Twitter: @stephbrown 
E-mail: sbrown11 (at) illinois (dot) edu

I’m a comedy, podcast, and television enthusiast working on her doctorate in Media and Communications at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in the Institute of Communications Research. In addition to teaching courses in Media and Cinema Studies and in Gender and Women’s Studies, I work on SCMS and Cinema Journal‘s Aca-Media podcast, co-produce a local women’s open mic, write over at Medium and for various other outlets, and  am also in the process of co-launching an after school program called Girls Amplified, which was piloted in the fall of 2015.

My dissertation project explores the discursive boundaries and cultural gatekeeping surrounding American stand-up comedy specifically with regards to gender. I locate my project at the intersection of comedy studies, feminist media studies, fan studies, and cultural studies. My work looks at comedy less as a genre than as a field with its own set of rules, behaviors, practices, and ideologies. I am currently conducting interviews with women in Champaign, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York who are amateur and professional comics about the realities of breaking into a field that is historically male-centric and about how they negotiate their identities and behavior as women, comedy fans and comedy performers.

I received my B.A. in English from Indiana University and my M.A. in Television, Radio, and Film from Syracuse University.  Before returning to school, I worked for the New York Television Festival and for VOX, a voice-over talent agency in Los Angeles.