Bill Kirkpatrick, Ph.D.
Department of Communication
327 Higley Hall
Denison University
Granville, OH 43023
(740) 587-0606 (h), (740) 587-8512 (w)
mwkirkpa@gmail.com
Education
University of Wisconsin–Madison, Department of Communication Arts 1997-2006
Major Area: Media and Cultural Studies
Minor Areas: History and Political Science
Degrees: M.A. (May, 1999), Ph.D. (December, 2006)
New York University, Gallatin Division (interdisciplinary program) 1985-1989
Areas of Study: Cinema Studies and Journalism
Degree: B.A. (May, 1989)
Research Interests
Critical-cultural approaches to media history and cultural policy; impacts of popular culture on American public life and media institutions; theories, practices, and future of citizen-produced media; cultural approaches to popular music; disability and media.
Major Research Projects
Book Project: Airspaces: Localism and Modernization in Early U.S. Broadcasting
Aiming to present the first comprehensive treatment of the political and cultural role of localism in American thought and early media policy, this book explores Americans' shifting ideas of the local and how they impacted both the shape of the U.S. media system and Americans' sense of space and place. I also draw lessons from this history for the role of localism and our sense of the local in the age of digital media.
Status: The book proposal is currently under review at academic publishers.
Dissertation: "Localism in American Media, 1920-1934" Defended: December, 2006
Against the backdrop of the United States coming to terms with modernity, this study explores how regulators, the radio industry, and the public used discourses and structures of "localism" in a range of struggles to shape the media system.
Advisor: Michele Hilmes; Committee: Robert Asen, Michael Curtin, Julie D'Acci, Jack Mitchell
Peer-Reviewed Publications and Edited Book Chapters
Kirkpatrick, Bill. "'A Blessed Boon': Radio, Disability, Governmentality, and the Discourse of the 'Shut-In,' 1920-1930." Critical Studies in Media Communication (in press).
Kirkpatrick, Bill. "Bringing Blue Skies Down to Earth: Citizen Policymaking in Negotiations for Cable Television, 1965-1975." Television & New Media (in press).
Russo, Alexander and Bill Kirkpatrick. "'Beyond' the Terrestrial?: Networked Distribution, Multi-Modal Media, and the Place of the Local in Satellite Radio." Down to Earth: Satellite Technologies, Industries and Cultures. Eds. Lisa Parks and James Schwoch. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press (forthcoming 2012).
Kirkpatrick, Bill. "'It Beats Rocks and Tear Gas': Streaking and Cultural Politics in the Post-Vietnam Era." Journal of Popular Culture 43:5 (October 2010), 1023-1047.
Nekola, Anna and Bill Kirkpatrick. "Cultural Policy in American Music History: Sammy Davis, Jr. vs. Juvenile Delinquency." Journal of the Society for American Music 4:1 (January 2010), 33-58.
Kirkpatrick, Bill. "Sounds Local: The Competition for Space and Place in Early U.S. Radio." Sound in the Era of Mechanical Reproduction. Eds. Susan Strasser and David Suisman. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010. 199-220.
Kirkpatrick, Bill. "Localism in American Media Policy, 1920-1934: Reconsidering a 'Bedrock Concept.'" Radio Journal: International Studies in Broadcast and Audio Media 4:1-3 (2006), 87-110.
Book Reviews and Other Publications
Kirkpatrick, Bill. "Regulation Before Regulation: The Local-National Struggle for Control of Radio Regulation." Journal of Radio and Audio Media 18:2 (2011), 248-262. (Invited Submission)
Kirkpatrick, Bill. "The Quieted Voice: The Rise and Demise of Localism in American Radio" (Book Review). Radio Journal: International Studies in Broadcast and Audio Media 6:2-3 (2008), 185-186.
Kirkpatrick, Bill and Jason Mittell. The Communication Arts Guide to Research in Radio, Television, and Film (Research Primer for Undergraduates). Madison, WI: Primus (McGraw-Hill), 2003.
Kirkpatrick, Bill, "Re-thinking 'Access': Cultural Barriers to Public Access Television." Community Media Review 25:2 (Summer 2002), 20-23.
Kirkpatrick, Bill. "Swigging, Sampling and Sporting: Encountering Audiences as Cultural Agents." Community Media Review 24:4 (Winter 2001-2002), 17-19.
Kirkpatrick, Bill. "Public Access Television: America's Electronic Soapbox" (Book Review).
The Velvet Light Trap 46 (Fall 2000), 85-87.
Publication Projects Nearing Completion
Kirkpatrick, Bill. "Vernacular Policymaking and the Cultural Turn in Media Policy Studies." Under review at Communication, Culture, and Critique.
Kirkpatrick, Bill. "'A Voice Made For Print': Vocal Normativity and the Aural Representation of Disability." In preparation for Hilmes, Michele and Jason Loviglio, eds. Radio's New Wave.
