
• 11:15 – 11:30 Break
• 11:30 – 12:50 – Panel 5: Pathologization and Embodiment (Chair: Matt Rader)
  • Jessica Beaudin, “Maddening Pain: Endometriosis, Iatrogenesis and Hysterical Hauntings in Alice Seabright’s End-O” (Paper)
  • Sarah Becking, “Hysteria in a Contemporary Context: Emotionality Pathologized” (Video)
  • Tatyjania Khounviseth, “Lessons on the Female Body: The Hysterical Woman” (Medical Journal)
• 1:00 pm – Keynote Lecture (via Zoom)
  • Dr. Maddalena Canna, Department of Anthropology, Northwestern University

Register Now

This conference is organized by Dr. Maria Olive Alexopoulos, Lecturer in Cultural Studies, and supported by the Department of English and Cultural Studies.

The past year has been challenging for students at UBC Okanagan. In addition to the normal financial pressures of being a student, FCCS students have had to adjust to new ways of learning and a lack of employment opportunities.

In an effort to support students, Jordan Stouck, Associate Dean, Undergraduate Studies in the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies, has kindly donated her $3,000 Provost’s Award in Teaching Excellence & Innovation prize to create one-time awards for students in the faculty.

Dr. Stouck came up with this initiative after teaching throughout 2020-21 and seeing the challenging circumstances students were in and how they persevered through it all.

“The pandemic impacted and continues to impact students’ ability to work and study, and I think, as a faculty, FCCS really just wanted to support students through this difficult time.”

She invited other UBCO faculty and staff to join her in supporting our students by creating a crowdfundraising campaign through the Development and Alumni Engagement office with the goal of raising $6000 to offer three different awards, one in each of the departments.

“I was so pleased to see that we exceeded our goal and raised a total of $7200. We are now able to offer awards that can make a real difference to our students,” says Dr. Stouck.

With this funding, three one-time awards of $2400 each have been set up that will be awarded by each of our departments to students who are majoring in an FCCS program. These awards are available to domestic and international undergraduate students who are enrolled in the BFA, BMS, or the BA with a major, or combined major, in English, Cultural Studies, Art History and Visual Culture, French, Creative Writing, or Languages.

“We want to ensure that all of our students have the necessary supports they need to complete their studies here at UBC Okanagan, and I am so proud of our community for coming together to help students during these challenging times,” says Bryce Traister, Dean of the Faculty.

Students must apply to be considered for the award, and decisions will be made by each department. More information on these awards and the application can be found on the link below.

Learn More

On November 17th, Ian Williams read from his new book, Disorientation, and discussed the ways writing and race intersect. Disorientation examines the role that racism plays in the daily life of ordinary people.

Ian Williams is a distinguished author of fiction, nonfiction and poetry, and was hosted by UBCO’s Anti-Racist Reading Book Club and Kevin Chong, assistant professor of creative writing. Earlier this month, members of the club read Williams’ latest work Disorientation and met to discuss the book prior to this public event.

View the recording of the talk in the link below.

Ian Williams Public Talk

This event was organized by Kevin Chong, funded by the UBC Anti-Racism Initiatives Fund and supported by the Department of Creative Studies department.

What: A Reading & Conversation with Montreal Author and Scholar Karine Rosso (in French)

Who: Karine Rosso (she, her, hers; elle; ella)

When: Wednesday November 17– 5-6pm

Where: Zoom. To join, contact : Francis Langevin francis.langevin@ubc.ca

Free online event

Karine Rosso is a writer and a scholar based in Montreal. She is an assistant professor in the Département d’études littéraires of Université du Québec à Montréal. She is a founding member of the feminist bookstore L’Euguélionne. She co-edited several fiction and non-fiction monographs: Histoires mutines (with Marie-Ève Blais and Cathon, Remue-Ménage, 2016), Nelly Arcan. Trajectoires fulgurantes (with Isabelle Boisclair, Christina Chung, & Joëlle Papillon, Remue-Ménage, 2017), and Interpellations. Enjeux de l’écriture au « tu » (with Isabelle Boisclair, Nota bene, 2018). With Nicholas Dawson, she published Nous sommes un continent, correspondances mestiza, an epistolary essay (Tryptique, 2021). This year, she also participated in a bilingual collection of texts on the theme of migration, Allers Simples. Sin Retorno (Urubu, 2021). In fiction, she is the author of a short story collection titled Histoires sans Dieu (Éditions de la grenouillère, 2011) and a novel, Mon ennemie Nelly (Hamac, 2019).

