Joshua Plencner

Joshua Plencner is Assistant Professor of Political Science at SUNY Oswego, specializing in American political culture, racial identity formation, and comics studies. His research examines how political ideas manifest through material culture, particularly in visual media.

Plencner analyzes superhero comics as sites of racial ideology, feminist discourse, and cultural meaning-making. His publications investigate racial representation in superhero narratives, corporate appropriations of feminism, and sacred/profane dichotomies in popular culture.

Recent Awards:

• SUNY Oswego Scholarly Grant (2024)
• APSA Travel Grant (2023)
• NEH Summer Institute Fellowship (2020)
• NYU Scholar-in-Residence (2019)

Teaching includes American politics, comics/politics, mass incarceration, James Baldwin studies, abolition, and superhero seminars.