Resume

• 2011

  PhD

  Dissertation: Brand

  Full View: UNIQLO as Idea

  Product and Place

  Culture and Communication

  Drexel University

• 2009

  MA

  Thesis: An Exclusive Club Anyone Can Join: How Abercrombie and Fitch Created and Sold a Teen Lifestyle

  Costume Studies

  New York University

• 2003

  BA

  Communication Studies

  minors in Business Administration and History

  The Beacon

  Shelburne Television Studio

  WCLH

  Wilkes University

  Multimedia Presentations

  Interpersonal Communication

  Principles of Communication

  Fashion Communication

  Journalism I

  Mass Media and Society

  Technical Communication

  Techniques of Speaking

  Technologies of Communication

  Introduction to Communication

  Fundamentals of Journalism

  Persuasive Methods

  Music

  Culture and Criticism

  Fashion

  Media & Culture

  Online Journalism

  Fashion

  Communication and the Media

  Global Journalism

  Public Relations

  Journalism II

• Ap Style

  Microsoft PowerPoint

  Magazines

  Facebook

  Editing

  Microsoft Word

  Web Content

  Newspapers

  Newspaper

  News Writing

  Journalism

  Research

  Feature Articles

  Social Media

  Adobe InDesign

  Newsletters

  Copy Editing

  AP Style

  Blogging

  Adobe Photoshop

  Brand Tangents: Semiotics and Circulation in Introduction

  This exploratory study crosses discussions from semiotics and promotional culture to explore how consumers make sense of an unknown brand. Using Uniqlo

  the Japanese retailer of specialty apparel

  as a lens

  it is possible to examine how consumers make sense of unknown brands prior to the reification of an “image” or “personality.” Uniqlo makes an apt case study since the brand has been making a concerted effort to grow across the US retail landscape; this research utilizes in-depth interviews conducted with potential or low-information consumers of Uniqlo during its 2014 push into the Philadelphia metro area. Drawing on Saussure’s notion of meaning “in absentia

  ” this paper offers a theory of “brand tangents”—external connections people utilize when encountering and making sense of a new brand. Brand tangents are external relations

  but can have a lasting effect through the reification of brand meaning.

  Brand Tangents: Semiotics and Circulation in Introduction

  This article seeks to analyse the use of fashion brands in two pop music videos: LFO’s Summer Girls and 5 Seconds of Summer’s She Looks So Perfect. The analysis takes a multimodal discourse and intertextual approach

  by teasing out the uses of the brand name and the imagery of the music videos

  in order to compare the video-brand relations in each.

  Brand references and music video intertextuality: Lessons from Summer Girls and She Looks So Perfect

  As Japanese retailer Uniqlo expands across the USA

  it has been building its brand identity in a multitude of ways. Flagship store experiences

  athlete sponsorships

  online videos

  and sponsored articles have worked to raise Uniqlo’s name recognition and promote its simple

  trendy designs. This paper explores Uniqlo from the human aspect

  specifically how consumers engage with and help shape the brand. Scholars have noted that consumers and workers play a role in establishing

  promoting and personifying retail brands. Recently

  discussions of immaterial and aesthetic labor have been extended with the idea of “glamour labor”—the actions individuals undertake to seem “cool.” Glamour labor helps celebrities

  models and individual consumers build a personal image in everyday life and through social media. This paper applies the idea of glamour labor to a case study of Uniqlo shoppers and consumers. Drawing from a series of in-depth interviews and “shopper observation”

  it is possible to see how the brand is extended and altered through consumers’ glamour labor. Consumers who engage in this process are helping to extend the brand while also burnishing their own cool credentials.

  ’Cool’ Workings: Glamour Labor and Identity Issues in Fashion Branding

  This edited collection explores the notion of agency by tracing the role and activities of consumers from the pre-internet age into the possible future. Using an overview of the historical creation of consumer identity

  Consumer Identities demonstrates that active consumption is not merely a product of the digital age; it has always been a means by which a person can develop identity. Grounded in the acknowledgment that identity is a constructed and contested space

  the authors analyze emerging dynamics in contemporary consumerism

  ongoing tensions of structure and agency in consumer identities

  and the ways in which identity construction could be influenced in the future. By exploring consumer identity through examples in pop culture

  the authors have created a scholarly work that will appeal to industry professionals as well as academics.

  Consumer Identities: Agency

  Media

  and Digital Culture

  This chapter seeks to understand J.C. Penney’s turn in retailing and branding practice during the reign of CEO Ron Johnson and argue that the company utilized a new aesthetic for its branding efforts. By applying the concept of cut ‘n’ paste to the store-within-a-store concept

  it may be argued that companies are deploying a traditionally resistive aesthetic.