Invited by Francis Langevin, she is meeting with the students of a UBC Okanagan course – FREN330 (Quebecois Literature) – to talk about her novel, Mon ennemie Nelly.

Join Tempest Theatre, Inspired Word Café, UBCO’s Creative Studies, and Inner Fish Performance Co in a cabaret style night of climate action focused plays and poetry.

What: Six short plays and four spoken word pieces
Who: Directed by Denise Kenney, Kate Twa, Erin Scott, and Tracy Ross
Penticton Events: Nov. 25 & 26, 6:30 pm PST
Venue: Tempest Theatre, 125 Eckhardt Ave E, Penticton, BC
Kelowna Events: Nov. 27 & 28, 6:30 pm PST
Venue: Blackbox Theatre, 1375 Water St, Kelowna, BC

These events, in both Kelowna and Penticton, feature 6 short plays directed by Denise Kenney, Kate Twa, Erin Scott, and Tracy Ross, as well as local spoken word poets performing original works. Kenney has teamed up with the Tempest Theatre and the Inspired Word Café to produce four events of cabaret performances.

This event is one of many events being managed by Climate Change Theatre Action in New York, an organization that commissions 50 playwrights from around the world to write five minutes plays for people to produce any way they like in their communities. If you want to see what’s happening elsewhere, you can go to the CCTA 2021 website: www.climatechangetheatreaction.com

“Scientist have done their job. We have all the information before us in regards to climate change. Right now, world leaders as talking at COP26, but artists can add something quite different to the conversation”, explains Kenney, UBCO Associate Professor and co-founder of the Inner Fish Performance Co.

She adds: “As artists, we are uniquely positioned to enter the fray. Poetry, performance, and art takes us beyond the facts and our fears and gets us to acknowledge our shared humanities and our shared dilemma.”

“There is also something exciting about sharing with a world-wide community– a global community.”

This fundraiser event is part of the Climate Change Theatre Action global series aimed at bringing communities together and encouraging them to take local and global action on climate. All proceeds from these performances will go to the Okanagan Similkameen Conservation Alliance. These events are supported by the Inner Fish Performance. Co. and the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies.

To purchase tickets, visit: www.ourwickedproblem-kelowna.eventbrite.ca or www.ourwickedproblem-penticton.eventbrite.ca.

Climate Change Happenings!

 At UBCO and around town, a class of UBCO students will be presenting Climate Change Theatre Action plays and their own climate change-focused work in short (less than one hour) happenings.  The poems, microfictions, plays, music, and films all concern this most pressing issue of our time- the Climate Emergency.  Get informed, come together to talk about COP26, and experience the vision of young artists as they grapple with their future.

Climate Change Theatre Action is a project spearheaded by UBC’s 2021 Woodhaven Writer in Residence, Chantal Bilodeau.  She has challenged people around the world to take on producing one or more of a collection of 50 short international plays written under the theme “Envisioning a Global Green New Deal.”  Creative Writing 260 students have taken up the challenge!

Attend any or all of these free events.  Masks required and Covid protocols are in place.

Keeping the Lights On!—November 22   1 PM,   ART 102

A screening of a short film based on a production of Chris Thorpe’s play Not Because We’re Good. These students will bring Thorpe’s vision to life, and enrich the event with songs, poems and stories of their own.

Fungoj- November 23,  7 PM,   ADM 026

Fungoj is Esperanto, an international auxiliary language, for mushrooms. The play is affirmations by Elena Eli Belyea and accompanying poems and stories are student work.  This is all about small actions, our obsession with technology, and mushrooming hope for the future.

Are You Listening Now? December 9, 11 AM.   Third Space Coffee House, 1708 Dolphin Ave, Kelowna.

A reading of Keith Barker’s Apology, My showcasing new and original work by creative writing students alongside the play. The event will include an opportunity to discuss ways in which the community can combat climate change.

On October 19, 2021, Dr. Pavadee Saisuwan, Assistant Professor at the Department of Linguistics and Southeast Asian Linguistics Research Unit, Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand discussed the relationship between the Thai language, gender and sexuality, and will demonstrate their role in reflecting and constructing gender and sexual identities in Thai society.

The constellation of gender and sexual categories in Thai society is complicated. One of the ways to understand the complexity is through the Thai language. Linguistic labels and expressions in Thai are employed to classify and portray people of different gender and sexual identities, and construct the stereotypical discourse about them. Various linguistic resources including pronouns and in-group language are significant to gender and sexual identities in Thai society.

View the recording of the talk in the link below.

