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.

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.

Abstract: Growing up in a queer and transgender body in a strange, messy combination of Amish, Mennonite, and Southern forms of whiteness resulted in an interculturally discordant youth for the author who traces experiences navigating religiosity, shame, and socialization while feeling cognitive and cultural dissonance that led to disidentification with the cisheteronormativity of those communities. Stoltzfus-Brown’s subjectivities and memories inform and are informed by scavenged knowledge that has allowed them to not only make sense of their own narrative, but utilize it to aid in dismantling prevailing narratives that to be Amish/Mennonite is inherently to be cisgender and heteronormative. As such, this chapter introduces familial history, discusses key experiences, and critically examines the hierarchies of power that operate to silence gender and sexual diversity as informed by their embodied experiences.

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

Abstract: Within the United States popular and academic imaginaries, Amish/Mennonite identities tend to get flattened into a monolithic, anti-modern stereotype simultaneously fearful of information communication technology and yet titillated by their utility. This pan-Amish construction relies on reducing interpersonal and intercultural complexities regarding media into bite-size binaries easily understood by English outsiders, which is critical when distilling information about myriad Amish norms and sects even if it means choosing breadth over depth. As a result, academic literature on the Amish mediascape tends to focus on binaries of traditionalism and modernity from a variety of disciplines, and research has not kept up with the rapidity with which newer information communication technologies are adopted by Amish/Mennonite communities. This research note discusses the budding field and literature of Amish media studies, presents a case study of a public Old Order Amish media-focused event to complicate traditional/modern binaries, and provides suggestions for future scholarship in this area.

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. 

Abstract: This chapter discusses the thread of conversation from the march itself to small changes in the Women's March social media to the continuing presence of trans-exclusionary radical feminists within the larger movement. It explores how the Women's March on Washington, DC, represents a particularly white feminist failure as "white privilege is tied to radical feminists' ability to incite scorn toward a vulnerable minority and not only get away with it, but remain gainfully employed in the process". The chapter provides information on queering the Women's March discourse and offers suggestions on using education, empathy, and interventions to do what calls "multi-identity work". The frameworks of intersectional and queer theories provide a strong background for studying how structural inequities, embodied queerness, and multifaceted identities all combine to affect how feminist activists interact with each other and with larger institutions to which they belong.

Invited research talks & presentations

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.

Latest work

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, August). 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.

Academic writing samples (drafts, unpublished work, etc.)