  It's All Inside: J.C. Penny and 'Cut 'n' Paste' as Branding Practice

  Narratives of the apocalypse remain a powerful fixture in storytelling across media by confronting notions of mortality and the significance of life. By exploring identity and symbolism through the everyday ritual of dress

  this paper examines clothing as a material representation of social and psychological processes at the world’s end.

  What to Wear to the End of the World: The Function of Fashion in Acopcalytic Narrative

  Teen clothier Abercrombie & Fitch’s mix of shirtless associates

  nightclub-like stores and risqué photography by Bruce Weber helped propel the brand into icon status. The brand’s name entered the popular lexicon as a synonym for cool and even received a memorable call out in LFO’s pop song

  “Summer Girls.” This paper explores the interplay in aesthetics between A &F Quarterly

  the brand’s popular magazine-catalog hybrid

  and popular music videos of the time. Specifically

  this paper analyzes videos that appeared on MTV’s Total Request Live between September 1999 and April 2001. In total

  42 music videos were found to contain elements of the “Abercrombie” lifestyle

  including clothing that was sold by the brand

  and props and settings similar to those found in the A & F Quarterly. In sum

  this suggests that music videos from the time were instrumental in spreading the brand’s aesthetic

  and that the interplay between media popular culture and the aesthetics of fashion brands could yield productive future research.

  ‘Girls That Wear Abercrombie & Fitch’: Reading Fashion Branding Aesthetics into Music Videos

  Despite its name

  the shows making up the reality TV genre are well-known for being “real” in only the loosest sense. Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County (2004-2006) followed teens through the end of their high school careers

  as they attend prom

  graduated and prepared to embark on college. The MTV series was constructed as a “real” foil to the popular scripted drama

  The O.C. Unlike shows that set out a premise – from The Real World’s “seven strangers picked to live in a house” to the competition-focused Survivor

  Big Brother and The Bachelor – Laguna Beach portrayed itself as real and

  in doing do

  blurred the lines of real and fiction.\n\nThis article interrogates the role of stylized consumption within the “real” world of Laguna Beach to argue the show blurred reality through consumption of relatable cultural products

  including The O.C. This article argues that consumption within the show was key to making the teens relatable and realistic. From there

  the television practices take on a new dimension by allowing routine teen events to be stylized and dramatized yet still read

  ultimately

  as real.

  Metaconsumption

  Convergence and Stylization in the ‘Real’ Teens of Laguna Beach

  Paper presented at Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Conference

  New Orleans

  La.

  Oscar PR Girl: Humanizing Oscar de la Renta Brand Identity via Social Media

  Paper presented with Kaitlyn Smith and Jordan McClain at Mid-Atlantic Popular/American Culture Association Conference

  Atlantic City

  New Jersey.

  UNIQLO in the U.S.: An Ethnographic Exploration of a Brand’s Beginnings.

  Paper presented at Mid-Atlantic Popular/American Culture Association Conference

  Pittsburgh

  Pa.

  Subcultural Fashion at Y2K: Seeing Differences in the Music Videos of TRL

  Paper presented at Drexel University’s Fashion & Media Conference

  Philadelphia

  Pennsylvania.

  Fashioning Lifestyle Journalism as IMC: Lessons from Abercrombie & Fitch

  Uniqlo and Victoria Beckham

  Paper presented at Mid-Atlantic Popular/American Culture Association Conference

  Philadelphia

  Pennsylvania.\n

  Abercrombie & Fitch reloaded: New brand for a new generation.

  Paper presented at Mid-Atlantic Popular/American Culture Association Annual Conference

  Philadelphia

  Pa.

  Examining gay identities in the world of club drugs

  Paper presented at Fashion in Fiction: The Dark Side

  Philadelphia

  Pa.

  For Tourists Only? Examining the Relationship Between Urban Flagship Stores and Brand Image.

  Paper presented at Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Conference

  Chicago

  Ill.

  More than ‘Summer Girls’: Music Videos and Abercrombie Style at the Turn of the Millennium

  Paper presented at LIM College’s Fashion: Now & Then: Fashion as Art

  New York

  New York.

  Gender Contortion? Seeing Strong Females in Abercrombie & Fitch’s Magalog

  Paper presented with Danie Greenwell at Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Annual Conference

  Boston

  Mass.

  Humans of Uniqlo: Identity

  Aesthetics and Glamour Labor in Brand Growth

  Poster presented at National Symposium of the Costume Society of America

  The Full Cleveland: Dress as Communication

  Self-Expression and Identity

  Cleveland

  Ohio.

  Every Day Matters: Framing the Rise and Fall of jcpenney’s Rebranding.

