Reading Reality TV
May 03, 2025
Scroll down for registration and our 2025 conference schedule!
Please welcome our 2025 Keynotes!
Chad Kultgen
Chad Kultgen is an author, podcast host of Game of Roses, a squirrel photographer and he has secretly coached players to infiltrate the Bachelor franchise for the past three years.
Chad will be speaking from 3:30-4:30 in room 805
Chad will be judging the Huju Olympics from 4:45-5:45 in room 805
Emily Nussbaum
Emily Nussbaum is a Pulitzer Prize winning TV Critic, and the author of Cue the Sun!
Emily will be speaking from 11:30-12:30 in room 805
Emily will be signing books in our Vendor’s Hall from 12:45-1:45
Heather Porter
Heather M. Porter, M.S. – Ms. Porter is an accomplished line producer and coordinating producer. A member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, she has produced over 200 hours of television and worked on numerous projects across genres. Her recent credits include RuPaul’s Drag Race, Chefs vs Wild, Seduced by Speed, and Ted Bundy: The Survivors. When not on set, Porter works on academic pursuits including publishing numerous articles in journals and academic texts, teaching, and serving as a Board Trustee for the Popular Culture Association. Her research focuses on quantitative analyses of images of violence, intelligence, and female representation in the science fiction and fantasy genres.
Heather will be speaking from 2:15-3:15 in room 805
Conference Registration — it is totally free to attend the conference! But please let us know you are coming by filling this form out for every attendee
2025’s charity: ProPublica
ProPublica is an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism with moral force. We dig deep into important issues, shining a light on abuses of power and betrayals of public trust — and we stick with those issues as long as it takes to hold power to account.
DRAFT SCHEDULE
Pop Culture Conference - Draft schedule: Saturday, May 03, 2025
All times US-Central
Address: 247 S. State Street (near State and Jackson, downtown Chicago)
A. 9:00-10:00am
A1. The Reality of Reality TV (Room 805)
Panel Chair: Adriane Stoner
“The Multiple Reality of Taskmaster,” Dean Leetal (Virtual) Keywords: British; Taskmaster; Reality and Truth
“Making Reality Audio: An Experimental Approach,” Brett Ascarelli (Virtual) Keywords: documentary, storytelling, reality
“Is There Anything Real about Reality TV?,” Adriane Stoner (In-Person) Keywords: Social issues, reality tv
“Constructing ‘Reality’ with AI: Anchors, Authenticity, and Illusion,” Prithvi Sengar and Vishal Sharma (Virtual) Keywords: Reality, Artificial Intelligence (AI) anchors, audience perception, authenticity
“Uniquely Unscripted Fantasy: Regional Reality Television and the Cultural Reproduction of the U.S. South,” Emily Scroggins (In-Person) Keywords: Gender; Regionalism; Class; Religion
A2. The Jeopardy! Experience and How It Has Changed (Room 806)
Panel Chair: Steven H Silver
Participants: Steven H Silver (J! 2000), Pam Mueller (J! 2000, then 2001, 2005, 2014, 2019, and 2024), Ellen Wernecke (J!, 2017 & Pop Jeopardy), Liz Zoller Cohen (J!, 2002), Hemant Mehta (J!, 2020)
A3. Ethics of Reality TV (Room 802)
Panel Chair: Michael LaRocco
“Egyptians’ Perception of Reality TV Ethics,” Dina Farouk Abou Zeid (Virtual) Keywords: Reality television, Egyptian media, Egyptian television viewers, Egyptian television
“The Reality Gaze: How the Physicality of Reality TV Production Methods Alienates Producers and Crew from Contributors,” Evan Pugh (Virtual) Keywords: reality, ethics, situationalism, production
