معرفی
Robert Peaslee is an Associate Professor in the Journalism & Creative Media Industries program of the College of Media & Communication at Texas Tech University, where he also serves as Associate Dean of the Honors College. His scholarship bridges media anthropology, fan studies, and adaptation theory, with particular attention to the cultural politics of superheroes, screen tourism, and global media flows.
Education
- Ph.D., University of Colorado, Boulder, 2007
Research Interests
Peaslee’s work interrogates how media texts and industries shape social power relations. Employing ethnographic and textual methods, he has examined:
- fan cultures and participatory audiences
- the spatial politics of screen tourism destinations such as Hobbiton and Game of Thrones filming sites
- the global circulation of superhero narratives and their moral economies
- representations of place, memory, and identity in film and television
Across these strands he explores how media producers and consumers co-create meaning, often through transnational and digital contexts.
Publication Trajectory
His recent publications display a consistent focus on adaptation and transmedia storytelling, especially where comic-book superheroes and cult texts intersect with tourism and fan labor. The 2020 co-edited volume The Supervillain Reader and the 2016 collection Marvel Comics into Film exemplify his leadership in consolidating critical discourse around comic-to-screen adaptation. Parallel articles on screen tourism investigate how locations such as New Zealand’s Hobbiton or Northern Ireland’s Game of Thrones sites become contested spaces of authenticity and commodification.
Awards & Honors
- Member, TTU Teaching Academy
- TTU President’s Excellence in Teaching Award
- Professing Excellence Award, Research Chair, Visual Communication Division, AEJMC (2011)
- 2nd Place, Top Faculty Papers Competition, AEJMC Visual Communications Division (2010)
- 2009–2010 Professing Excellence Award, Texas Tech University
- 2010 Nominee – Outstanding Faculty, Student Disability Services, Texas Tech University
Teaching, Service & Leadership
Peaslee teaches undergraduate and graduate courses that integrate critical theory with creative practice, including Visual Communication, Writing for Series Television, and Qualitative Research Methods. He has coordinated the TTU International Film Series and formerly served as Programming Chair for the Flatland Film Festival in Lubbock. His record of service includes editorial board membership for the American Communication Journal and leadership roles within AEJMC’s Visual Communication Division.
Labs & Creative Spaces
While no formal lab is listed, his ongoing longitudinal ethnographic projects on screen-tourism sites and his editorial collaborations function as de facto research collectives involving graduate students and international scholars.
