Laura Portwood-Stacer

Panels Organized
2015. "Meme, Medium, Mode." Session accepted to Theorizing the Web conference: New York, New York, April 2015.

2014. "Feminist Approaches to Social Media Research." 2-part workshop submitted to Console-ing Passions conference: Columbia, Missouri, April 2014; and International Communication Association Convention: Seattle, Washington, May 2014.

2014. "Mediated Citizenship and Practices of Resistance." Panel accepted to Society of Cinema and Media Studies conference: Seattle, March 2014.

2013. "Freedom, Regulation, Evasion, Refusal: Negotiation Strategies and Ambivalent Attitudes toward Media Technologies in Everyday Life." Society of Cinema and Media Studies: Chicago, March 6, 2013.

2013. "Identity Work and Identity Play Online" (co-organized with Daniel Greene). Panel accepted for presentation at American Studies Association Annual Meeting: Washington, DC, November 2013.

2012. "Media Rejection: Practices and Discourses of Non-consumption and Resistance." Society for Cinema and Media Studies: Boston, March 23, 2012.

2011. "Subcultural Crossings: Intersectionality and the Politics of Cultural Identity" (co-organized with Shaun Cullen), American Studies Association Annual Meeting: Baltimore, October 20, 2011.

Papers Presented
2014. "Free Labor on Strike?" Theorizing the Web conference: Brooklyn, April 2014.

2014. "#BoycottInstagram: Consumer Resistance or Labor Strike?" Society of Cinema and Media Studies conference: Seattle, March 2014.

2013. "How We Talk about Media Refusal: Popular Frames for Understanding Resistance to Social Media Platforms in Everyday Life." Society of Cinema and Media Studies: Chicago, March 6, 2013.

2013. "The Work of Social Media Refusal: Thoughts on Labor, Productivity, and Identity among Facebook Resisters." American Studies Association Annual Meeting: Washington DC, November 2013.

2013. "Media Refusal as Site of Struggle: The Contested Meanings of Digital Labor, Lifestyle Activism, and Opting Out of Facebook." Association of Internet Research Annual Meeting: Denver, October 2013.

2013. "Queer Sexuality as Anarchist Resistance." Society for the Study of Social Problems conference: New York, August 11, 2013.

2012. "Spectacular Normalization of the Trans Narrative: Reality Makeover TV and the Embodied Trans Subject." Radically Gay conference, Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies, City University of New York: New York, September 29, 2012.

2012. "This is What an Anarchist Looks Like: Styles of Self-Presentation in Occupy Wall Street and Beyond." International Visual Sociology Association Conference: Brooklyn Heights, July 9, 2012.

2012. "Theorizing Social Media Refusal: Conspicuous Non-Consumption and Conscientious Objection." Theorizing the Web Conference: University of Maryland, April 14, 2012.

2012. "Quitters, Hold-outs, and Suicides: Practices of Refusal among (Non-)Consumers of Social Media." Society for Cinema and Media Studies Annual Conference: Boston, March 23, 2012.

2011. "Personal Style and the Performance of Radical Political Dissent." American Studies Association Annual Meeting: Baltimore, October 20, 2011.

2011. "Lifestyle Politics: Practices, Motivations, and Potential Effects of Activist Anti- consumption." American Sociological Association Annual Meeting: Las Vegas, August 21, 2011.

2008. "T-Shirts are Good for Thinking: Branding, Consumption, and Radical Political Identity." International Communication Association Convention: Montreal, Quebec, 2008.

2007. "Dissident Television: Political Dissent in the Commercial Sphere." Presented at the Society for Cinema and Media Studies Annual Conference: Chicago, Illinois, 2007.

2007. "Do-It-Yourself Feminism: Feminine Individualism and the Girlie Backlash in the 'Craftivism' Movement." International Communication Association Convention: San Francisco, California, 2007.

2007. "Consuming 'Trash': Representations of Poor Whites in U.S. Popular Culture." International Communication Association Convention: San Francisco, California, 2007.

2006. "Queering the Trans Transformation: Reality Television, TransGeneration, and Liberal Narratives of the Self." Console-ing Passions International Conference: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 2006.

2006. "Radical Transformation: Cosmetic Surgery, Reality TV, and the Post-feminist Body." Society for Cinema and Media Studies Annual Conference: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 2006.

2015. "Media Refusal as Media Activism? Facebook Quitters and What They Teach Us about Lifestyle Politics." Invited talk for Rutgers University School of Communication and Information Media and the Public Interest Initiative: New Brunswick, New Jersey, April 27, 2015.

