Education

THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY, STATE COLLEGE, PA

Ph.D. in Mass Communications, May 2021

Graduate Minor: Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Tentative Dissertation title: “Ex-Plain queerness: Mediated being and becoming among gender and sexually diverse Amish, German Baptist Brethren, and Mennonites”

Advisor: Dr. Matthew McAllister

Committee members: Dr. Matthew Jordan, Dr. Hil Malatino, Dr. Patrick Parsons

FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY, TALLAHASSEE, FL


M. A. in Media & Communication Studies, May 2014

Thesis: “Keeping the ‘he’ in ‘heroes’: A feminist political economic look at DC and Marvel superhero film adaptations,” passed with distinction

Advisor: Dr. Jennifer Proffitt

Committee members: Dr. Davis Houck, Dr. Donna Nudd

FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY, TALLAHASSEE, FL


B.A. in Media/ Communication Studies, December 2012
, Cum Laude


Honors Student

International Programs Participant, London, United Kingdom (2012)

Combined Bachelor’s-to-Master's Program Participant, College of Communication & Information

Academic appointments

THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY, STATE COLLEGE, PA

Research Assistant at the Rock Ethics Institute, June 2019 - August 2019

Project Description: Duties included compiling data on best practices in pedagogy and research design for gender and sexually diverse populations; collaborating with university administrators, faculty, staff, and students to cultivate research praxis across higher education institutions; creating a resource guide and policy recommendations for those involved in curriculum development, institutional survey design, and teaching.

THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY, STATE COLLEGE, PA

Course Instructor of Note, August 2017-present

COMM110: Media & Democracy: Duties include creating course lectures based on current events, media narratives, and global politics; facilitating and fostering class discussion on how to be ethical and critical citizens; and creating and grading relevant, practical material.

COMM150 (online): The Art of the Cinema: Duties included administering and grading online discussions and participation; guiding student engagement in a World Campus, asynchronous course; and fostering critical thinking on cinema's communicative power.

COMM205/WGSS205: Gender, Diversity, and Media; or Mediated Bodies: This course, cross-listed wiith Women's, Gender, & Sexuality Studies, focused on the ways in which media and bodies interact. My duties included creating multidisciplinary assignments such as mock advertising campaigns and media analyses; introducing relevant theories and concepts; and encouraging students to critically examine power, representation, and labor through discussion.

COMM405: Political Economy of Communications: As the instructor of note, duties included creating interesting and up-to-date content; facilitating in-depth discussion regarding questions of power, wealth, and knowledge in contemporary United States media; and highlighting the importance of critical thinking in media studies and practice.

THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY, STATE COLLEGE, PA

Graduate Teaching Assistant, August 2016-Present

COMM150: The Art of the Cinema: Duties included co-grading assignments and answering student emails and/or queries related to any course content.

COMM110: Media & Democracy: Duties included programming and co-creating quizzes, preparing and delivering 3-5 guest lectures, guiding discussions, and meeting with students.

COMM405: Political Economy of Communications: Duties included preparing and delivering 5-7 guest lectures, facilitating discussion, grading quizzes and exams, and holding office hours.

GLENDALE COMMUNITY COLLEGE, GLENDALE, CA

Adjunct Faculty, February 2015-June 2016

SPCH01: Public Speaking: Introductory course combining rhetorical history, overcoming communication apprehension, and styles of oratory. Pragmatic course design based in communication settings such as interviews, presentations, and/or special occasions.

PASADENA CITY COLLEGE, PASADENA, CA

Adjunct Instructor, January 2015-May 2016

SPCH001: Fundamentals of Speech: Introductory course focusing on practical communication, history and basic tenets of rhetoric, and overcoming communication apprehension.

SPCH010: Interpersonal Communication: Introductory course exploring personal and professional communication drawing from performance studies and intersectionality.

FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY, TALLAHASSEE, FL

Graduate Instructor, January 2013-May 2014

SPC2608: Public Speaking: Course providing history of, and theory on, rhetoric and oral communication with opportunities to give several types of speech utilizing multiple styles.

Research

SCHOLARLY PUBLICATIONS UNDER REVIEW

Stoltzfus, L. (2020) Why white people love the Amish. For peer review purposes, journal name withheld.

Stoltzfus, L. (2019) Fetishized, monetized, and challenging otherness: Analyzing Twitter's #ExAmish. For peer review purposes, journal name withheld.

