Carl Lee McKinney

EDUCATION

Ph.D. University of California, San Diego, Communication, expected December 2013

M.A. University of California, San Diego, Communication, 2007

B.A. University of California, Santa Cruz, Literature, 2002

RESEARCH

My dissertation, tentatively titled SexEd: Pedagogy, Pornography, and the Performance of Sexuality, looks at the simultaneous emergence and development of formal sex education, mass media, and the social sciences in the United States during the 20th century. I argue that empirical research divorced from social and educational theory has been mobilized by moral and religious groups to constrain sexual representations in both the media and educational programs. This marginalizes the exploration of many aspects of sex and sexuality to the realm of the pornographic, where they are taken up by the adult entertainment industry and shaped by industry production practices. Because neither schools nor the mainstream media inculcate critical skills for assessing sexual representations, many people find it difficult to evaluate these representations, even as they increasingly draw on them - from both pornified mainstream media culture and the marginalized culture of hardcore pornography - to construct and perform their sexual identities. Ultimately I argue for new strategies for developing sexual media literacy that require not regulation and censorship of sexual content, but participation in its production.

More broadly, my teaching and research interests include:

Digital media pedagogy
Online social networking and peer production
Cybernetics, informatics, and cyborg subjectivity
Political economy of media industries
Intellectual property and piracy
Gender and Sexuality Studies

PUBLICATIONS & PRESENTATIONS

McKinney, Carl. “Sex Machine: The Technosocial Networks and Production Practices of Cam Sex.” Sexual Cultures: Theory, Practice, Research. Brunel University, April 2012.

McKinney, Carl. "Piracy and Intellectual Property." Battlegrounds: The Media. Eds. Robin Andersen & Jonathan Gray. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008.

MEDIA PRODUCTIONS

For All? A short documentary that draws on one couple's experience with the process of naturalization to interrogate a particular, privileged practice of immigration that is often overlooked within a much larger set of issues and debates. Through personal revelations of emotional conflict and imposed indignity, For All? questions the fairness of a legal "fast track" to citizenship through marriage that favors both a certain type of relationship and "desirable" immigrants or couples – those who are educated and employed or employable, and thus have the economic means and the cultural and linguistic skills to navigate the convoluted bureaucratic process by which one proves their potential "value" as a citizen.

University of California Disability Studies Wiki. A structured wiki for the sharing and collaborative production of knowledge among the community of scholars in the University of California system whose work intersects with the field of disability studies.

Human Rights Web. A wiki / Flash mashup that attempts to provide a space for the collective production of visual representations of global human rights issues.

ISPolice. A playable political cartoon, developed on the now defunct Metaplace platform, that argued against ISP content filtering for copyrighted materials.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Communicating Sex, Department of Communication, UCSD, Instructor

The Film Industry, Department of Communication, UCSD, Instructor

Introduction to Communication, Department of Communication, UCSD, Instructor

Dimensions of Culture, Thurgood Marshall College, UCSD, Teaching Assistant

Computer Game Studies, Department of Communication, UCSD, Teaching Assistant

The Cultural Politics of Sport, Department of Communication, UCSD, Teaching Assistant

American News Media, Department of Communication, UCSD, Teaching Assistant

Introduction to Human Information Processing, Department of Communication, UCSD, Teaching Assistant

Introduction to Communication and Culture, Department of Communication, UCSD, Teaching Assistant

The Globalization of Culture and Communication, Department of Communication, UCSD, Reader

Law, Communication, and Freedom of Expression, Department of Communication, UCSD, Reader

The Internet in Social and Historical Perspective, Department of Communication, UCSD, Reader

HONORS & AWARDS

Department of Communication Dissertation Writing Grant, UCSD

Department of Communication Tuition and Fee Fellowship, UCSD

Department of Communication Travel Grant, UCSD

Senior Teaching Assistant, Department of Communication, UCSD

Alan A. Mannason Scholarship Recipient

Teaching Assistant Excellence Award, Center for Teaching Development, University of California, San Diego