2014. "Meanings of Media Refusal in a Connected Culture." Invited talk for LaGuardia Community College's Technology, Self, and Society Seminar Series: Queens, New York, October 9, 2014.

2014. Invited speaker, "Anarchism, Engagement, and Theories of Mediation" roundtable, New York University Department of Media, Culture, and Communication. April 2014.

2013. "Creating Meaningful Lifestyles in the Shell of a Non-Anarchist World: The Culture of Contemporary US Anarchism." Invited talk at New York University's Hemispheric Institute: New York, New York, September 19, 2013.

2013. "Refusal as Resistance: Activists, Anti-Consumption, and Lifestyle Politics." Invited talk at Columbia Journalism School's Doctoral Communications Colloquium: Columbia University, New York, New York, March 4, 2013.

2013. Participant in Conceptualizing Media Resistance roundtable held at Association of Internet Research Annual Meeting: Denver, October 2013.

2013. Invited respondent at "Celebrities and Publics in the Internet Era" colloquium, Institute for Public Knowledge: New York, New York, November 1-2, 2013.

2012. Invited presenter at session on "American Popular Culture and Consumerism," Multinational Institute of American Studies, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, New York University, July 13, 2012.

2012. Invited panel discussant, Fusion Film Festival screening of Miss Representation (documentary about women in media), Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, March 3, 2012.

2010. "Anarchist Identity Politics." Presented at the Futures of American Studies Institute: Dartmouth University, Hanover, New Hampshire, 2010.

2010. Invited participant in panel discussion on "Teaching: Liberal Arts & Critical Capacity," at Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism Graduate Student Professionalism Day: Los Angeles, California, 2010.

2008 "The Everyday Anarchist." Discussion facilitated at the Renewing the Anarchist Tradition Conference: Montpelier, Vermont, 2008. 

Annenberg Summer Institute on Methods and Statistics, University of Southern California (2015)

• "Ethnography in the Digital Age" (doctoral methods workshop)

Department of Media, Culture, and Communication, New York University (2011–2015)

• Queer Identity and Popular Culture (new course)

• Social Media Networking (new course)

• Consumption, Culture, and Identity (new course)

• Representing Subcultures and Social Movements (new course)

• Media and Cultural Analysis

• Introduction to Media Criticism

• Advertising and Society

• Fashion and Power

 Annenberg School of Communication, University of Southern California (2007–2011)

• Communication and Culture

• Interpreting Popular Culture

• Advertising and Society

• Media Consumption

• Advertising and Communication (new course)

• Public Speaking

2012. "Opting Out & Non-Participation." Prof. Alice Marwick's Social Media course, Department of Communication and Media Studies, Fordham University, November 20, 2012.

2012. "Culture of the Contemporary Anarchist Movement." Prof. Winston Thompson's Autonomy, Authority, & Anarchism in Education: A Global Perspective course, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences in the Professions, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, New York University, March 1, 2012. 

2011. "Consuming ‘Trash’: Representations of Poor Whites in U.S. Popular Culture." Prof. Omotayo Banjo’s Media and Identity course. Department of Communication, University of Cincinnati, October 6, 2011.

2007. "The Commodification of Rebellion." Prof. Chris Chavez’s Advertising and Society course. Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 2007. 

Annenberg Innovation Lab, University of Southern California (2010)
Reviewed literature on social media and brand affiliation; presented findings to research group and employees from the Levi’s corporation.

Research assistant, Prof. Sarah Banet-Weiser, University of Southern California (2005–2010)
Copy-edited academic articles and book manuscripts; prepared audio-visual presentations for academic talks; handled course management software.

Communication Technology Lab, Michigan State University (2001–2004)
Reviewed literature on electronic games, learning, and gendered uses of technology; assisted with qualitative, social scientific study of gender and childrens’ learning from video games; production assistant on lab’s interactive website for children.

Co-editor, Feminist Media Studies "Commentary & Criticism" section and book reviews (2013–present)

Invited peer reviewer (2008–present)

• American Quarterly

• Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies

• Critical Studies in Media Communication

• ephemera: theory & politics in organization

• Feminist Media Studies

• Feminist Theory

• First Monday

• International Journal of Communication

• Internet Research

• Journal of Children and Media

• Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication

• Journal of Peer Production

• New Media and Society

• Popular Communication

• Shift: Graduate Journal of Visual and Material Culture

• Social Media + Society

• Social Problems

• Sociology

• tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique

• Continuum Books

• Fordham University Press

• Polity Books

• Routledge Research