MICHAEL D. DWYER

________________________________________________________

ACADEMIC POSITIONS

• Associate Professor of Media & Communication, Arcadia University, 2016-present.
• Assistant Professor of Media & Communication, Arcadia University, 2010-2016.

EDUCATION

• PD. (awarded with Distinction) – English, Syracuse University, 2010.
• M.A. – Literary & Cultural Studies, Carnegie Mellon University, 2003.
• B.A. (Departmental Honors, cum laude) – English, University of Miami, 2002.

SCHOLARSHIP AND PUBLICATIONS

Academic Monographs

• Tinsel and Rust: How Hollywood Manufactured the Rust Belt. August 2025. Oxford University Press.
• Back to the Fifties: Nostalgia, Hollywood Film and Popular Music of the Seventies and Eighties. June 2015, Oxford University Press.

Articles in Refereed Journals

• “The Rise of the Commuter Class.” Mediapolis: A Journal of Cities and Culture. Volume 8, No. 3 (September 2023). https://www.mediapolisjournal.com/2023/09/commuter-class/
• “The Same Old Songs.” Alphaville Journal of Film and Screen Media. Issue 3 (Summer 2012). http://alphavillejournal.com/Issue%203/PDFs/ArticlesPDF/ArticleDwyer.pdf

Book Chapters

• “Nostalgia and Affect” in The Routledge Handbook on Nostalgia. Tobias Becker and Dylan Trigg, eds. New York: Routledge, 2024. 165-172.
• “Nostalgia is a Feeling.” The Uses of the Past in Contemporary Western Popular Culture: Nostalgia, Politics, Lifecycles, Medialities, and Materialities. Tobias Becker and Dion Giorgiou, eds. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2024. 39-52.
• “Cooley High, Cabrini-Green, and early-onset rusting in Chicago” in Home Screens: Public Housing in Global Film & TV. Lorrie Palmer, ed. New York: Bloomsbury, 2023. 145-62.
• “Fixing the Fifties in the Reagan Era.” The 1980s: A Transitional Decad  Duncan Campbell and Kimberly R. Moffitt, eds.  Latham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield / Lexington Books. December 2010. 201-23.
• “It Was Something: Kathleen Hanna, Sadie Benning, and the Limits of Grrrl-hoo” Singing for Themselves: Essays on Women in Popular Music. Patricia Spence Rudden, ed. Newcastle-upon- Tyne (UK): Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007. 202-17.

Selected Reviews, Open-Access and Popular Publications

• “Book Review: Decline and Reimagination in Cinematic New York.” International Journal of Communication, no. 17 (2023). https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/download/21617/4247
• “Book Review: Rock Star / Movie Star by Landon Palmer.” Journal of Popular Music Studies 34, no. 2 (June 2022) (143-45) https://doi.org/10.1525/jpms.2022.34.2.143.
• “Prince and ‘the Other Eighties.’” OUPblog, April 25, 2016. http://blog.oup.com/2016/04/prince-and-the-other-eighties/.
• “Book Review: Jim Jarmusch: Music, Words and Noise by Sara Piazza” Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television 36, no. 2 (April 2, 2016): 258–60.
• “A pure object, a spectacle, a clown….” CultureBo January 10, 2013. http://www.culturebot.net/2013/01/15549/the-american-realness-of-juggalos/
• “Raphael Saadiq’s Soul Memory.” In Media R August 30, 2012. http://bit.ly/IMRdwyer
• “The Gathering of the Juggalos and the Peculiar Sanctity of Fandom.” Flow. December 17, 201 http://flowtv.org/2010/12/the-gathering-of-the-juggalos/

INVITED LECTURES

• “Landscapes of Decline in 1980s Hollywood.” Clark University. Worcester, MA. March 13, 2025.
• “Steel City, Tinsel Town.” Literary and Cultural Studies Colloquium. Carnegie Mellon University. Pittsburgh, PA. November 12, 2024.
• “The Sounds of Nostalgia.” Listening to Nostalgia seminar. University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, PA. March 21, 2019.
• Plenary Session, “Pop Nostalgia, The Uses of the Past in Popular Culture.” German Historical Institute. London, UK. November 11, 2016
• “Memory, Mourning, Michael.” School of Foreign Language Jiangsu University, China. June 17, 2015.
• “Michael Jackson and the Legacy of ‘Real Showme’” That’s Entertainment!: Valedictory Symposium for Steven Cohan. Syracuse, NY. March 6-7, 2014.
• “Re-Reading American Graffiti.” Philadelphia Cinema and Media Seminar. Temple University Humanities Center. Philadelphia, PA. December 8, 2011.
• “Star Legacies: Remembering James Dean and Sandra Dee.” Word and Image Colloquium, Syracuse University. Syracuse, NY. April 17, 2

