ABOUT THE PODCAST
SUBSCRIBE in iTunes (also available via RSS, Stitcher, and SoundCloud)
Aca-Media is a monthly(ish) podcast from the Society for Cinema and Media Studies that presents an academic perspective on media. Hosts Christine Becker and Michael Kackman explore current scholarship, issues in the media industries, questions in pedagogy and professional development, and events in the world of the media and media studies. Aca-Media is sponsored by the Society for Cinema and Media Studies and has been funded with assistance by College of Arts and Letters at the University of Notre Dame. You can contact the show at info@aca-media.org, join our Facebook group, and follow us on Twitter at @aca_media and on Bluesky at aca-media.bsky.social.
CHRISTINE BECKER, CO-HOST AND CO-PRODUCER
Thanks to Tony Bleach for the added tude!
Christine Becker (pictured here with Laura Mulvey) teaches film and television history and critical analysis in the Department of Film, Television, and Theatre at the University of Notre Dame and has completed a book detailing the involvement of Hollywood film stars on television during the 1950s entitled It’s the Pictures That Got Small (Wesleyan University Press), which won the Michael Nelson Prize for Work in Media and History from the International Association for Media and History in 2011. She is currently working on a book project about the history of the South Bend television series Beyond Our Control (WNDU, 1968-86) and can be found on Twitter at @crsbecker and on Bluesky at chrisbecker.bsky.social.
MICHAEL KACKMAN, CO-HOST AND CO-PRODUCER
Yeah, yeah … you can stop explaining now … Michael gets it already.
Michael Kackman is a media scholar and cultural historian who teaches in the Department of Film, Television, and Theatre at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of Citizen Spy: Television, Espionage, and Cold War Culture (University of Minnesota Press, 2005), and co-editor (with Marnie Binfield, Matt Payne, Allison Perlman, and Bryan Sebok) of Flow TV: Television in the Age of Media Convergence (Routledge, 2010). View previous Not-Kackmans at our photo gallery, Ceci N'est Pas Michael Kackman.
Stephanie Brown, Co-Producer
Stephanie Brown is currently serving as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Washington College in Maryland where she teaches courses in film, television, and digital media. She previously taught in the Communication Department of Saint Louis University and West Chester University after earning her doctorate from the Institute of Communications Research at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
A former English major, Stephanie still has a stack of four novels on her desk at any given time that she means to read, which are often ignored in favor of scrolling through TikTok. Luckily, she studies digital media and so this counts as work. She also loves to make collages, rollerskate, and hang out with her husband and cat. She is also working on a book that explores stand-up comedy as an industry through the lens of gender and authenticity.
FRANK MONDELLI, CO-PRODUCER
Frank Mondelli is a PhD Candidate at Stanford University’s Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures. He recently finished a Fulbright Graduate Research Fellowship working on his doctoral dissertation, which studies the technological and cultural history of deaf assistive technologies in postwar Japan. He earned his B.A. in Japanese and Linguistics from Swarthmore College in 2014 before studying endangered languages in Okinawa, Japan as a Fulbright Fellow. Frank is involved in disability activism in both the United States and Japan. You can read more at his website: frankmondelli.com
Jonathan Nichols-Pethick, CO-PRODUCER
Jonathan Nichols-Pethick is a professor at DePauw University where he teaches courses on media literacy, media industries, critical media analysis, and podcasting. He is the author of TV Cops:The Contemporary American Television Police Drama (Routledge 2012), and is currently co-editing a book on Communication theory and Gen Z popular culture. He served as the director of the Pulliam Center for Contemporary Media from 2014 to 2021 where he produced, hosted, and edited the podcast Modern Media. He also co-produced and edited the short film Mud Lotus (2013). Never without a band, Jonathan is currently the drummer for Legendpuncher.
TODD THOMPSON, AUDIO PRODUCER & BEARER OF GOLDEN EARS
Todd Thompson teaches audio production classes in the Department of Radio-TV-Film at the University of Texas. He also teaches music classes for Rock Camp USA and songwriting workshops for Jail Guitar Doors, a non-profit organization that provides musical opportunities for prisoners. He runs The Dharma Bomb Studio in Austin where he does sound design and mixing for film makers as well as music production. He is currently a singer/songwriter in the Austin roots rock band The Memphis Strange.
DAVID LIPSON, CO-PRODUCER
David Lipson was born and raised in Chicago where he earned a B.A. in French literature from the University of Illinois at Chicago, spending his third year abroad at the Sorbonne. He returned to Paris and in 2003 became a French citizen and successfully passed the CAPES and the agrégation (these are fancy names to describe a competitive exam that enables you to be a civil servant in the French educational system). In 2017 he was recruited as an associate professor of English at The University of Strasbourg. He holds a Ph.D. in American Studies and Civilization at the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle. His research interests are documentary films, politainment, Late Night TV and political satire. He has been a member of the socially committed documentary festival organization committee since 2022. He is currently doing research on Frederick Wiseman and marginalized female voices in late-night TV.
Bill Kirkpatrick, Emeritus PRODUCER
Bill Kirkpatrick teaches in the Sociology department at the University of Winnipeg in Manitoba. Prior to that, he was in the Communication department at Denison University in Granville, Ohio. His publications include Disability Media Studies (New York University Press, 2017), co-edited with Elizabeth Ellcessor. He also has published articles in Critical Studies in Media Communication, Television & New Media, Radio Journal, and The Journal of Popular Culture, as well as several anthologies. His dissertation is on localism in U.S. media, and he is currently working on a book about media and the medical profession before 1940. His website is www.billkirkpatrick.net and you can follow him on Twitter at @billkirkp.