Featured Cultural Studies Alumni

"I was lucky to have found CGU, or rather, I was fortunate that CGU found me. After discovering a passion for exploring the complex relationship between communication and culture as an undergrad and M.A. student, I found myself at a crossroads. I was interested in a great many subjects relevant to my research focus: globalization; political philosophy; human rights and social justice; rhetoric and social change; critical theory; race, gender, postcolonial, and queer studies; and of course, cultural studies. How and where best to develop my understanding of these subjects while gaining the experience necessary to prepare me for my dream career as a teacher and scholar? After a brief time at Northwestern University studying Rhetoric and Public Culture, I realized that my desire to understand the historical, political, and rhetorical processes of social change required a Ph.D. program that was interdisciplinary in its philosophy, critical in its orientation, and vibrantly active in its student and faculty community. The Cultural Studies program at CGU was an excellent fit for me. There, I was able to build upon my previous studies and nurture my passion for critical social inquiry under the direction and mentorship of world class scholars. I also benefited from the many meaningful relationships I developed with faculty and students, a number of which have endured throughout the years. In all, I feel lucky that CGU found me, and I’m thankful for the experience I gained in the Cultural Studies program that helped me to obtain the career of my dreams."

Current Position

Professor, Departments of Liberal Studies and Communication Studies, California State University, Los Angeles.

Education

Ph.D. Cultural Studies, The Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, California, 2001

• Dissertation: “The Rhetoric of Global Democracy: Humanitarian NGOs and the Crafting of Community”
• Dissertation Director: Elazar Barkan, Ph.D.

Ph.D. Program in Communication, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, 1996-1997

M.A. Communication (1996), California State University, Los Angeles, 1996

B.A. Communication, California State University, San Bernardino, 1994

Selected Scholarly Publications

Border Rhetorics: Citizenship and Identity on the U.S.-Mexico Frontier. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. [In Press]

“Ethos in a Bottle: Corporate Social Responsibility and Humanitarian Doxa.” The Megarhetorics of Global Development. Ed. Rebecca Dingo and J. Blake Scott. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. [In Press]

“Imagined Immunities: Border Rhetorics and the Ethos of Sans Frontièrisme.” Interdisciplinarity and Social Justice: Revisioning Academic Accountability. Ed. Joe Parker, Ranu Samantrai, and Mary Romero. New York: SUNY Press, 2010. 261-85.

“Bordering the Civic Imaginary: Alienization, Fence Logic, and the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps.” Quarterly Journal of Speech 95 (2009): 43-65.

Global Humanitarianism: NGOs and the Crafting of Community. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2005.

“Humanitarian Space and the Social Imaginary: Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders and the Rhetoric of Global Community.” Journal of Communication Inquiry 26 (2002): 354-69.

“Affect and Embodied Understanding in Musical Experience.” Text and Performance Quarterly 22 (2002): 79-98.

“From Discourse to Golf Course: The Serious Play of Imagining Community Space.” Journal of Communication Inquiry 25 (2001): 132-46.

“Magic, Mimesis, and Revolutionary Praxis: Illuminating Walter Benjamin’s Rhetoric of Redemption.” Western Journal of Communication 64 (2000): 285-307.

“Mapping Subversion: Queercore Music’s Playful Discourse of Resistance.” Popular Music and Society 21 (1997): 7-37.