“Ethically Sourced Conflict: Pastiche and Production Ethics on Game Changer,” Rimon-Hadassah Walker (In-Person) Keywords: Game Changer, ethics, authenticity, comedy, Survivor
“The Abuse of the National Ideal and American Dream in Reality TV,” Lucien Knight (In-Person)
“Jones Good Ass Conference Talk and Discussion Session: Twisting Reality in the Toby Jones Videos,” Michael LaRocco (In-Person) Keywords: satire, mockumentary, comedy, internet video, Chicago
B. 10:15-11:15am
B1. Keynote: Ed Swiderski, winner of The Bachelorette Season 5 (Room 805)
B2. More Than Just Jeopardy! (Room 806)
Panel Chair: Steven Silver
Participants: Lauren Donahoo (Jeopardy, Win Ben Stein's Money), Jenni FG (Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune), Christi Beard (Jeopardy, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, The Chase), Bud Humphrey (Who Wants to Be a Millionnaire)
B3. The Lives of Contestants (Room 801)
Panel Chair: Martina Baldwin
“Leveraging Microcelebrity: How Bravo Turns Content Marketing into On-Screen Drama,” Martina Baldwin (In-Person) Keywords: Social Media, Microcelebrity, Branding, Bravo
“Vanderpump Rules: What Reality TV Can Teach Us About Behavior and Relationships,” Bella Cesario (In-Person) Keywords: Vanderpump Rules, relationships, behavior, feminism
“Serving Self: Authenticity and Self-Performance in Vanderpump Rules,” Alva Andersson (Virtual) Keywords: authenticity, identity, branding, performance, influence
“Murder and Medievalism on The Traitors,” Kristin Noone (In-Person) Keywords: medievalism, the traitors, confessional narratives, emotion and affect
“Is it Still The Learning Channel? What TLC Makes Us Learn on Our Own,” Lindsay Thobe (In-Person) Keywords: TLC, 90 Day Fiancé, Tell All's, Disclosure, Docudrama
B4. The Hidden Labor of Reality TV (Room 802)
Panel Chair: Olivia Stowell
“Being a Reality Shows Contestant: An Emotional Labor on Self and Others,” Fabre Rachel (Virtual) Keywords: Emotional labor, alienation, candidates, work
“White, Woman, Worker?: Labor, Legality, and the Intersections of Race and Gender on Reality TV,” Olivia Stowell (In-Person) Keywords: whiteness, labor, gender, race, lawsuits
“Working Practices, Ethics, and the New Regulatory Landscape of Duties of Care in UK Reality TV,” Helen Wood (Virtual) Keywords: Care, working practices, risk, ethics, consent.
“Tenuous Tiers: Labour Stratification and Economic Disparity Among Reality TV's Onscreen Talent,” Wendy Peters (Virtual) Keywords: labour; unions; media conglomerates; political economy; celebrity
“‘That’s what the show is really about’: Emotional Labor, Homonationalism, and HBO’s We’re Here,” Cameron Brown (In-Person) Keywords: Reception Studies, Queer Media, National Identity, Queer Labor
C. 11:30-12:30pm
C1. Keynote: Emily Nussbaum, author of Cue the Sun (Room 805)
Book signing immediately after this talk in Vendor’s Hall
D. 1:00-2:00pm
D1. Love is…Complicated (Room 805)
Panel Chair: May Friedman
“Love May Be Blind but It’s Still Fatphobic: Exploring Fat on Netflix’s Love Is Blind,” May Friedman (In-Person) Keywords: Fat studies; romance reality TV; weight stigma
“Love is Blind Dilutes Love into a Commercial Fantasy,” Lonnae Hickman (In-Person) Keywords: Love, Consumerism, Societal Norms, American Dream, Reality TV
“Where is the Love? An Ethical Analysis of Cast Treatment on Love Island,” Kendall Butler, Ethan Edwards, Noelle Nielsen, Racheal Williams, & K. Megan Hopper (In-Person) Keywords: Media Ethics, Mental Health
“Reality TV and Language: A Sociolinguistic Analysis of the Language of Love Island UK,” Alicia Jay (Virtual) Keywords: Love Island, slang, linguistics, Sociolinguistics, speech community
