Dialogue: the Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy Volume 2, Issue 1 | Spring 2015 |
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
!e Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy Traversing Realities: Genres, Histories, and Politics in Popular Culture Volume 2, Issue 1 | Spring 2015 | www.journaldialogue.org Traversing Realities: Genres, Histories, and Politics in Popular Culture Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy Volume 2, Issue 1 | Spring 2015 | www.Journaldialogue.org INTRODUCTION AND SCOPE Dialogue: !e Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy is the !rst open access, peer reviewed journal focused on the intersection of popular culture and pedagogy. While some open access journals charge a publication fee for authors to submit, Dialogue is committed to creating and maintaining a scholarly journal that is accessible to all —meaning that there is no charge for either the author or the reader. "e Journal is interested in contributions that o#er theoretical, practical, pedagogical, and historical examinations of popular culture, including interdisciplinary discussions and those which examine the connections between American and international cultures. In addition to analyses provided by contributed articles, the Journal also encourages submissions for guest editions, interviews, and reviews of books, !lms, conferences, music, and technology. We are excited about this new development in the studies of Popular Culture, and we look forward to your potential participation in this venture. For more information and to submit manuscripts, email Lynnea Chapman King, Editor in Chief, or A. S. CohenMiller, Managing Editor, at [email protected]. All papers in Dialogue: !e Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy are published under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share- Alike License. For details please go to: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/. Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy EDITORIAL TEAM Lynnea Chapman King, PhD, Editor in Chief, Founding Editor Chapman King also serves as Executive Director for the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association. She received her PhD in American Literature and Film from Texas Tech University and currently writes in the !eld of Adaptation. Her publications include No Country for Old Men: From Novel to Film (co-edited, Scarecrow Press) and the recent Coen Brothers Encyclopedia (Rowman & Little!eld). A. S. CohenMiller, PhD, Managing Editor, Founding Editor CohenMiller also serves as a member of the Executive Team for the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association. She received her PhD in Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching from the University of Texas at San Antonio. Her research addresses qualitative research, motherhood/mothering, and popular culture and pedagogy. Selected publications include “Developing globalized teacher education curriculum through interdisciplinarity” (CohenMiller, A., Dentith, A., Jackson, G, & Root, D., 2011) and “Motherhood in academia: A grounded theory pilot study of online texts” (2013). Volume 2, Issue 1 Advisory and Editorial Board ADVISORY BOARD Kurt Depner Jessica Maerz Ken Dvorak New Mexico State University University of Arizona Northern New Mexico College Diana Dominguez Michael Miller Marc Ouellette University of Texas at Brownsville University of Texas at San Antonio Reconstruction: Studies in Millard Dunn Rikk Mulligan Contemporary Culture Indiana University Southeast Association of Research Libraries, Alison Macor Scholarly Publishing Brad Duren Texas State University Oklahoma Panhandle State Marc Ouellette Laurence Raw University Reconstruction: Studies in Baskent University Contemporary Culture Susan Fanetti California State University Shelley Rees Sacramento University of Science and Arts EDITORIAL BOARD Oklahoma Mark Allen Chuck Hamilton South Texas College North Texas Community College Lilliana Saldaña University of Texas at San Antonio Jerry Bradley Michael Howarth Lamar University Missouri Southern State Kelli Shapiro Texas State University Tamy Burnett Lut" Hussein University of Nebraska-Lincoln Mesa Community College Robert Tinajero University of Texas at El Paso Lynnea Chapman King Jennifer Jenkins Adams State University University of Arizona Shane Trayers Macon State College A. S. CohenMiller Nancy Kay Southwest Popular/American Merrimack College Pat Tyrer Culture Association West Texas A&M University Peter Kay Marco Cervantes Treefall: New Music Margaret Vaughn University of Texas at San Antonio Metropolitan State University Warren Kay Brian Cowlishaw Merrimack College Erik Walker Northeastern State University Plymouth (Mass.) South High School Brad Klypchak Janet Brennan Cro! Texas A&M Commerce Rob Weiner Rutgers University Texas Tech