Presentations

American Political Science Association

2011. “Free expression, information superiority, image, & operation security: Crafting a military communication model for the cyber age.” Are your data private: Cyber security in a Wikileaks world. Seattle, WA.

American Sociological Association

2026. “Social disruptions through spirited disturbances: A consideration of ‘Haunted History’ in New York’s Burned-Over District.” Places & performances as cultural objects. American Sociological Association. New York, NY.
-------. New York, NY.
2016. “Reimagining social movements classes: Conversations about comics.” Section on Teaching and Learning Sociology roundtable: Experiential learning. Seattle, WA.
2015. “Making love and war: (Erotic) sexual politics of war revealed in letters of an American military couple.” Section on the Sociology of the Family roundtable: Sexuality. Chicago, IL.
2012. “Fort Utopia, Middle of Nowhere: A utopian perspective to studying/understanding the military.” Section on Peace, War, and Social Conflict roundtable session. Denver, CO.
2011. “Unknowing martyrs in the anti-war cause: The creation of protest statements through combat-zone suicides.” Section on Peace, War, and Social Conflict roundtable session. Las Vegas, NV.

Comic Arts Conference

2026. San Diego, CA.
2016. “Undead soldiers never die: Post-9/11 civil-military relations in DC’s ‘G.I. Zombie.’” Poster presentations. San Diego, CA.

Comic-Con for Educators and Librarians

2026. San Diego, CA.
2025. Teaching pop culture in 2025: Embracing the past/preparing for the future. San Diego, CA.
2024. Hands on: Developing the skills and finding the right jobs in pop culture. San Diego, CA.
2023. Admissions departments emitting geek vibes: College course focused on pop culture. San Diego, CA.
-------. Comics on campus: Academia vs. fandom (battle or a collab?). San Diego, CA.
2022. Comics on Campus: Fandom + Academia. San Diego, CA.

Comics Studies Society

2026. “Everything I thought I knew, comics may challenge: Cold War allohistories and lessons in historicity.” 20th century history in comics form. Columbus, OH.
2025. Roundtable: Beyond the comics pantheon. East Lansing, MI.
-------. “Dogfaced soldiers: Rewriting war with werewolves.” East Lansing, MI.
2023. “Missing the Punchline: Comedy, violence, & a woman on the fringe.” Drawing the monstrous: Violence, horror, war. Denton, TX.
2022. With D.F. Yezbick. “Letters & lace: Milton Caniff’s Male Call & its readers.” Comics readers, comics politics. East Lansing, MI.
2021. “Compassion & the apocalypse: Commanders (& communities) in Crisis.” Navigating superhero communities. WebEx.
2020. “Babes at arms: From firing-pin ups to Bombshells.” Women & war. Arkadelphia, AK. [Canceled: COVID19]
-------. “The mise-en-scène, mise-en-abyme, & mise en screen of techno-dystopias.” Arkadelphia, AK. [Canceled: COVID19]
2019. “Presidential superzeroes: Parody or punditry in comic book political satire.” From protest to satire: Comics as political commentary. Toronto, ON.

Digital Cultural Studies Cooperative

2023. “Building resistance: Agency & LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures.” Material resistance. Realizing Resistance Episode III. Online.
2021. “‘I am altering the [art of the] deal’; Or, the in-Sidious threat of Dark Side allusions in political satire.” The Imperial March. Realizing Resistance Episode II. Online.
2020. “Babes at arms: From firing/pin ups to Bombshells.” Women & war in superhero comics. Flyover Comics Symposium. Online.
2019. “'We have everything we need’: The Anti-Imperial March.” “You are being rescued. Please do not resist.” Realizing Resistance. Denton, TX.