“Reality Across Cultures: Exploring Love Is Blind and Its Global Adaptations,” Elisa Paz (Virtual) Keywords: Cross-cultural analysis, International reality TV, SVoD platforms
D2. Is it Reality TV? (Room 806)
Panel Chair: Walter Metz
“The Game Show in the Text: Narrative Theory, Ideology, and the Television Sitcom,” Walter Metz (In-Person) Keywords: sitcom, game show, intertextuality, stunt television, narrative construction
“The Ghost Adventures’ Technique: Capturing Ghosts on Video as Evidence of the Paranormal, Perhaps?,” Jim Iaccino (In-Person) Keywords: paranormal reality series, ghost hunters
“Welcome Back My Friends to the Shows That Never End: A Golden Escalator Media Journey from Reel-Life Reality to the New Realities of Real Life,” Walter Podrazik (In-Person) Keywords: Satire, Colbert, Trump, Real, President
“A Very British Dystopia: How Nigel Kneale’s The Year of the Sex Olympics Anticipated Developments in Reality Television,” John Caro (Virtual) Keywords: science-fiction, dystopia, social class, popular television
“Ludi Romanorum: The Original Reality Show,” Owen Smith (In-Person) Keywords: Ancient Rome, History, Gladiators
D3. Competition in Reality TV (Room 801)
Panel Chair: Jes Klass
“The House Always Wins: Competition and Collaboration in Squid Game,” Tom Ue (Virtual) Keywords: competition, collaboration, capitalism, irony, money
“Rules, Goops, and Gags: The Evolution of Game Design in RuPaul’s Drag Race,” Jes Klass (In-Person) Keywords: drag race, games, game design, rules
“Final Jeopardy: How Mayim Bialik Lost and Why It Matters,” Allison Broesder (In-Person) Keywords: Jeopardy, Mayim Bialik, Ken Jennings, misogyny, labor dispute
“Well Done Mama: Drag Queen Review Shows and RuPaul’s Drag Race’s Political Economy,” David Kocik (In-Person) Keywords: drag culture, political economy, neoliberalism, content creation
“Baking *Wizards* and the Ethics of Fandom,” Carey Millsap-Spears (In-Person) Keywords: Food, Competition, Fandom
D4. Class and Politics in Reality TV (Room 802)
Panel Chair: Marc DiPaolo
“Priming ‘American Carnage’: Reality Television and Donald J. Trump,” Christopher Wernecke (Virtual) Keywords: U.S. American culture; Donald J. Trump; MAGA; ideology
“Coal (the Docuseries): Entrepreneurs Manage, Workers Work, Not a Hint the Audience Has Difficult Questions, and the Climate Deteriorates,” Tom Duncanson (In-Person) Keywords: coal, climate, neoliberalism, miners
“The Evolution of Archetypes on Police Reality TV,” Matthew Clark and Jacquelyn Arcy (In-Person) Keywords: YouTube, Police Media, Surveillance, Participatory culture
“Mining the Jungle: Colonial Adventures and Tough Guys on Reality TV,” Brian Leech (In-Person) Keywords: extraction, masculinity, colonialism
“Up from Middle Management: Class Conflict in the UK Mocumentary The Office (and in The Up Documentaries),” Marc DiPaolo (In-Person) Keywords: mockumentary class-conflict confessionals
E. 2:15-3:15pm
E1. Keynote: Heather Porter, Reality TV producer (Room 805)
E2. Social Media Participation (Room 806)
Panel Chair: Jennifer Dunn
“Whose Lens? The Importance of Independent Media in the Reality Dating Environment,” Lynn Cockett (In-Person) Keywords: independent creators, criticism, parasocial relationships, the Bachelor, reality dating
“Reality TV Without the Screen: The Power of Podcasts,” Lisa Rothman (In-Person) Keywords: Podcasts, Connection. Community
“The Death of Reality TV: How to Revive the Genre for Gen-Z,” Sarah Adams (In-Person) Keywords: social media, marketing, real vs. manufactured