  Paper presented at Mid-Atlantic Popular/American Culture Association Conference

  Atlantic City

  N.J.

  Seeing Community Journalism in Online News: Examining Status Conferral Processes in Digital Media Organizations

  Poster presented at Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Annual Conference

  Montreal

  Quebec. \nPaper received Third Place in New Audience Research Paper Award.

  ‘A Technicolor Teen Lifestyle’: Positioning Abercrombie & Fitch’s Magalog as Taste Arbiter

  Paper presented at Integrated Marketing Communication and Popular Culture Conference

  Wilmington

  North Carolina.

  Brand Abundance: Uniqlo as Defined by Sponsorships

  Collaborations and Intertextuality

  Paper presented at Popular Culture Association Conference

  Seattle

  Wash.

  Brand and the City: Finding Connections and Differences in Uniqlo’s Expansion.

  Paper presented at Mid-Atlantic Popular/American Culture Association Conference

  Philadelphia

  Pa.

  It’s All Inside: Exploring the Implications of jcpenney’s “Shopes” Strategy.

  Paper presented at Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Annual Conference

  Washington

  D.C.

  LFO to 5SOS: Intertextual Brand References in \"Summer Girls\" and \"She Looks So Perfect\"

  Paper presented at Popular Culture Association Conference

  San Diego

  California.

  Consumer Identities and Digital Culture Symposium

  Symposium organized at St. John's University

  New York for March 2017.

  Store Openings and Brand Framing: Exploring Cultural Devices in UNIQLO’s Philadelphia Expansion

  Paper presented at Mid-Atlantic Popular/American Culture Association Conference

  Baltimore

  Md.

  Lascity

  Myles Ethan

  Rodale

  Drexel University

  Philadelphia University

  Chestnut Hill College

  IBT Media

  Time Inc.

  Advance Digital

  Southern Methodist University

  Hearst

  Hearst Digital

  Morristown

  N.J.

  —\tOversaw food and Sandy Recovery verticals on NJ.com\n—\tCoordinated with food writers and production staff\n—\tMonitored web traffic and promoted stores to meet traffic quotas\n—\tUpdated homepage and social media accounts

  as needed

  Associate Producer

  Special Projects for NJ.com

  Advance Digital

  Greater Philadelphia Area

  —\tTaught undergraduate courses in journalism and communication\n—\tCreate syllabi

  assignments

  tests and lectures\n—\tProvide constructive feedback and meet learning outcomes

  Adjunct Instructor

  Philadelphia University

  —\tCoded email blasts and contest-submission pages\n—\tProduced galleries

  articles and landing pages\n—\tFormatted magazine’s iPad edition

  Web Producer for Runner's World

  Allentown

  Pennsylvania Area

  Rodale

  Greater Philadelphia Area

  —\tTaught undergraduate courses in journalism and communication\n—\tCreate syllabi

  assignments

  tests and lectures\n—\tProvide constructive feedback and meet learning outcomes

  Teaching Assistant/Instructor

  Drexel University

  Greater Philadelphia Area

  —\tTaught courses in journalism

  public relations and communication\n—\tAdvised campus newspaper on all aspects of production\n—\tCoordinated with local vendors for newspaper printing\n—\tWorked to hire adjuncts and other instructors

  Assistant Professor of Communication

  Chestnut Hill College

  — Coordinated archive for photography since 2005\n— Assisted with photo research and on photo shoots as needed

  Photo/Art Intern for Country Living

  Greater New York City Area

  Hearst

  Dallas

  Texas

  —\tLead independent research projects on fashion communication\n—\tDevelop and teach Fashion Media curriculum\n—\tOversee four adjunct instructors \n—\tAdvise award-winning fashion magazine\n—\tAct as public face of the program students and other stakeholders\n—\tLiaison with admissions to help recruit undergrad students\n—\tDevelop student internship opportunities with local businesses

  Assistant Professor of Journalism; Director of Fashion Media

  Southern Methodist University

  —\tOversaw creation

  scheduling and deployment of 14 newsletters\n—\tUsed A/B testing to optimize email subject lines\n—\tUtilized SEO to target web content

  Asst. Web Producer for Health.com

  Greater New York City Area

  Time Inc.

  — Wrote short articles on trending topics\n— Researched and develop article ideas from social media\n— Located and edited photos as needed\n— Incorporated SEO into headline and stories

  Pulse Fellow

  Greater New York City Area

  IBT Media

  — Brainstormed

  researched and organized special packages\n— Scanned tagged and uploaded photography as needed\n— Wrote headlines

  summaries and keywords for web pages

  Intern for CountryLiving.com and HouseBeautiful.com

  Greater New York City Area

  Hearst Digital

  Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association

  American Culture Association

  Popular Culture Association

  Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication