My name is Michael D. Dwyer. I am a Professor of Media and Communication at Arcadia University in Glenside, PA. At Arcadia I teach courses in media studies, film studies, critical theory, and multimedia writing.

I’ve written a book on Fifties nostalgia in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as articles and lectures on fandom, the 1990s Riot Grrrl movement, and representations of space in Hollywood film.

When I introduce myself as a professor of media and communication, people are almost always polite. They smile, and nod, then inquire about my favorite films and television shows. I’m happy to talk to them about such things, of course, but having good taste or interesting opinions is not really what my job is about. Rather, I would describe my professional profile in three primary ways.

• First, I am a teacher and scholar of media studies, working within the methodological tradition of cultural studies, who analyzes the ways that the circulation of popular media shapes American historical consciousness.
• Second, I am a writer invested in utilizing Internet technology to create new forms of research and writing, and new relationships of collaboration, cooperation, and debate among scholarly and popular readers and writers.
• Third, I am an advocate of the kind of open-source and open-access scholarship and creativity which seeks to provide more free and democratic access to materials—scholarly, aesthetic, and political—to individuals and communities who have been previously denied that access.

These three facets of my professional identity are intertwined, and are manifest in my teaching, my scholarship and publishing, as well as my service to the department, the university, the community, and my academic discipline.

ABOUT THIS DOSSIER

This online dossier was originally compiled in February 2013 in preparation for my Third Year Review at Arcadia University. It has been designed to serve as a living archive of my professional activity, housing course materials, student evaluations, descriptions of scholarly activities and publication records, as well as reflections on my work as an Assistant Professor in Media & Communication. The dossier was revamped and redesigned in Summer 2015 in anticipation of my Tenure and Promotion case at Arcadia in AY 2015-2016.

I have decided to make this material public for three major reasons. First, I am convinced that, to the extent that it is possible, academic work must be accessible not only to academics and university students but to our communities, both local and global. Second, I believe that work (of all sorts) must be visible in order to be valued–much of the systemic disinvestment in higher education in the United States has been facilitated, I think, by the myth of the entitled academic, lazing away his or her hours in the faculty lounge and  enjoying “summers off.” Finally, I was motivated to publicly share this portfolio because I benefited from the example of more senior scholars (Kathleen Fitzpatrick and Jason Mittell, particularly) and wanted to pay it forward. So much of the frustration of early-career academics comes from the scarcity of models. I hope these materials might help future teachers and scholars in the same way Fitzpatrick and Mittell’s examples helped me.

The menu in the upper right of this site will direct you to the major content areas of the site:

• A curriculum vitae, available in PDF format as well as a version formatted for the web (with hyperlinks)
• A Personal Statement and reflections on Teaching, Research & Publication, and Service.
• A Dossier that serves as an archive of professional materials. The dossier includes descriptions of scholarship (with links to the full text), course materials (syllabi, evaluation data, class assignments and activities), and documents from my service activities.
• My personal blog, in which I reflect on media studies, film, teaching, and university life.

The menu on the right side of the page directs you to specific categories within the dossier.

If the website navigation doesn’t suit you, I have also prepared a list of simple links to printable PDF documents of all relevant materials from this online portfolio. That list is available upon request.