Viewing gender and sexuality through the Thai language

This talk was organized by Diana Carter as part of the Inclusive Languages project, and made possible with the support of the Department of Languages and World Literatures. 

Interested in the arts, visual arts or digital media? Join us for virtual info sessions to learn more about our Bachelor of Fine Arts and Bachelor of Media Studies  and the programs we offer in the Bachelor of Arts undergraduate degrees.

Our program coordinators will share information about the portfolio requirements for the application for the BFA and BMS, course options and pathways throughout the BA, BFA and BMS degrees and give examples of student work to give a better idea what happens in the programs. One of our Student Advisors will also be on hand to answer any questions about degree requirements and program progression.

Prospective students, parents and teachers are invited to attend either of the sessions below and will have a chance to ask questions about the programs and the application process.

INFO SESSIONs

Date: Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2021
Time: 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. (PST)
Location: Zoom.

Register Now

Date: Monday, Nov. 22, 2021
Time: 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. (PST)
Location: Zoom.

Register Now

PORTFOLIO DAY SESSION

Date: Saturday, December 4, 2021
Time:  10:00 a.m to 12:00 p.m
Location: Zoom.

REGISTER NOW

This is a chance to get feedback and find out more about the Portfolio requirement for the BFA program. After you register, an email will be sent to you with a link to join and a 20 minute time slot.

About the Bachelor of Arts

UBC Okanagan’s liberal arts degree prepares students for global citizenship by integrating foundational knowledge with interdisciplinary opportunities in social justice, sustainability and Indigenous content. Students who earn a BA degree graduate with a broad range of knowledge and the ability to think critically, be creative, problem solve and communicate effectively.

The Faculty of Creative and Critical studies offers the following programs within the BA: Arts History & Visual Culture, Creative Writing, Cultural Studies, English, French, French & Spanish.

We also offer more study options in which students can take courses in any of these areas as electives to complement their degree, and in some cases add a minor to the degree they are pursuing: Chinese, Communications & Rhetoric, Digital Humanities, Film, German, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Theatre, and World Literatures.

About the Bachelor of Media Studies

The BMS is a four-year, direct-entry program that prepares students for careers in digital media creation. It is a computational arts program that combines digital arts, visual arts, media studies, social science and humanities. The program begins with designated “core” courses that provide a strong foundation in Creative Writing, Cultural Studies, Digital Humanities, Media Studies, and Visual Arts.

The foundation of the program is the opportunity for students to experiment with ideas and the newest technologies in a team-based environment, with a focus on innovation in digital-media design. The program is designed for students looking towards a future in creative and cultural industries, and to continue their education in design, art, and academics as postgraduates.

About the Bachelor of Fine Arts

The Bachelor of Fine Arts, Minor in Visual Art and the Minor in Theatre programs offer a perfect balance of studio work and academic study, immersing students in hands-on critical and contemporary art education. Students acquire the foundational skills, techniques, and theories needed to work in two and three dimensions in a variety of media such as drawing, painting, sculpture, digital arts, printmaking, photography, animation, studio theory, video and performance arts.

What: UBC Anti-Racist Reading Book Club and Reading Series
Who: UBCO’s Kevin Chong with guest author Ian Williams
When: First book club meeting November 3rd, 7:00 pm;  Public Reading with Ian Williams November. 17th, 7:00 pm.
Where: Live via Zoom

This book club and online reading series will feature high-profile writers of colour who have written recently about racism in society, and also in writing and publishing. Participants in the book club will get to discuss the books in a live, interactive setting facilitated by Creative Writing professor Kevin Chong, and will also receive a free copy of the books.

Ian Williams

The first book that will be discussed is Disorientation by Ian Williams. Kevin Chong will lead the book club meeting on November 3^rd in advance of a public event with Ian Williams scheduled for November 17th. Williams is a distinguished author of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, and his latest work Disorientation examines the role that racism plays in the daily life of ordinary people.

To be a part of the book club, limited to 25 members and which will meet in November and again in March, please sign up here. The first 20 people to sign up will get free copies of the books for the club.

Williams’ earlier novel, Reproduction, won the Scotiabank Giller Prize and has received international acclaim. His collection of poetry, Word Problems, uses the language of mathematics and grammar problems to discuss prevalent ethical and political issues. The collection one the Raymond Souster Award, and his previous collection Personals was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize and the Robert Kroetsch Poetry Book Award. Not Anyone’s Anything, a short story collection published in 2011, won the Danuta Gleed Literary Award for the best first collection of short fiction in Canada. Williams is also a trustee for the Griffin Poetry Prize.. After several years teaching poetry in the School of Creative Writing at UBC, Williams returned to the University of Toronto as a tenured professor of English. In 2022, he will be the Visiting Fellow at the American Library in Paris.

