The following pieces are excerpts taken from coursework written for my studies while attending the University of Sydney during a semester abroad. The university values strong academic writing and extensive research, and my pieces primarily consisted of analyzing theory against present-day media themes. My studies were in Popular Culture and Politics, Technology and Culture, Communication and Social Change in China, and Media Studies.
Influence analysis of Donna Haraway’s “A cyborg manifesto”
This piece explores the writings that inspired Haraway's cyborg-feminism metaphor and the pieces that were then influenced by her writing, illustrating how theories are built off of one another.
TikTok in Terms of Assemblages and Machines
This piece analyzes TikTok as a machinic assembly and explores the ways it operates as one by representing a combination of human, technical, and conceptual pieces that act together to create one autopoietic, or self-producing, process. This is done through exploring its interface, algorithm, addictive properties, trend cycles, and influences on other social media platforms.
The Stars Art Group as Non-Official Media During the 1978–81 China Democracy Movement
This writing covers the influential avant-garde art group known as The Stars and explores how their art acted as a form of non-official media during the 1978-81 Democracy Movement in China. The piece delves into the history of The Stars and why their work was so pivotal and influential by comparing their pieces to those of Mao-era propaganda artworks.
Producer-Audience Relationships as Explored Through Black Mirror’s “San Junipero”
This essay examines producer-audience relationships by examining Black Mirror's "San Junipero" through popular media case studies, such as Stuart Hall's theory of encoding and decoding and Amanda Klein's genre theory. The piece discusses themes of audience interpretation, television genre, and sexuality.
Exploring Politics Through Cinema: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
This essay is intended to take a piece of popular culture and explore it through the lens of politics. I chose to focus on The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and analyze how its plot and stylistic choices mirror contemporary American structures of injustice through its portrayals of economic disparity, the scapegoating of marginalized groups, and violent clap-backs from authorities.