SCHOLARLY PUBLICATIONS

Galarza, L., & Stoltzfus-Brown, L. (2021) 84 Lumber’s constrained polysemy: limiting interpretive play and the power of audience agency in inspirational immigrant narratives. International Journal of Communication, 15(2021), 1-20.

Stoltzfus-Brown, L. (2021). Deep South Mennonite, transgender Amish: A critical autoethnography of white cisheteronormativity. In R. M. Boylorn & M. P. Orbe (Eds.), Intersecting cultural identities in everyday life (2nd ed.). Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press, Inc.

Stoltzfus-Brown, L. (2020). Mapping myriad positionalities in Amish media studies. Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies, 8(1), 65-74.

Cruz, J. & Stoltzfus-Brown, L. (2020). Harley Quinn: Villain, vixen, victim. In R. Peaslee & R. Weiner (Eds.), The dark side: A supervillain reader. Jackson, MS: University of Mississippi Press.

McAllister, M. P., & Stoltzfus-Brown, L. (2020). Television advertising as symbolic and economic systems. In J. Wasko & E. R. Meehan (Eds.), A companion to television (2nd ed.). Oxford, England: Wiley-Blackwell.

McAllister, M. P., & Stoltzfus-Brown, L. (2019). Understanding corrosive elements in the political economy of media. In E. Downs (Ed.), Dark side of media & technology: A 21st Century guide to media and technological literacy. New York, NY: Peter Lang. 

Stoltzfus-Brown, L. (2018). Trans-exclusionary discourse, White Feminist failures, and the Women's March on Washington, D.C. In J. C. Dunn & J. Manning (Eds.), Transgressing feminist theory and discourse. London, England: Routledge. 

INVITED RESEARCH PRESENTATIONS & TALKS

Stoltzfus-Brown, L. (2019, October). "Queering Amish, Amish queers." Invited speaker, When Rights and Religions Collide conference. New York, NY.

Stoltzfus-Brown, L. (2019, May). "Are Amish folks supernerds or antinerds?: Stereotyping subcultures." Invited speaker, Nerd Nite #4 at Webster's Cafe & Bookstore. State College, PA.

Stoltzfus-Brown, L. (2019, April). Invited panelist at the Penn State English Department's Trans Solidarity in the Classroom: Course Design, Pedagogy, Philosophy panel. The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA.

Stoltzfus-Brown, L. (2019, March). "White heteronormativity, patriarchy, and hegemony: The surveilling of Amishness by academia." Invited panelist at the Amish Heritage Foundation's What About Children's Rights? Overturning Wisconsin v. Yoder Evening Panel, part of AHF's Educational Equity Series. Columbia University, New York City, NY.

Stoltzfus-Brown, L. (2019, March). "Research design on gender and sexual minorities." Invited panelist at the Graduate Students in Communication's Research on Marginalized Populations: Insights from Emerging Scholars panel. The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA. 

REFEREED CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

Stoltzfus, L. (2021, postponed due to COVID-19). Roundtable on Comparative eX-Religion: Religious and Gendered Transitions. Paper to be presented at the annual conference of the American Academy of Religion, Boston, MA.

Stoltzfus-Brown, L. (2020, cancelled due to COVID-19). Settler Sexualities, Whiteness, and Compulsory Cisheteronormativity in Amish Religiosity. Paper to be presented at the annual conference of the National Women's Studies Association, Minneapolis, MN.

Stoltzfus-Brown, L. (2019, November). Queering Amishness: Surviving, surveillance, and the heteronormative erasure of LGBT2QIA+ bodies by the Christian Right. Paper presented at the annual conference of the National Communication Association, Baltimore, MD.

Stoltzfus-Brown, L. (2019, November). Wisconsin v. Yoder and the foreclosure of student activism. Paper presented at the annual conference of the National Communication Association, Baltimore, MD.

Stoltzfus-Brown, L. Galarza, L., & Brown, I. (2019, October). "Sometimes you never see the sun": Political economy, ICE, and the de/humanization of transgender immigrants. Paper presented at the annual conference of the Union for Democratic Communications, Oakland, CA.

Madden, S., Byrd, R., & Stoltzfus-Brown, L. (2019, May). Purchasing Power: Etsy Activism and the Symbolic Politics of Consumption in White Feminism. Paper presented at the annual conference of the International Communication Association, Washington, D.C.

Stoltzfus-Brown, L. (2019, March). Heteronostalgia and Amishness: Why white people love the Amish. Paper presented at the annual CLIFF Complit conference, University of Michigan.

Galarza, L., & Stoltzfus-Brown, L. (2018, November). 84 Lumber's constrained polysemy: Limiting interpretive play and the power of audience agency in inspirational immigrant narratives. Paper presented at the annual conference of the National Communication Association, Salt Lake City, UT.

Galarza, L., & Stoltzfus-Brown, L. (2018, March). Are you 84 Lumber material?’: Interpellation, neoliberalism, and nmmigrant narratives in a Super Bowl ad. Paper presented at the annual conference of the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association, Indianapolis, IN.

Stoltzfus-Brown, L. (2017, November). White feminist failures and trans-exclusionary politics. Paper presented at the annual conference of the National Communication Association, Dallas, TX.

Stoltzfus-Brown, L. (2017, November). Fetishized, monetized, and challenging otherness: Analyzing Twitter's #ExAmish. Paper presented at the annual conference of the National Communication Association, Dallas, TX.

Stoltzfus-Brown, L. (2017, July). Bojack Horseman: Race, representation, and labor in cultural industries. Paper presented at the annual conference of Console-ing Passions, Greenville, NC.

Stoltzfus-Brown, L. (2017, June). Fractured Selves, Structured Selves: Depression, Dysmorphia, and Dissociation in Graphic Memoir. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Graphic Medicine Organization, Seattle, WA.

Stoltzfus-Brown, L. (2017, February). Graphic Memoir in the age of the anthropocene. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Penn State Women's Studies Graduate Organization, State College, PA.

Stoltzfus-Brown, L. (2015, October) The controversial Whedon: Feminism and Age of Ultron. Roundtable participant at the annual conference of the Midwest Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association, Cincinnati, OH.

Stoltzfus, L. (2013, November). The gang’s all White here: The marginalization of minorities in comic book adaptations. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Union for Democratic Communication, San Francisco, CA.

Stoltzfus, L. (2013, October). A cross-cultural analysis of video game regulation in the United States, Japan, and the Republic of Korea. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Midwest Popular Culture & American Culture Association, St. Louis, MO.

HONORS & AWARDS

University of California at Riverside Department of Religious Studies

Holstein Dissertation Fellow (2019 – 2020)

National Communication Association Doctoral Honors Seminar

Participant (2019)

The Pennsylvania State University

Djung Yune Tchoi Memorial Excellence in Teaching Award (2020)

Laura Richardson Whitaker Memorial Graduate Fund in Women's Studies (2019)

Don Davis Ethics Award, Penn State Bellisario College of Communications (2018)

Douglas and Claudia Anderson Scholarship, Penn State Bellisario College of Communications (2017)

The Florida State University

Florida State College of Communication and Information Student Leadership Award (2013)

Karl A. and Madira Bickel Scholarship, Florida State School of Communication (2011)

SERVICE WORK

THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY, STATE COLLEGE, PA

Delegate, President’s Commission on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Equity (January 2019-present)

Facilitator, LGBTQA Resource Center Beyond the Binary Support Group (June 2018-present)

Mentor, LGBTQA Resource Center (August 2016-present)

Delegate, Graduate & Professional Student Association (April 2018-April 2019)

• Member, Committee on Advocacy & Diversity

• Chair, Panel on AD-84 (forthcoming)

• Student Liasion, Student Health Insurance Advisory Board

Vice President & Treasurer, Women's Studies Graduate Organization (August 2017-May 2018)

• Co-organizer, 2018 international conference: "Trans_______ Feminisms", 60 attendees from across US and Canada

• Moderator, conference panel titled "The aesthetics of transgressing gender and sexuality"

Treasurer, Communication Graduate Forum (August 2016-May 2018)

Juror, Lynd Ward Graphic Novel Prize 2018 (August 2017-April 2018)

Peabody Awards Screening Committee, Public Service Entries (Spring 2017)

Jana Marie Foundation Media Literacy Workshop for Girls (Spring 2017)

GLENDALE COMMUNITY COLLEGE, GLENDALE, CA

Course design and creation, Introduction to Gender and Communication (Spring 2016)

Participant, workshop on diversity and pedagogy (Spring 2016)

PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

National Women's Studies Association (2019 - present)

American Academy of Religion (2019 - present)

International Communication Association (2018 - present)

National Communication Association (2016 - present)

Popular Culture Association / American Culture Association (2013 - present)

Union for Democratic Communications (2013 - present)