Bill Kirkpatrick

Professor,
Sociology, Media, Disability Studies

Image credit: “Radio Daze,” was taken by Flickr user Ian Hayhurst and is available here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/imh/3297961043/. My use and transformation of the photo for this website has been authorized by the photographer.

---------------------------------------

Hello! I am a professor and researcher teaching in the Sociology Department at the University of Winnipeg in Manitoba, Canada. Prior to moving to Winnipeg, I was Associate Professor of Media and Cultural Studies in the Communication Department at Denison University in Granville, Ohio.

SCHOLARSHIP

My ongoing research and teaching interests include media history and policy as well as media and disability.
You can download my curriculum vitae here.

I am the co-editor (with
Elizabeth Ellcessor) of Disability Media Studies, published by New York University Press. Disability Media Studies articulates the formation of a new field of study, based in the rich traditions of media, cultural, and disability studies. Necessarily interdisciplinary and diverse, this collection weaves together work from scholars from a variety of disciplinary homes, into a broader conversation about exploring media artifacts in relation to disability.

My other publications include essays in
Critical Studies in Media Communication, the Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, Radio Journal, Television & New Media, the Journal of the Society for American Music, the Journal of Popular Culture, the Journal of Radio and Audio Media, and several anthologies. I am on the editorial board of Radio Journal as well. Most of my publications can be found here and/or at Academia.edu.

I am currently working on a book project on the intersection of U.S. radio and disability/health in the interwar years.

I am active in the
Society for Cinema and Media Studies and co-produce Aca-Media, the podcast of SCMS and JCMS. Aca-Media presents an academic perspective on film, television, and other media.

TEACHING

I have taught at the University of Wisconsin—Madison, the University of Michigan, Denison University, and the University of Winnipeg; I also taught summer courses for Edgewood College and Advanced Studies in England (Bath, UK). My teaching experience includes the following courses:

  • Advanced Media Theory
  • The BBC and British Culture
  • Crip Theory
  • Disability Media Studies
  • Digital Technology and Cultural Change
  • Global Communication
  • The History of Broadcasting
  • Introduction to Media Theory
  • Introduction to Sociology
  • Media and Cultural Policy
  • Media Criticism and the Politics of Aesthetics
  • Media Literacy
  • Mediating Sex and Gender
  • Pirates! Property and Power from Blackbeard to Girl Talk
  • Propaganda and Persuasion
  • Public Sphere Theory
  • Silent Film Comedy and the Rise of American Modernity
  • Sociology of the Body
  • Sociology of Mass Media
  • Sociology of Medicine
  • Sociology of Technology
  • Survey of Radio, Television and Film
  • Theorizing Communication
  • The Trouble With "Normal": Normalization, Discourse, and Power

Please feel free to contact me if you would like to know more about any of these courses—I'm always happy to share my syllabi.

PERSONAL

I have long been active in the
Granville (Ohio) Historical Society and wrote a brief history of the founding of Granville, available here. The book won a Silver Medal from the Ohio Museums Association in their Visual Communications Awards for 2011. I am proud to have received the Harold “Buck” Sargent Volunteer Award for service to Granville history.

I am married to Anna Nekola, an oboist and musicologist.  We currently live in Winnipeg.

Bill, smiling, in a green t-shirt and jacket, in Bath, England.

Bill in Bath, England, 2014. Last good photo of me ever taken.