SELECTED CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

• “Flooding the Zone: Looking at Johnstown through 1980s Hollywood.” Society of Cinema and Media Studies. March 14-17, 2024. Boston, MA.
• “Deindustrialization, Detroit, and the Horror of Precarity.” Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association. November 9-11, 2023. Philadelphia, PA.
• “Haunted by the Crash: Detroit, Horror, and the Ongoing Trauma of Deindustrialization.” Society of Cinema and Media Studies. April 12-15, 2023. Denver, CO.
• “Cooley High, Cabrini-Green, and the Racialized Rusting of Chicago.” Society of Cinema and Media Studies. March 31-April 3, 2022. Virtual Conference due to COVID-19 pandemic.
• “Erasing the Mistake by the Lake: Cleveland and Hollywood Film.” Society of Cinema and Media Studies. March 17-21, 2021. Virtual Conference due to COVID-19 pandemic.
• “It’s the Neighborhoods: Place Branding, Pittsburgh, and Postindustrial Film Production.” Society of Cinema and Media Studies. March 13-17, 2019. Seattle, WA
• “Steel City, Tinsel Town: Pittsburgh, Hollywood, and the Screening of the Creative Class.” Society of Cinema and Media Studies. March 14-18, 2018. Toronto, ON.
• Roundtable Respondent, “Podcasts and Convergent Digital Media.” Flow Conference. September 15-17, 2016. Austin, TX
• “Something on the Air: Radio Formats and Hollywood Soundtracks.” Society of Cinema and Media Studies. March 30-April 3, 2016. Atlanta, GA
• “Oldies, Nostalgia, and the Opening of the FM Dial.” The International Association for Media and History. May 17-20, 201 Bloomington, IN.
• “Soul in the Rear View: The Blues Brothers.” Society of Cinema & Media Studies, March 25-29, 201 Montreal, QC, Canada.
• “The ‘New Man’ and Fifties Stard’” Film & History Conference. October 30, 2014. Madison, WI.
• “The Meaning of the Word ‘Neighbor’ in Rear Window.” Society of Cinema & Media Studie March 6-10, 2013. Chicago, IL.
• “Blue Velvet through my Ears.” Society of Cinema & Media Studie March 21-25, 2012. Boston MA.
• “The Same Old Songs? Inventing Oldies in 1980s Cinema.” Society of Cinema and Media Studies. March 8-12, 2011. New Orleans, LA.

PUBLIC TALKS AND MEDIA

• “Our Ethical Obligation: Destroy AI.” Lunch & Learn. Mar 5, 2024. Arcadia Univ, Glenside PA.
• “Podcast Pedagogies” Lunch & Learn Session. Nov 2, 2022. Arcadia Univ, Glenside PA
• Featured Commentator, History’s Biggest Fibs with Lucy Worsley, BBC Four, 2019. UK.
• “Blue Collar.” Film School Fess-Ups Podcast. June 2018.
• “Fifty Years of Night.” Global ‘68 Symposium. March 29, 2018. Arcadia Univ, Glenside PA.
• “Hairspray and History.” Film 101 Series. July 21, 2016. Ambler Theater, Ambler, PA.
• “American Culture and Cultural Appropriation.” English Language Institute. February 11, 2016. Arcadia University, Glenside PA.
• “On ‘Nice Guy’ Misogyny.” For the Women Speak Out! April 2013. Arcadia Univ, Glenside PA

ACADEMIC SERVICE

• 2024-present, Arcadia University, Praxis for Teaching Race
• 2022-present, Arcadia University, Director of Global Media program
• 2013-present, Advisory Board, Arcadia University Honors Publication, The Compass.
• 2012-2024, Arcadia University, Committee for University Writing Award
• 2023-2024, Arcadia Univ, Enrollment Council: Storytelling Working Group Co-Chair
• 2022-2023, Arcadia University, Promotion & Tenure Committee
• 2020-2022 Arcadia University, Faculty Senate, Academics Committee
• 2017-2018, Arcadia University, Committee Member and Working Group Co-leader, Middle States Commission on Higher Education Self-Study.
• 2014-2018, Arcadia University, Media & Communication, Undergraduate Program Director
• 2013-2018, Society of Cinema and Media Studies, IT Committee Chair.
• 2013-2014, Arcadia University, Faculty Secretary
• 2013-2015, Arcadia University, Junior Faculty Advocacy Group, Facilitator
• 2012-2018, Arcadia University, Digital Repository Advisory Grou
• 2011, Arcadia University. Commissioned Report on Best Practices for Student Media

REVIEWING AND REFEREEING

• External reviewer for multiple tenure dossiers in film and media studies
• 2024, SCMS Best Essay in an Edited Collection Award [referee]
• 2024, Palgrave Macmillan [book proposal review]
• 2022, Sociological Forum [article referee]
• 2022, Routledge [book proposal review]
• 2022, New Review for Film and Television Studies [article referee]
• 2022, SCMS Caucus on Class Graduate & Precarious Scholar Essay Award [referee]
• 2021, Wide Screen [article referee]
• 2021, National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships, Media Studies [reviewer]
• 2020, The Journal of American Culture [article referee]
• 2018, Oxford University Press [book proposal review]
• 2018, Bloomsbury Publishing [manuscript reviewer]
• 2016, Queer Studies in Media & Popular Culture [article referee]

HONORS, AWARDS, FELLOWSHIPS

• Unsung Hero Award. Arcadia University Center for Teaching, Learning, and Mentorship. Spring 2024.
• Summer Stipend, National Endowment for the Humanities. 2018. (8% success rate)
• Provost’s Award for Outstanding Advising and Mentoring. Arcadia Univ. 2018. (1 awarded)
• Doctoral Prize in the Humanities, Outstanding Dissertation, Syracuse University. 2011.
• Outstanding TA Award, The Graduate School at Syracuse University. 2010.
• Teaching Mentor, Fulbright FLTA Orientation, Syracuse NY 2009. (competitive, 4 awarded)