Author of Heartland TV Speaks at C.W. Post

From left: Victoria E. Johnson, assistant professor of film and media studies at the University of California-Irvine and author of the new book “Heartland TV,” Dr. Thomas Fahy, director of the American Studies Program in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and Dr. Sherri Coe-Perkins, associate provost of student affairs.

Victoria E. Johnson, assistant professor of film and media studies at the University of California Irvine, and author of the new book “Heartland TV,” presented the lecture “Red State, Blue State, Purple Heartland: Imagining The Nation In A Post Network Era”on February 7, 2008.

In “Heartland TV,” published in January by NYU Press, Johnson argues that “non-white, queer, and urban culture is consistently erased from depictions of the Midwestern United States in order to reinforce its ‘reassuring’ image as white and straight.” Through analyses of policy, industry discourse and case studies of specific television shows, Heartland TV exposes the cultural function of the Midwest as a site of national transference and disavowal with regard to race, sexuality and citizenship ideals.

Dr. Johnson’s lecture was moderated by Dr. Thomas Fahy, director of the American Studies Program in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at C.W. Post. The event was supported in part by a grant from Long Island University’s John P. McGrath Fund and is co-sponsored by the American Studies Program and the C.W. Post Student Affairs-Faculty Partnership Initiative Committee (SAFPIC).

Posted: February 8, 2008