Dr. Spring-Serenity Duvall’s work as a media studies scholar focuses on how celebrities who engage in social action can both reinforce and disrupt gender norms, systems of racial oppression, and neocolonial power hierarchies. With particular attention to hashtag activism, celebrity athletes, youth consumption of celebrity, and celebrity motherhood, she interrogates global media discourses about the efficacy of collective action, symbolic protest, and commodity activism.

In 2015, Dr. Duvall was the Fulbright Visiting Research Chair in Transnational Studies at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, where she conducted a research project entitled “Canadian Celebrity Activism and Transnational Media in the Niagara Border Region” and taught a course on Celebrity Colonialism. The multi-method research included a reception study with activists and non-activists on both the US and Canada sides of the border, as well as a critical analysis of Canadian and US media coverage of celebrity activists.

Dr. Duvall joined the faculty of Salem College in fall 2014 and is an Associate Professor of Communication and Media Studies and chair of the Communication and Media Studies Department. After years of service within the AEJMC Commission on the Status of Women, she became Chair of CSW and served on the Executive Board of the AEJMC in 2013-2014.

In addition to studying celebrity and activism, Dr. Duvall is the co-author, with Dr. Leigh Moscowitz, of the book “Snatched: Child Abductions in US News,” which analyzes more than a decade of mainstream news coverage of high profile abduction cases.

Her research also appears in the journals “Celebrity Studies; Communication, Culture, and Critique; Feminist Media Studies; and Journal of Children & Media.” Chapters also appear in the collections “Circuits of Visibility: Gender and Transnational Media Cultures” and “Celebrity Colonialism: Fame, Representation, and Power in Colonial and Post-Colonial Cultures.”  As a fiber artist, Dr. Duvall also teaches an experimental fiber arts course and studies Do-It-Yourself subcultures, consumerism, and sustainability.

“Celebrity and Youth: Mediated Audiences, Fame, Aspirations and Identity Formation” is the latest book from Dr. Duvall. The book, compiled by Duvall, features contributions by several international writers and explores the impact of celebrity on youth and culture in general.  Available from Mediated Youth Series, Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., “Celebrity and Youth” examines contemporary celebrity culture with an emphasis on how young celebrities are manufactured, how fan communities are cultivated, and how young audiences consume and aspire to fame. The book foregrounds considerations of diversity within celebrity and fan cultures and takes an international perspective on the production of stardom.

News

C-SPAN interview about “Snatched”

Interviewed by C-SPAN Cities Tour 

In Media Res contribution, Resistance Narratives Week

Guest on Wisconsin Public Radio

In Media Res contribution, #NoJusticeNoLebron

Blog post for Brock University Social Justice Research Institute

Call for participants in Niagara region celebrity activism research project

Keynote speaker at Crossing Borders Conference

Salem College announces Fulbright award

Fulbright Canada announces cohort

Indiana University announcement of new position