Selected Conference Papers and Panels
"Disability in Media Policy History: The Case of the 'Shut-In' in Early Broadcasting,” June, 2012, Policy History Conference, Richmond, VA
"'Beyond' the Terrestrial?: Distribution, Formats, and the Place of the Local in Satellite Radio" (with Alex Russo), March, 2012, Boston, MA
"Visualizing the Local: Radio and the Instantiation of Community,” January, 2012, American History Association, Chicago, IL
"Localizing Media Policy: Pessimistic Histories, Optimistic Futures,” September, 2011, Futures of New Media Symposium, Salt Lake City, UT (Invited Presentation)
"The Discourse of 'Policy' and the Legitimation of Vernacular Policymaking,” June, 2011, International Policy Association, Cardiff, Wales
"Local Policymaking in the Age of Convergence,” May, 2011, International Communication Association (Virtual Conference)
Workshop: “SCMS Online: Past, Present, Future,” Mar., 2011, Society for Cinema and Media Studies, New Orleans
Panel Discussion: "Tuning in to the Fine Print: Law & Social Change in Media," Oct., 2010, Flow Conference, Austin, TX
"Getting the Local Under Control: National-Local Tensions in U.S. Network Radio of the 1930s," July, 2010, On Archives! Conference of the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research, Madison
"John Fiske's Legacy for Media and Cultural Policy Studies," June, 2010, Fiske Matters: A Conference on John Fiske's Legacy, Madison
"Out of Sight, Out of Mind? Radio, Visuality, and Indecency," April, 2010, Broadcast Education Association Conference, Las Vegas
"Filling the Gap: Local Radio Regulation in the 1920s," March, 2010, The Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Los Angeles
"Visual Culture in/and Radio Studies," July, 2009, The Radio Conference 2009: A Transnational Forum, Toronto
"Disability, Citizenship, and Cultural Policy: Radio and the Discourse of the 'Shut-In,' 1920-1940," April, 2009, Cultural Studies Association, Kansas City
Panel Discussion: "The Digital Conversion," Oct., 2008, Flow Conference, Austin, TX
"Sammy Davis, Jr. vs. Juvenile Delinquency: Rock, Race, and the Record Industry," April, 2008, Pop Conference at the Experience Music Project: "Shake, Rattle: Music, Conflict, and Change," Seattle (Co-authored with Anna Nekola)
"Early Local Radio and the Reorganization of Space in Modern America, 1920-1934," Nov., 2007, The Hagley Center: "Sound in the Era of Mechanical Reproduction," Wilmington, Delaware
"Radio and Publicness" (Panel Chair), Mar., 2007, The Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Chicago
"Communications Technology and Democracy: Localism and Nationalism at the Birth of American Broadcasting," Nov., 2006, The Lemelson Center at the Smithsonian Institution: "Inventing America: The Interplay of Technology and Democracy in Shaping American Identity," Charlottesville, Virginia
Teaching Experience
Denison University (Granville, Ohio), Assistant Professor:
Theorizing Communication
The Trouble With "Normal"
Deconstructing Disney: A Media Studies Case Study
Media Criticism and the Politics of Aesthetics
Mediating Sex and Gender (team-taught with Cassandra Secrease-Dickson)
Global Communication
U.S. Broadcasting History and Theory
Media and Cultural Policy
Digital Technology and Cultural Change
Media Literacy
University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), Visiting Lecturer:
U.S. Media Policy Since 1900
Propaganda & Persuasion in the Mass Media
Media's Role in American Democracy: Theories of the Public Sphere
University of Wisconsin (Madison), Graduate Lecturer and Teaching Assistant:
Media and Cultural Policy
Survey of Radio, Television, and Film
Introduction to Speech Composition
Media-Related Work and Community Service
Invited Peer Reviewer, Routledge, 2011-Present
Invited Peer Reviewer, Television and New Media, 2011-Present
Invited Peer Reviewer, Technology & Culture, 2009-Present
Member, Board of Managers, Granville Historical Society, 2009-Present; author of The Founding of Granville (Granville Historical Society Pocket History Vol. 1), 2011
Member, Information Technologies Committee of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, 2009-2011
Contributing Editor to Little, Jacob. Jacob Little's History of Granville. Ed. Laura Evans. Granville, OH: Granville Historical Society, 2009.
Producer, Here On Earth (radio program on global politics and cultural affairs), Wisconsin Public Radio, Madison, WI, 2003-2005
Editorial Board, The Velvet Light Trap (journal of Film and Television Studies), 1997-2004, Coordinating Co-Editor, 2001-2003
Member, Broadband Telecommunications Regulatory Board, Madison, WI, 2000-2007
Member, Editorial Board, The Community Media Review, 2001-2003
Miscellaneous volunteer activities with WYOU Public Access Television and WORT Community Radio, Madison, WI, 1998-2007
Other Work Experience
Swissair: Crew Disposition (troubleshooter for daily airline operations), 1989-1997, Zurich, Switzerland
Audio Magazine: Editorial Assistant, 1985-1989, New York, NY
Awards and Fellowships
Mellon Career Enhancement Grant 2009
College of Letters and Sciences Teaching Fellowship 2004
Graduate School Dissertation Fellowship 2004
Department Nominee, Letters and Sciences Innovative Teaching Award 2003
Communication Arts Graduate Teaching Award 2002
Ruth McCarty Dissertation Scholarship 2002
Fellowship to the American Research Center in Cairo, Egypt, 1999 (Two-month graduate level program of study and research organized through Duke University)
The Ruth McCarty Early Achievement Award, University of Wisconsin 1998
Humanities Enhanced University Fellowship, University of Wisconsin 1997 - 2001
William F. Vilas Fellowship, University of Wisconsin 1997 – 1998