This event is presented with support from UBC’s Anti-Racism Initiatives Fund.

“Readers, writers, and creative writing students on both campuses will discuss the ways writing and race intersect through the bookclub discussion and then get the opportunity to have an elevated discussion with the authors,” says organizer Kevin Chong, a Creative Writing professor at UBCO. Chong will host the Reading Series, and is the author of six books of fiction and nonfiction, most recently the novel The Plague.

Book Club Sign Up

Cameron Crookston

Cameron Crookston joined the Department of English and Cultural Studies this year as a lecturer teaching the Media and Popular Cultures courses in Cultural Studies. As an educator he has taught classes in theatre history, sexual diversity studies, gender studies, and popular culture. He has also worked in educational development and pedagogical support at the University of Toronto.

Cameron Crookston focuses on drag performance, both historically and in contemporary popular culture. He received his PhD from the University of Toronto’s Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies in collaboration with the Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies. His work has appeared in GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, The Journal of Homosexuality, and Queer Studies in Media and Popular Culture. He is also the editor of The Cultural Impact of RuPaul’s Drag Race: Why Are We All Gagging?

We met up with Dr. Crookston to find out a bit more about him, his research and his teaching practices.

What brought you to UBCO?

I was really excited for a teaching position that focused on the way media and culture are connected to issues of equity, diversity, and intersectionality, which has always been central to my work as a scholar and a teacher. My research examines points of connection between popular culture, mediatized performance, and the history of social movements at the intersection of race, gender, and sexuality. So to work in a department where I can really draw on that in my teaching was a great opportunity.

Tell us about your research interests.

My research looks at LGBTQ2+ history and popular culture. Largely I study drag and the politics of queer identities in the context of drag performance. I write about live drag, drag in film and television, as well as the history of drag, particularly as it parallels developments in LGBTQ2+ communities and politics. My doctoral research looked at drag as a form of queer cultural memory and I’ve continued that theme in a lot of my more recent work, examining drag across generations in popular culture and the way history and nostalgia play an important role in drag as an art form. I’m also working on a new project on the role Halloween has played in the development of queer culture over the twentieth century. In some ways this is a bit of a departure from my work on drag (although drag certainly shows up in queer Halloween!) but its very much a continuation of my interest in the way popular culture connects with queer culture and politics across history.

How did you know you wanted to be a professor?

When I was an undergrad majoring in theatre someone asked me what my favorite class was and I answered that it was our theatre history class. They seemed a little surprised that I was so passionate about the required academic class, but it actually made me more aware that it was something unique about my interest in the arts. I ended up working as an undergraduate RA for that theatre history professor and developed for real passion of studying history, art and the connection between popular culture and sociocultural issues. They encouraged me to go to grad school and the rest is history.

What kind of learning experiences do offer your students?

I try to create an interactive learning environment in which students can test out new ideas and ask questions. I really want my classroom to be a place where students can experiment and practice. I also really try and focus on the link between popular culture and social and political issues. To that end, I encourage students to take concepts from class and apply them to media and culture that they encounter in their daily lives.

Tell us about your book “The Cultural Impact of RuPaul’s Drag Race”.

I spent about two years working with twelve fantastic scholars from around the world on this collection on RuPaul’s Drag Race. I had seen a lot of excellent work that analyzed Drag Race as a piece of reality television, but after a decade on the air I noticed that the show was actually beginning to have an effect on the world around it, on local queer communities and drag subcultures. Audiences were growing and changing, there were more performers who wanted to have a career in drag, and the reach of the show was going well beyond traditional live drag performances. The contributors to this volume examined drag in their local communities, their own reaction to Drag Race’s global reach, as well the economics and politics of drag as the occur on and as a result of RuPaul’s Drag Race. The book came out in March of 2021 and I’m immensely proud of it. I got to work with scholars from Canada, the US, the UK, and South Africa and develop a strong network of people working on drag, queer popular culture and media studies. Intellect Books, my publisher, was really supportive and so great to work with. They do really fantastic work at the intersection of scholarly publishing and popular culture so I encourage anyone looking to write in these areas to take a look at their journals or get in touch with them. I was also recently interviewed on the New Books Network podcast where I got a chance to chat more about the book with Professor Rebekah Buchanan of Western Illinois University.