“YouTube Commentary: The Cousin of Reality TV?,” Yizhen Hu (Virtual) Keywords: Digital Media, YouTube, Commentary, Melodrama, Stardom
“Rhetorical Authenticity: From Reality TV and Podcasting to Life,” Cristin Compton, Jennifer Dunn, Tash Dunn, Grettel Gomez Reyes (In-Person) Keywords: reality television, rhetorical authenticity, podcasting
E3. Neoliberalism in Reality TV (Room 801)
Panel Chair: Ryan Poll
“Tasty Neoliberalism: Serving Social Inequalities in South Korean Cooking Shows,” Xing Stelle Wang (Virtual) Keywords: Culinary Reality TV, Cooking Shows, Social Inequalities, South Korea
“‘We're All Investors Now’: Neoliberal Stories, Shark Tank, and American Psychos,” Ryan Poll (In-Person) Keywords: Shark Tank, Global Capitalism, International Division of Labor
“Wanna Play a Game?: The Subversive Celebration of Neoliberalism in Squid Game: The Challenge,” Kennedy Carda (In-Person) Keywords: Squid Game, Gambling Culture, Commodification, Orientalism
“Conscientious Classism: Liberalism and Civility in The Real Housewives of Orange County,” Cary Fitzgerald (In-Person) Keywords: The Real Housewives, Capitalism, Mediation, Wealth
“Reality TV as Capitalist Agitprop,” Linda Levitt (Virtual) Keywords: capitalism, Deadliest Catch, Kitchen Nightmares
“The King and the Judge: Televising (State-) Sanctioned Wealth,” Joe Riccio (Virtual) Keywords: The Real Housewives, Mediation, Capital Accumulation, Carcerality
E4. Representation in Reality TV (Room 802)
Panel Chair: Em Hathaway
“Many and Conflicting Angles: The Multiple Constructions of the Fat Person in My 600-Lb Life,” Linda Robinson (Virtual) Keywords: fat studies; obesity; bariatric surgery; food addiction; body image
“‘An Incredible, Motherly Figure in my Life’: Decentering Queer Romance and Sex on Dancing with the Stars,” Em Hathaway (In-Person) Keywords: queer kinesthesia, kinesthetic empathy, ballroom dance, homonormativity
“The Ultimatum of Inclusion: Examining LGBTQ+ Representation in Reality Television,” Lando Clairissian Tosaya (Virtual) Keywords: LGBTQ+, and Inclusion
“The Girls Next Door: Hostages to Pornography,” Prinae Pillay (In-Person) Keywords: pornography, playboy, commercialization
“Dram Culture Rules: Spectacular Representations of the Dram Shop in Reality Television,” Genie Kuester (Virtual) Keywords: representation, alcohol, public health, Guy Debord
F. 3:30-4:30pm
F1. Keynote: Chad Kultgen, podcast host and author (Room 805)
F2. Reality TV in Professional Contexts (Room 806)
Panel Chair: Stacey Lantagne
“Secret Lives of... Therapists: Reality TV vs Reality Psychiatry,” Susan Hatters Friedman (Virtual) Keywords: mental health, therapy, psychiatry, psychology
“Reality TV as a Class Theme to Explore Student Voice and Interests,” Melissa DeWitt (In-Person) Keywords: Themed courses, course design, student engagement, pedagogy
“Teaching Inequalities through Reality TV,” Kat Rittenhour (In-Person) Keywords: College Teaching, Sociology, Inequalities
“Owning Reality: The Complicated Legal Web of Copyright Law and Reality Television,” Stacey Lantagne (In-Person) Keywords: intellectual property, copyright, ideas, fiction
“Sub-genres of the Reality Memoir: To Reinforce Your Brand or Go for Broke,” Rebecca Trelease (In-Person) Keywords: reality memoir, autobiography, participant perspectives
G. 4:450-5:45pm
G1. Huju Olympics, judged by Chad Kultgen and expert panelists (Room 805)
G2. Organization for Transformative Works presents: Media Real-Person Fic (Room 806)
Hosted by Elsinore
G4. Fan Vid Show (Room 802)
Hosted by Anne C. Smith and Samantha Close
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