Adrienne-Trier-Bieniek, PhD.

Presence of POP 

Tuesday evenings 8 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. 

Bio:  Dr. Adrienne Trier-Bieniek is a pop culture researcher and activist who focuses on the emotional, healing and activist impact that music has on women through a feminist approach to the study of music and gender. She has received a Ph.D. in sociology from Western Michigan University where her dissertation examined the healing and emotional connections women who are fans of Tori Amos build with Amos’ music. Adrienne also focused her study on social inequality, particularly with the experiences of American women of color and feminist approaches to pedagogy. In addition to a Ph.D. she has earned an MS in sociology and women’s studies from Virginia Tech where she wrote a thesis on young women’s willingness to identify as a feminist. Prior to attending graduate school Adrienne worked as the first volunteer coordinator for the Grand Valley State University (GVSU) Women’s Center. Here she placed people in volunteer opportunities that focused on the needs of women and girls. Also, while at GVSU, Adrienne became active in the V-Day Campaign and spent three years coordinating and producing The Vagina Monologues, raising tens of thousands of dollars for local women’s organizations as well as heightening the community discourse on sexual and physical violence. She also helped begin a student driven organization that raised awareness of sexual assault on college campuses and volunteered for many community organizations which focus on the needs of women and girls as well as lgbt rights. Currently her work can be found in the journal "Qualitative Research" and the book The Art of Social Critique, edited by Shawn Bingham. In development is a book which is based on her dissertation research and will (hopefully) add a new dimension to the portrait of female fans. Adrienne considers herself an activist-educator who finds a way to explain society through society’s creation of popular culture. She is currently a faculty member in sociology at Valencia College in Orlando, Florida and can be found at www.popculturefeminism.com.  

Mission: I am a social researcher so I am always interested in the ways that pop culture contributes to keeping social inequality alive. My goal for this show is to put pop culture under a microscope and to look at the trends that drive us. Particularly the ways that the media presents images of women and men that contribute to gender inequality and/or gender stereotypes.

To celebrate and challenge the ways that gender is presented in popular culture.  Topics under consideration for discussion.  Please contact me, adrienne.mtb@gmail.com to add your own concerns and subjects.

- Being a father to daughters; - Women and comedy; - Masculinity and teenage boys; - "Girl" Culture; - Feminism and diversity of women on television; - Belly Dancing and women; - Pop music and gender; - How pop culture paints a portrait of society and gender roles; Being an Introvert in an Extrovert culture

UPCOMING GUEST(S):  

Julia Mason, Roxanne Gay

GUEST BIO'S: 

March 6th- The Art of Social Critique Shawn Chandler Bingham
Shawn Chandler Bingham directs the Interdisciplinary Social Sciences program at the University of South Florida. His research interests include sociology of art, comedy, disability and pedagogy. Recently authored books include Thoreau and the Sociological Imagination (Rowman & Littlefield 2008) and a forthcoming book on disability and comedy. This month his edited book, The Art of Social Critique: Painting Mirrors of Social Life, will be published by Lexington. He currently lives (with his family) as a faculty in residence in the Freshman Experience residence hall at the University of South Florida.

March 20th- Dancing in Celebration of the Belly Angie Moe
Dr. Angela (Angie) Moe is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Western Michigan University, with an affiliation with the Gender and Women's Studies Program. She has a Ph.D. in Justice Studies from Arizona State University, an M.S. in Criminal Justice from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and a graduate certificate in Holistic Health (expected December 2012) from Western Michigan University. Dr. Moe’s specializes in women's victimization and healing, gender and the body, and holistic health. Her current lines of work include 1) the connections between maternal depression, domestic violence and pregnancy; 2) cultural discourse surrounding pregnancy and early motherhood and women’s subversion thereof; and 3) women’s holistic healing through Middle Eastern Dance (aka belly dance). Among her over two dozen publications are refereed articles in Violence Against Women, Women's Studies Quarterly, Affilia, Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Women and Therapy, Women and Criminal Justice, Criminal Justice Studies, Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare, and Journal of Leisure Research. She has also published in numerous edited anthologies, most recently Embodied Resistance(Vanderbilt University Press, 2011), wherein she addressed the subversion of cultural discourse related to pregnancy and post-partum via women's engagement in belly dance.

April 3rd- The Pinkification of America
Julia Mason
Dr. Julia M. Mason is an Assistant Professor of Women and Gender Studies at Grand Valley State University. She earned her doctorate in American Culture Studies, with graduate certificates in Women’s Studies and Ethnic Studies, from Bowling Green State University. She also has a Master of Arts in American Indian Studies from The University of Arizona. She has been teaching gender studies courses since 2001. Her research interests include: breast cancer in the media; ecofeminism; and feminist activism.

April 10th – Women’s Internet Activism Roxane Gay

ARCHIVES:

     3/6/12   The Art of Social Critique Shawn Chandler Bingham