Research

My research has sought to generate innovative knowledge or to synthesize insights from existing work. By definition, my efforts in “critical pedagogy,” “radical democracy,” and “everyday culture” emphasize multiplicity over singularity, and collaboration over mastery. My writing has appeared in journals including Afterimage, Art in America, Cultural Studies, Exposure, Harvard Education Review, and Symploke, and my books from Duke University, University of Minnesota, Blackwell, Routledge, and SUNY Presses.

At times my work has been seen to reshape thinking in certain fields. In education, my Cultural Pedagogy: Art/Education/Politics (1992) is regarded as the first book to connect critical pedagogy and arts theory/practice. In political science, my Radical Democracy: Identity, Citizenship, and the State (1996) was the earliest anthology on its topic, bringing together such figures as Seyla Benhabib, Barbara Ehrenreich, Nancy Fraser, bell hooks, Chantal Mouffe, and Gayatri Spivak. In technology studies, my Reading Digital Culture (2001) and Welcome to Cyberschool (2001) today constitute defining theoretical works. The Myth of Media Violence (2007) is frequently cited for its novel contributions to the discourse over violent representation. More recently The End of Reading: From Gutenberg to Grand Theft Auto (2010) historicizes contemporary gaming in the context of narrative and storytelling traditions, while Everyday Culture (2009) focuses on often-undervalued wisdom and creativity in “ordinary” life.  Worlding: Identity, Media, and Imagination in a Digital Age (2013) addresses representation and subjectivity in a global context, with an eye toward new games and social networks promoting environmentalism and social change. My recently completed Elsewhere in America: The Crisis of Belonging in Contemporary Culture (2016) explores new forms of marginalization and division in a neoliberal era. For my intellectual accomplishments I’ve been named a Getty Scholar.

 

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