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Max Dosser

(he/him)
  • Graduate Student

Education

  • Communication (MA) - Wake Forest University
  • Chemistry (BA) - Wake Forest University
  • Music in Liberal Arts (BA) - Wake Forest University

Biography

Max (he/him) is a PhD candidate and the editor of the speculative fiction literary magazine Flash Point Science Fiction. His scholarship has been published in journals such as Critical Studies in Media Communication, Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, the Journal of Film and Video, among others. His dissertation is driven by the research question: What is the relationship between the affective attachments fans have to speculative fiction media and the logic of violence/exclusion?   

Areas of Interest

Speculative Fiction, Fan Studies, Affect Studies, Music Communication, Animated Media, Television Studies

Publications

Refereed Journal Articles

  • Dosser, Max. “When Puppies Start to Hate: The Affective Economy of the Hugo Awards’ PuppyGate Controversy.” Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, forthcoming.
  • Dosser, Max. “I’m Gonna Wreck It, Again: The False Dichotomy of ‘Healthy’ and ‘Toxic’ Masculinity in Ralph Breaks the Internet.” Critical Studies in Media Communication, forthcoming [ahead-of-print: doi.org/10.1080/15295036.2022.2067347]
  • Dosser, Max. “Streaming’s Skip Intro Function as a Contradictory Refuge for Television Title Sequences.” Velvet Light Trap 90 (Fall 2022): 38-50.
  • Dosser, Max. "POP! Goes My Heart: The Sound of Specific and General Love in Romantic Comedies and Dramas." Music and the Moving Image 14, no.3 (2021), 46-60.
  • Dosser, Max. "Throw in the Tune: Musical Characterizations of Disability in Wrestling Films." Journal of American Culture 43, no. 4 (2020), 300-311.

Book Chapters

  • Dosser, Max. “No Longer Lost in the Woods: Kristoff and a Non-Hegemonic Disney Prince Masculinity.” In The Frozen Phenomenon, edited by Maja Rudloff and Brittany Eldridge. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, forthcoming.
  • Dosser, Max. “From Fan Blogs to Earth Rumble VI: Disability Discourse on Avatar: The Last Airbender.” In The Avatar Television Franchise: Storytelling, Identity, Trauma, and Fandom, edited by Francis M. Agnoli. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2023, in press.
  • Dosser, Max, and Kevin Pabst. “Who Lives, Who Dies, He Tells the Story: Hip-Hop, Antagonist-Narrators, and the Impact of Musical Genre on Storytelling.” In Rise Up: The Revolutionary Rhetoric of Hamilton, edited by Luke Winslow, Nancy J. Legge, and Jacob Justice, 169-83. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2022.
  • Dosser, Max. “Development Un-Arrested: Cancelled Sitcoms Meet Streaming Services.” In Critical Media Studies: Student Essays on Contemporary Sitcoms, edited by Mary Dalton, 5-22. Winston-Salem, NC: Library Partners Press, 2017.

Book Reviews

  • Dosser, Max. “The Pomegranates and Other Modern Italian Fairy Tales, edited and translated by Cristina Mazzoni.” Journal of Folklore Research (February 2022).
  • Dosser, Max. "Narration as Argument, edited by Paula Olmos (Review)." Informal Logic 40, no. 3 (2020), 509-520.
  • Dosser, Max. "Music in Comedy Television: Notes on Laughs, edited by Liz Giuffre and Philip Hayward (Review)." Music, Sound and the Moving Image 14, no. 1 (2020), 79-82.

Presentations

  • September 10, 2020 - 1:00pm: 4th Annual Student Symposium: Studies in Creativity
  • September 10, 2020 - 1:00pm: 4th Annual Student Symposium: Studies in Creativity
  • November 6, 2020 - 3:00pm: Agora Virtual Speaker Series: Graduate Student Pre-Conference Presentations Part 2

Courses Taught

University of Pittsburgh as Graduate Teaching Fellow (2019-Present)

  • COMMRC 0300: Communication Process
  • COMMRC 0520: Public Speaking

University of North Carolina at Pembroke as Part-Time Lecturer (2019)

  • MCM 2500: Film Appreciation
  • SPE 2010: Fundamentals of Speech

Sandhills Community College as Instructor (2017-2019)

  • COM 110: Introduction to Communication
  • COM 140: Introduction to Intercultural Communication
  • COM 231: Public Speaking

Wake Forest University as Graduate Instructor/Teaching Assistant (2015-2017)

  • COM 110: Public Speaking
  • COM 310: Collaborative Filmmaking
  • COM 316: Screenwriting
  • COM 370: Intersectional Multimedia Storytelling
  • COM 370: Movies, Magic, and Meaning

Awards

  • Andrew W. Mellon Predoctoral Fellowship, Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, 2022-2023.
  • Rachel McMasters Miller Hunt Scholarship, Nationality Rooms & Intercultural Exchange Program, University of Pittsburgh, 2022.
  • Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences Summer Research Fellowship, University of Pittsburgh, 2022.
  • Donald B. Egolf Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, Department of Communication, University of Pittsburgh, 2022.
  • Tamara Horowitz Graduate Student Paper Prize, Gender, Sexuality, & Women's Studies Program, University of Pittsburgh, 2021.
  • Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences Summer Research Fellowship, University of Pittsburgh, 2020.
  • Volleyball Award for Faculty Leadership, Sandhills Community College, 2018.
  • Teaching Innovation Projects Grant, Sandhills Community College, 2018.
  • Music History Award, Department of Music, Wake Forest University, 2015.
  • Louise Cochrane Boteler Prize for the Pursuit of Excellence in Music, Department of Music, Wake Forest University, 2014.