Assistant Professor
2023, Ph.D., Radio-Television-Film (Media Studies), University of Texas at Austin
2018, M.A., Communication Studies, University of Denver
2010, B.S., Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Colorado at Boulder
Bio
Daelena Tinnin-Gadson is an Assistant Professor of Black Film Studies and African American Literature in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at UNC Chapel Hill. She holds a Ph.D. in Media Studies with concentrations in Women and Gender Studies and African and African Diaspora Studies from University of Texas at Austin, a M.A. in Communication Studies with an emphasis in Communication and Culture from University of Denver, and a B.S. in Journalism and Mass Communication with a concentration in Ethnic Studies from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Her research focuses on exploring the relationships between Black geography, the afterlives of slavery, time and space, and performances of Black feminisms through the visual, sonic, and cultural modalities of media. More specifically she is interested in the intersections of Black women’s media and the Black feminist theoretical archive’s to build and imagine future worlds. Her current manuscript explores the visual life of Black feminisms in Black feminist experimental cinema.
Publications:
- “Insecure, Issa Rae, and the Interstitial Space of Black Female Friendships.” Flow Journal, vol. 25, no. 8, 2019, http://www.flowjournal.org/2019/07/insecure-issa-rae-interstitial-space/
- Infamous Bodies: Early Black Women’s Celebrity and the Afterlives of Rights, Samantha Pinto, The E3W Review of Books, vol. 22, Spring 2022, https://e3w.dwrl.utexas.edu/infamous-bodies-early-blackwomens-celebrity-andthe-afterlives-of-rights-by-samantha-pinto/
- Race and the Cultural Industries, Anamik Saha Media Industries, Vol. 6, Issue 2, 2019, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3998/mij.15031809.0006.214
Teaching Awards
- Outstanding Assistant Instructor, Dept. of Radio-Television-Film, Univ. of Texas at Austin, 2021
- Outstanding Teaching Assistant, Dept. of Radio-Television-Film, Univ. of Texas at Austin, 2020
Awards
- Dissertation Writing Fellowship, The Graduate School, Univ. of Texas at Austin, Spring 2023
- Jesse Jones Fellowship, Moody College of Communication, Univ. of Texas at Austin Moody, 2022-2023
- Black Caucus Graduate Student Writing Award, Society for Cinema and Media Studies, 2020
- Graduate School Mentoring Fellowship, The Graduate School, Univ. of Texas at Austin, 2018- 2019
Courses Taught:
- CMPL 180 Black Women in Popular Culture
- CMPL 280 Blackness, Horror, and the Limits of Historical Trauma