University Library Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy Traversing Realities: Genres, Histories, and Politics in Popular Culture Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy Volume 2, Issue 1 | Spring 2015 | www.journaldialogue.org TABLE OF CONTENTS EDITORIAL Examining Perspectives and Applications Lynnea Chapman King and A.S. CohenMiller ARTICLES A Field Guide to Teaching Agency and Ethics: !e West Wing and American Foreign Policy Kayce Mobley and Sarah Fisher Survivor Skills: Why I Want to Teach Reality TV May Friedman Girls, Guns, and Zombies: Five Dimensions of Teaching and Learning in !e Walking Dead Anthony Neely “Can you imagine, a real, live Indian right here in Walnut Grove?”: American Indians in Television Adaptations of Little House on the Prairie Amy S. Fatzinger !e Gentle Tongue: How Language A"ected the World of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood Louisa Danielson Learning about People, Places and Spaces of the World through Informal Pedagogy: Socio-(inter)cultural Constructions and Communication within Popular Culture Shelbee R. Nguyen REFLECTION AND APPLICATIONS Re#ection: !e Twenty Line Trap? Shakespeare Enacted by Young Women Shannon Reed Applications in the Classroom: Hardly Elementary—Frontiers for Freshman Composition with Conan Doyle’s A Study in Scarlet Kate M. Donley REVIEWS Music Review: “Indy Classical Innovation: yMusic” at USC’s Southern Exposure New Music Series Peter B. Kay Book Review: M.J. Trow. A Brief History of Vampires Myha Do Volume 2, Issue 1 !e Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy Editorial: Examining Perspectives and Applications A class of freshman composition students were recently asked to consider the multitude of reality programs on network and cable television and to o!er an explanation for the popularity of reality shows. "ey pondered all manner of reality shows, including competitions like Top Chef, !e Voice, Biggest Loser, and !e Bachelor, among others; reality dramas, shows which follow individuals as they live, work, and play, such as Gold Rush, Appalachian Outlaws, Amish Ma"a, and the various Real Housewives; and “informative” reality shows, including Pawn Stars, Antiques Roadshow, and Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. Having contemplated the situation, my students cited viewer curiosity and superiority, and belief in the American Dream as potential contributors to the preponderance of these shows. "ey may well be correct. We consume these programs to learn what life “really” looks like in Alaska or West Virginia or Bever- ly Hills; to watch the drama and scandal of the lives of others and feel some comfort in our own circumstances; or perhaps, drawing upon our better angels, to be inspired by the successes and happiness of the individuals on the screen before us. "ough the veracity of these reality shows is o#en in question, each autumn a new class debuts, each hoping to be the next Survivor or American Idol. Due in part to these programs, television, a relic of the 20th century, remains relevant in the 21st, albeit consumed on ever-smaller devices and through a variety of delivery systems by many audiences of weekly programming. It is not surprising then that we $nd that our $rst open call issue primarily features articles which address the role of television in both past and contemporary culture, ranging from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and Little House on the Prairie to Jersey Shore and the recent BBC adaptation Sherlock. "e editors and contributors of Dialogue: !e Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Peda- gogy are pleased to present Volume 2, Issue 1, “Traversing Realities: Genres, Histories, and Politics in Popular Culture.” While several of these essays do indeed reference reality television, authors Kayce Mobley, Sarah Fisher, and Amy Fatzinger examine the relationship between television drama and the realities of politics and race relations. Mobley and Fisher use !e West Wing’s $ctional American president Josiah Bartlet and his administration to teach American foreign policy, and Fatzinger considers Laura Ingalls Wilder’s portrayal of American Indians in her books and their eventual adaptation in Little House on the Prairie, a show which would contribute largely to the perception of Native Americans for an entire generation of American children. "ese dramatic $ctions and historic realities intersect on-screen, demonstrating the ever-%uctuating bound- aries of the “real” in the artifacts produced by our culture. Examining the sort of reality that we simultaneously fear and are drawn to, that of the zombie apoca- lypse, Anthony Neely considers !e Walking Dead and its depiction of informal learning in the absence of a structured educational environment. In a related universe, Myha Do reviews M.J. Trow’s A Brief History of Vampires,