About Dr. Levina

Dr. Levina is an Associate Professor of Media Studies. Her research is based in critical/cultural studies with the focus on feminist and intersectional theoretical frameworks. She is particularly interested in how mediated cultural landscape constructs bodies, subjectivities and citizenships as a part of affective, techno-scientific, medical, and political discourses. Dr. Levina's current research interests are focused on discursive and affective mechanisms of cruelty and vulnerability; cultural studies of monstrosity; affect theory, and critical rhetoric of science, medicine, and technology. Her most recent publications include an edited collection Biocitizenship: The Politics of Bodies, Governance, and Power (NYU Press, 2018); special FORUM issue of Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies on "Cruelty in the Age of Trump" (March 2018); and a special issue of Television & New Media on "The Silicon Valley Ethos: Tech Industry Products, Discourses, and Practices" (September 2017).

Dr. Levina is a Book and Media Review Editor for Women's Studies in Communication journal (2019-2022 term).

Education

PhD, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006.
MA, University of Pennsylvania, 2000.
BA/BS, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1997.

Experience

Associate Professor, Department of Communication, University of Memphis, 2015-present

Assistant Professor, Department of Communication, University of Memphis, 2010-2015
Lecturer, Media Studies Program, University of California, Berkeley, 2006-2010

Research and Scholarly Activities

Research Interests

Critical Cultural Studies
Critical Media Studies
Affect Theory
Science/Technology/Medicine Studies
Monster Studies

Select Publications

Books

Biocitizenship: The Politics of Bodies, Governance, and Power (co-edited with Kelly Happe and Jenell Johnson) NYU Press, 2018.

Pandemics and the Media, in Global Crises and the Media series, Ed. Simon Cottle. Peter Lang Publications, 2014 (Reviewed in The Communication Review)

Monster Culture in the 21st Century: A Reader (first editor, co-edited with Diem-my Bui), Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2013. (Reviewed in Choices; CINEJ: Cinema Journal)

Everyday Life in Post-Global Network (first editor, co-edited with Grant Kien), Digital Formations series, Ed. Steve Jones. Peter Lang Publications, 2010. (Reviewed in Information, Culture, and Society; Convergence)

Book Chapters

"Non-human Biocitizens: Lab Animals and the Politics of Hope" in Biocitizenship: The Politics of Bodies, Governance, and Power, forthcoming 2018.

"Our Data, Ourselves: Feminist Narratives of Empowerment in Health 2.0 Discourse" in Cyberfeminism 2.0 Radhika Gajjala and Yeon Ju Oh (Eds.), Peter Lang Publications, 2012.

"Cultural Narratives of Blood" in Braaaiiinnnsss!: From Academics to Zombies Robert Smith (Ed.), University of Ottawa Press, 2011.

Journal Articles

"Whiteness and the Joys of Cruelty," in Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, 15(1), March 2018

"Under Lenin's watchful eye: Growing up in the former Soviet Union." Surveillance & Society 15(3/4), 2017.

"Disrupt or Die: Mobile Health and Disruptive Innovation as Body Politics," Television & New Media, 18(6), 2017.

Book Chapters

"Non-human Biocitizens: Lab Animals and the Politics of Hope" in Biocitizenship: The Politics of Bodies, Governance, and Power, (NYU Press, 2018)

"Our Data, Ourselves: Feminist Narratives of Empowerment in Health 2.0 Discourse" in Cyberfeminism 2.0 Radhika Gajjala and Yeon Ju Oh (Eds.), Peter Lang Publications, 2012.

"Cultural Narratives of Blood" in Braaaiiinnnsss!: From Academics to Zombies Robert Smith (Ed.), University of Ottawa Press, 2011.

Invited Contributions

"Technology", an entry in Feminist Media Histories special issue on Feminist Geneologies, edited by Miranda Banks, Ralina Joseph, Shelley Stamp, and Michele White, forthcoming 2018.

"Network", an entry in Keywords in Media Studies, Jonathan Gray and Laurie Ouellette (Eds.), NYU Press, Keywords Series, 2017.

"From Feminism without Bodies, to Bleeding Bodies in Virtual Spaces", a FORUM commentary in Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, June 2014.

Graduate Seminars Offered

Affective Politics, Politics of Affect
Surveillance and Society
Bodies and Technologies

Grants and Fellowships

University of Memphis College of Communication and Fine Arts Dean's Outstanding Research Award, 2018
University of Memphis Professional Development Grant, Spring 2017.
University of Edinburgh, Genomics Forum, Bright Ideas Visiting Fellow, October 2012.
University of Memphis Faculty Research Grant 2012.
University of Memphis College of Communication and Fine Arts New Faculty Research Grant 2011.

Current PhD Students

Carolyn Block
Andre Favors
Kalemba Kizito
Laura Sullivan

Graduate PhD Students

Kyle Christensen
Scarlett Hester