BEA2026

Attention all students and student advisors... we'll be talking all BEA student opportunities in Las Vegas.

This extended high density session highlights the breadth of recent research and teaching about race and media, with extensions into gender and class. Panelists will present brief overviews of their original research or teaching techniques, and then open to further discussion with the audience. Topics include identity-focused news sites, news coverage of Muslim women activists, the ambiguous Latina in Barbie, arguments about Native American mascots, Black identity in The Blackening, explainer podcasts in teaching, African American and African Immigrant perspectives on casting in Black historical films, and race and class in Abbott Elementary.

Moderator: Brad Gorham, Syracuse University
Panelists:
Christopher S. Josey, University of Missouri, Tanner Smith, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign & Julius Matthew Riles, University of Missouri; Breaking the model: Examining the content of Asian American identity focused news sites

Meriem Mechehoud, Independent Scholar; Framing Muslim Women Activists Abroad: Audience Perceptions and the Power of Stereotypes

Arthur D. Soto-Vásquez, University of Nevada, Las Vegas & Raisa F. Alvarado, California State University, San Bernardino; The Ambiguous Latina in Barbie

C. Richard King, Columbia College, Chicago; Seances and Spiritualists: Undead Indian Mascots and Rhetorics of Resuscitation

Derek Blackwell, Prairie View A & M University & Gretta Blackwell, Prairie View A & M University; “You Got Some ‘Splaining To Do”? Exploring the Pedagogical Potential of Explainers in Media Studies Classrooms

Adelaja Oriade, Denison University; Contesting Authenticity: African American and African Immigrant Audience Perspectives on Casting in Black Historical Films

Betsy Pike, Ball State University & Robert Alan Brookey, Ball State University; Class is Not Dismissed: Abbott Elementary and Approaches to Inequality

Andrew C. Billings, University of Alabama & Yifan Wu, University of Alabama; Fairness or Fear?: Media Coverage of Trans, Intersex, and Sex-Tested Female Athletes

Respondent: Rebecca Ann Lind, University of Illinois at Chicago

This panel explores assignments that on paper may seem odd, unusual, or far-fetched for students but in the end, have a strong impact on the classroom. Drawing upon their own experience, panelists share their experiences with some creative assignments that both surprise and deliver.
Moderator: Jonathan Vinson, Huntington University
Panelists: Kim Fox, American University in Cairo
Jonathan Vinson, Huntington University
Samuel Varghese

STAR Office Hours is our one-of-a-kind feedback and community-building program designed to connect you with senior faculty within the BEA community. BEA wants to help you maximize your conference experience by assisting you with your teaching questions as well as your service and/or administration concerns. We’ve tailored our STAR Faculty Office Hours program to primarily support graduate students and new faculty in their teaching duties as well as faculty interested in moving into administrative roles or taking on new service requirements. BEA members can sign up for multiple slots with senior faculty. Sign up, and schedule a meeting with a STAR faculty member to: 

-Get feedback on a syllabus
-Discuss teaching strategies
-Create learning objectives
-Align established learning objectives to specific course assignments and/or rubrics
-Design or analyze an assignment’s rubric
-Learn about moving to administration (Chair, Associate Dean)
-Discuss strategy for academic service based on your “level” (grad student, non-tenure-track, tenure-track, tenured, professional personnel)
-Active inquiry techniques
-Interpreting and responding to student evaluations of teaching
-Incorporating high impact practices
-Best practices for advising students
-Develop multimedia materials