Eastern Communication Association

2026. Because we’re solitary Barbie girls, ain’t we?” The three faces of Barbie: Multidisciplinary perspectives on the rebranding of a cultural icon. Pittsburgh, PA.
2025. “Between the lines: Visual depictions of the ‘fact gap’ during election 2024.” “Mind the gap”: The outcomes of demographic demarcations and divisions in the 2024 presidential election. Buffalo, NY.
2024. “Distortions and distractions: The visual rhetoric of celebrity spectacle surrounding Trump’s indictments.” The shifting currents of Trump's legal imbroglios: Indictments, integrity, & impenitence. Cambridge, MA.
-------. “The national recurring nightmare: Ford’s inaugural speech 50 years later.” Public address of 1974, fifty years later. Cambridge, MA.
-------. Scholars’ roundtable: Whither American democracy? Cambridge, MA.
2023. “‘Wake up, sheeple!’ Sheeple aren’t real: Cartooning conspiracies in a theater of the absurd - Netflix’s Inside Job.” Top papers in political communication. Baltimore, MD.
-------. “Roe, reproduction, and representation: Artists on abortion.” Denial, derogation, & divisiveness after Dobbs: Communication perspectives on a post-Roe world. Baltimore, MD.
-------. Divided federal government & future directions for political communication research. Baltimore, MD.
-------. “Politics as unusual: Editorial cartooning and the 2024 election.” Are we on “The Eve of Destruction?” – Looking ahead to the 2024 election. Baltimore, MD.
2022. “The Statue of Trumpery: Ironic metaphor and the visual ideograph.” Top paper panel: Memorializing public messages of American presidents. Philadelphia, PA.
-------. Invoking <freedom>: Negative and positive freedom as rhetorical strategies in the pandemic. Philadelphia, PA.
-------. Scholars’ roundtable: The state of U.S. democracy in the early 21st century. Philadelphia, PA.
2021. “Mourning in America: Critical nostalgia in the time of MAGA.” The 2020 Presidential election, pictured: Framing theory & nostalgia during the Biden/Trump election. Virtual.
-------. The 2019 & 2020 ECA Distinguished Research Fellows: A discussion about research & resiliency. Virtual.
2020. “The fall of the towers and the rise of political comics journalism.” Top papers in political communication. Baltimore, MD. [Canceled: COVID19]
-------. “Light comedy or reality TV? Political cartoonists frame the 2020 Democratic primary debates.” Analyzing communication in the 2020 presidential primary debates: Strategic innovation & interaction in a shifting scene. Baltimore, MD. [Canceled: COVID19]
2019. “Hey, voters! Comics!: Campaign comics, election specials and graphic biographies.” Top papers in political communication. Providence, RI.
-------. “Cartoon commemoration and commentary on the death of John McCain.” Bidding Senator John McCain goodbye: Memorializing across genres & contexts. Providence RI.
2017. “A rhetoric of monstrosity: Towards a definition of the American political horror genre.” Humor, horror, & pop culture in politics. Boston, MA.
2016. “Four-color politics: Ideology and the presidency in DC’s Prez 1973-2015.” Top papers in political communication. Baltimore, MD.
2012. “Staging war theater on the home front: The family drama of deployment in public broadcasting.” Constructing reality? Terrorism economic tidings, family values, & broadcasting military policy. Cambridge, MA.
2011. “Suicidal soldiers or wounded warriors: Rhetoric of victimage in defense of military suicides.” Power, propaganda, & rhetoric in public address. Arlington, VA.
2010. “Hidden costs & unsung heroes: Issues of media coverage and cultural scripts in noncombat military deaths.” The political discourse of waging war & combating terrorism. Baltimore, MD.
2009. “Eco-nfessions: CMC, secrets, and environmental action at TrueGREENconfessions.com.” Old & new media on the Internet: Economics & adaptations. Philadelphia, PA.
-------. “Lipschtick: Masculine political metaphors get a makeover.” Campaign frames: Meaning making & constraint in ‘08. Philadelphia, PA.
2008. “IR, PR, the E.U. & the U.S.: Bush’s and Chirac’s conflicting sacred/secular national identities regarding Iraq.” Bent emotions: Perspectives on foreign policy & candidate evaluations. Pittsburgh, PA.
2007. “Civil religion in presidential inaugural addresses from George Washington to George W. Bush.” Religion & political communication: New research. Providence, RI.
2006. “Like gathering moonbeams: Challenges facing the solidification and reinforcement of Pagan Pride.” Constructions of self & other: Selected papers in Voices of Diversity. Philadelphia, PA.
2004. “Looking to heaven for answers: A computer-based rhetorical critique of Christian sermons following the Oklahoma City bombing & the 9/11 terrorist attacks.” The progress of life & death: Rhetorical evocation & response. Boston, MA.
-------. “The fightin’ side of country: Political messages from ‘Music City’ in wartime.” Modern politics: Fear, celebrity, parody, & country music & political messages. Boston, MA.
2003. “One nation under question: How the media did (or didn’t) cover the Pledge decision.” Competitive papers in Mass Communication: Media coverage of U.S. issues. Washington, DC.
-------. “Disconnected in a wireless world?” Discourses of citizenship pre-conference. Washington, DC.
2002. “Capturing character: Variations in media coverage of candidate character in the first 2000 presidential debate.” Debates 2000: A close look. New York City, NY.

Eastern Sociological Society

2016. “Baby girls, little men, & kiddos: Family roles & social constructions of the children of World War II.” Military families. Military Sociology Mini-Conference. Boston, MA.
2014. “Guns & cockpits, weapons of wits: Gender & sexuality in the military as expressed in soldier-drawn comics.” U.S. military economies & cultures. Baltimore, MD.

International Communication Association

2011. “Materiality & commoditization of war correspondence, from snail-mail to e-mail.” Mediating war & technology preconference. Boston, MA.

Geek/Art CONfluence

2026. Show off your collection. Syracuse, NY.
2019. “The genre crossovers and gender crossplays of DC Comics Bombshells.” Comics: From creation to reception and back again. Syracuse, NY. Geek/Art CONfluence

Institute of General Semantics

2026. “Maps, manifestations, and #MagicResistance: Occult symbolism for political action.” Discourse, Dialogue, and Democracy 2: An Online Symposium. Zoom.
2024. “Fighting like cats & dogs: Politics in (not so) ‘funny animal’ comics.” Calling out the symbol rulers. Annual Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture and the Symposium on Communication, Consciousness, and Culture. New York, NY. [presented in absentia]

International Studies Association

2012. With E.J. Ziegelmayer. “Global communication in tribal battles: Development & meaning of the U.S. military’s Information Operations Doctrine.” Communicating war in the information age. San Diego, CA.

International Studies Association - Northeast

2013. “Doctrine Man draws for jargon, bureaucracy, & the military way: Comic representations of US military doctrine.” Media as data; Media as method. Providence, RI.

Media Ecology Association

2026. “Re-mixed mediums: A media ecological view of paranormal investigations as electronic seances.” Winnipeg, Canada.
-------. Winnipeg, Canada.
2025. “Open up, flip through, drop out: Technodystopia & critical nostalgia in comics.” Artificial intelligence, society, and culture. Mexico City, Mexico.
2024. “The medium, she’s the message: Memory and meaning along the Haunted History Trail of New York State.” The contested contours of public memory: Critiques of public space, defining narratives, and the evolving nature of public commemoration. Buffalo, NY.
2023. “Visual surreality: Time, germs, and other things (un)seen in COVID comics.” Comics, graffiti, and social media. New York, NY.

National Communication Association

2026.
2025. Political communication in 2025. Denver (Aurora), CO.
2024. Reflections on the 2024 Presidential election. New Orleans, LA.
2023. “The abolition of rhetoric? A consideration of visual rhetoric & AI illustration in The Abolition of Man comic.” Innovation & effects in visual communication technology. National Harbor, MD.
-------. “Freedom of the press: Journalistic accountability, fake news, & the ‘truth’ in Spider-Man.” Superheroes & the meaning of “freedom:” Social, personal, & structural dimension. National Harbor, MD.
2022. “‘Come on! What did you expect?’ Mischief, marketing, & merch.” The Marvel Cinematic Universe on Disney+: Place, expansion, contention. Seattle, WA.
-------. Comics, community, & communication: A Comics Studies Society roundtable. Seattle, WA.
2021. “They furnished the pictures, Trump furnished the war: Political cartoons of the fight against COVID & the ‘wartime president’.” News coverage of crises, COVID-19, & campaigns. Seattle, WA.
-------. “‘You’re on mute’: Idiosyncrasies of synchronous online public speaking.” Transforming the public speaking course in response to COVID-19. Seattle, WA.
2020. “Lois Lane & the image of the journalist: Comics Books are a medium with a media message.” Journalism & news across cultures & countries. Zoom.
-------. Code of conduct in communication associations. Zoom.
-------. “Light comedy or reality TV? Political cartoonists frame the 2020 Democratic primary debates.” Analyzing communication in the 2020 presidential primary debates: Strategic innovation & interaction in a shifting scene. Zoom.
-------. “Venom-ous heroes: The critical crossroads of the heroic villain.” Crossroads & boundaries in superhero adaptations. Zoom.
2019. “‘Is this a comic book version of a presidential campaign?’: Graphic politainment endorsements of voting amid expressions of cynicism.” Scholarship on political participation, deliberation, voting and issue ownership of science in politics. Baltimore, MD.
2018. “Playful politics in political parodies: Editorial cartoons in comic book form.” Politics in play: Satire, affect, and cartoons. Salt Lake City, UT.
2017. “Legacies of colonialism and race in presidential steampunk superhero comics.” Commemoration, memorialization & nostalgia: Analyzing race, memory & politics. Dallas, TX.
-------. “I’m with h↑m to make Star City great again: Arrow’s mimetic mayoral campaign.” Taking aim at CW’s Arrowverse: Costumed heroes, cultural critiques, & commercial implications. Dallas, TX.
-------. “Studying horrific political communication & monstrous politicians: What can communication scholars offer to the study of horror, and What meanings are emerging in contemporary representations of monstrosity?” Our (monstrous) legacies, our (cultural) relevancies: Exploring the significance of monstrosity, horror, and otherness for communication studies. Dallas, TX.
2016. “‘V’ for victory, violence, vixens, and variants: Exploring feminism and peace in the WWII herstory of DC’s Bombshells.” Contributing to the conversation: Costumed superheroes & contemporary socio-political discourse. Philadelphia, PA.
-------. “Remembering the Cold War in DC The New Frontier: New truths, comic book justice, a different American way.” The Red Menace in the American imagination: Rethinking the cultural experience of the Cold War. Philadelphia, PA.
2015. “‘Sexy letters’: Maintaining long-distance sexual intimacy– a couple’s Korean War correspondence.” Perspectives on initiating & maintaining sexual communication. Las Vegas, NV.
-------. “Seamlessness and systemness.” Organizational change in higher ed: Transfer, articulation, & degree completion through “systemness” panel discussion. Las Vegas, NV.
2014. “The genre and process of war letters.” Studies in rhetoric: Roundtable on research in progress. Chicago, IL.
2013. “The coloring guard: Rhetorical visions of military cartoonists.” Mapping the shifting grounds of post-9/11 war rhetoric, “Inside the machine: Workshopping war rhetoric projects.” Washington, DC.
2012. “The funny side of war: A fantasy theme analysis of WWII & Iraq editorial cartoons by soldiers who were there.” A COMMunity of humor in political communication. Orlando, FL.
2011. “Soldiers without guns, women’s work is never done: WWII WACs and WAVES from comic pages to comic books.” Comic books voices as domestic propaganda in World War II. New Orleans, LA.
2010. “A bridge too far to cross? Veterans’ narratives of returning to civilian life and the implications for cultural civil-military relations.” War & the military in political communication. San Francisco, CA.
-------. “Tinker, tailor, soldier, or sailor: Military identity as influence in the public sphere.” Making connections, breaking bonds: Identity & the public sphere. San Francisco, CA.
2009. “Speaking to one god but addressing many: The inaugural address as counterweight to the inaugural prayer.” Let “us” pray: Rhetoric, religion, & the 2009 presidential inauguration. Chicago, IL.
-------. “Toward a model of reasonable religion.” Re-visiting & re-visioning: Religion in the public sphere. Chicago, IL.
2008. “Unconventional expectations in conventional settings: Using innovation in the classroom.” Putting my students first: The pedagogical implications of student centered teaching practices in the college classroom. San Diego, CA.
2007. “Participatory communication practices in Dianic Wicca: Witchcraft as third wave feminist action.” Second & third wave feminism & beyond. Chicago, IL.
-------. “Reconciling reason & religion.” Public sphere studies in action: Looking back on 10 years & forward to the next 10. Chicago, IL.
2006. “How the news media act as saints and sinners of civil religion on Inauguration Day.” Saints, sinners, sex: Exploring hostility, objectivity, & religious norms in the news. San Antonio, TX.
-------. “The prodigal son and the promised land: The unique and not so unique religious nature of George W. Bush’s Inaugural addresses.” Issues in political communication. San Antonio, TX.
-------. “Lessons worth learning about innovations & interventions: Thinking about cases our students connect to – the Facebook fiasco.” Connection & action in public sphere studies: Conversations about what we do & why we do it. San Antonio, TX.
2005. “Leaping the gap of faith: Diagnosing what ails dialogues involving spirituality.” Health of public spheres & public deliberation. Boston, MA.
2004. “Providence, presidents, & the press: Using the past to understand the present & future of religious language in and about U.S. inaugurations.” God today: Religion in contemporary culture. Chicago, IL.
2003. “Redefining crisis rhetoric in the wake of localized national tragedies.” Political rhetoric. Miami, FL.
2002. “Girl-talk in a man’s world: Losing the ‘counter’ in multiple public spheres.” Public sphere theory. New Orleans, LA.

New York State Communication Association

2024. Who Is Your Audience? Who Do You Want to Reach? Callicoon, NY.
-------. “Going rogue, the sequel: MTG and MAGA.” Frightening, Feckless, Felonious, Funny, and Feeble: The Trump 2024 Chronicles. Callicoon, NY.
-------. Approaches and Methods in Thinking about Generative CommunicAItion. Callicoon, NY.
-------. Revisiting Teaching as a Subversive Activity: NYSCA Book Club. Callicoon, NY.
-------. “From picket boards to spirit boards: Haunted history as restorative practice.” The Contested Contours of Public Memory: Critiques of Public Space and the Evolving Nature of Public Commemoration. Callicoon, NY.
2023. Reengaging Straight Man in contemporary higher education: NYSCA Book Club. Callicoon, NY.
2022. “Junctures and ruptures: COVID, comics, and visualizing the invisible.” Wilson Lecture. Callicoon, NY.
-------. “Roe, reproduction, and representation: Artists on abortion.” Denial, derogation, & divisiveness after Dobbs: Communication perspectives on a post-Roe world. Callicoon, NY.
-------. Professorial confessions: The worst class I've ever taught. Callicoon, NY.
2020. “Monroe’s Motivated Sequence – As Seen on TV!” GIFTS. Webex.
2019. “We are all wonder women & handmaids in the resistance – or are we?: The limits of pop culture icons & avatars in feminist protest.” Global citizens & impediments: Modern feminism around the world. Callicoon, NY.
2018. “Pun dites: Artists’ re-framing of Trump’s words.” Trump time: Communication lessons or Trump’s communication primer. Callicoon, NY.
2008. “‘Pants on fire’: An intradisciplinary game for the public speaking or basic course.” GIFTS. Kerhonkson, NY.
2007. “When good teachers teach badly: A look at the communication traps in innovative teaching.” Topics in teaching. Kerhonkson, NY.
2003. “Redefining crisis rhetoric in the wake of localized national tragedies.” Art of communication. Kerhonkson, NY.
2002. “Capturing character: Candidate coverage as cue to the crisis of civil society.” Roundtable. Tarrytown, NY.

New York Society for General Semantics

2025. "Conceptualizing campaign media and misinformation in 2024." Misinformation, misdirection, manipulation and mischief: Making sense of contemporary political propaganda. A NYSGS Event. New York, NY.

Page 23 Literary Conference

2020. Twilight zones: Democracy thrives on strangeness. Online.
2019. “Poison Ivy: Militant earth mother.” Warrior women & super-grrrls!: Iconic feminist heroines & their discontents. Denver, CO.

Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association

2018. “Graphic epistles & epistle graphics: Of war letters & comics.” Comics & the epistolary tradition. Indianapolis, IN.

Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association - South

2018. “Campaign carnage: Horror & politics in comic books.” Political horror. New Orleans, LA.

Rhetoric Society of America

2026. “In/dignity in death: The ’drunkards, lunatics, paupers & vagrants’ of haunted tourism.” Portland, OR.
2024. “Gods, monsters, and generals: Rhetorical appeals, public memory, and historical fiction of the Civil War.” Representations of war. Denver, CO.
2020. “Dungeons & dialogics: Cartographic hospitality in hypermediated role-play games.” Genre in pop culture. Portland, OR. [Canceled: COVID19]
2014. “‘Worlds apart & yet together’: Using spatial rhetoric to traverse boundaries in war correspondence.” Approaches to the rhetoric of war. San Antonio, TX.
-------. “Drawn behind the lines: Fantasizing borders in war cartoons.” Tracing the rhetorics of war. San Antonio, TX.
2010. “‘Language will not convey’: Rhetorical formation of interpersonal civil-military relations.” Rhetoric in military & foreign policy. Minneapolis, MN.
2008. “Perspectives on piety: The press’s use of incongruity.” Rhetoric, religion, & the rhetoric of religion: Perspectives & prospects. Seattle, WA.

Society for Cinema and Media Studies

2026. “ ‘I’m the only one of us who can’t fly’: The super moms, supers’ moms, and supermoms of Invincible.” Thinking about the Invincible transmedia franchise: From comics to TV. Chicago, IL.
2022. “Illustrated war letters: Precursor to digital postcards & viral videos.” Archaeologies of audio/visual industries & the military. Virtual Pre-Conference Seminar. Online.

other

2026. “The message of the medium: The insanity of war.” Graphic and Audio-Visual Representations of Extreme Violence Intended for a Young Audience, Trent University/Ottawa University. Ottawa.
2023. With Daniel F. Yezbick. “Bombs & bombshells, aluminum and Lace: Milton Caniff at the intersections of illustration & insignia in World War II.” Recovering & recontextualizing race & gender in illustration. Blind Spots: The 13th Annual Illustration Research Symposium, Washington University. St. Louis, MO.
2023. “Mother Goddesses & the incarnation, passion, & resurrection of Spider-Man: The transformative nature of Shriek, Shathra, & Ero.” Spider-Man & religion: Spinning a web of spirituality. Bowling Green State University Spider-Man in Popular Culture Conference. Bowling Green, OH.
2022. Military humor. Military at Microsoft. MS Teams.
2022. “Veteran-created war comics and the workaday war.” Comics, Security, and the American Mission, The Ohio State University. Columbus, OH.
2022. “Wonder Woman’s Bronze Age & the United Nations Decade for Women.” Wonder Woman for President: 50 Years of Kick-Ass Feminism virtual conference.
2019. “Animating #VeteransVoices: StoryCorps, cartoons, & the civil-military gap.” Animation and Public Engagement Symposium. Lubbock, TX.
2017. “Sighting UFOs (unusual female others) in Saucer Country: Metaphors of identity & politics.” Monstrous Women in Comics Conference. University of North Texas. Denton, TX.
2017. The military in cartoon: Veteran comic creators – a panel discussion. Border Town Comic-Con. Ontario, OR.
2016. “Visual perspective in primary, secondary, & tertiary graphic narratives of World War I.” Images, imageries, imaginaires. Colloque Guerres et BD: Écrire une histoire nouvelle de l’Europe, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, et le Goethe-Institut Paris, avec la Panthéon-Sorbonne (Université Paris 1). Paris, FR.
2015. “A fatal femme: How Bomb Queen re-genders politics & war.” POP girls: Reconsidering the feminine in popular genres & media forms. PROJECT: Comic Con Academic Mini-Conference. St. Louis, MO.
2013. With E.J. Ziegelmayer. “Web 2.0 & the information revolution for US defense strategy.” War, radicalism & revolution: Social media’s impact. 24th Annual Global Issues Conference at Manchester Community College. Manchester, CT.
2010. With E.J. Ziegelmayer. “‘Friending’ the enemy: The US military, strategic communication, & social media in the War on Terror.” Social media I. Global Media & ‘the War Terror’: An International Conference, sponsored by the Communication and Media Research Institute at the University of Westminster. London, GB.
2003. “Stoking the flame: Developing a passion for community service.” SKILL 2003: Sharing Knowledge, Insights, and Lessons Learned CETL Conference for U. Albany Graduate Teaching Assistants: Albany, NY.

under review

“Lie lines: The affective border creation of an upstate ghost town and boomtown”
“Horror comics & the American Revolution: The spirits of 1776 and terrors of 2026”