Back-to-Back Articles Explore Celebrity, Feminism, and Pop Culture

Dr. Michelle Laura Flood, assistant professor of practice in the Department of Media and Communication, recently published articles that explore celebrity feminism and pop culture issues.

In an article published in Celebrity Studies, Flood analyzes role inequities among women and racial minorities.

Flood presented her paper at the Eastern Communication Association in early 2025, where it won Top Paper for the Media Communication Interest Group.

Her second article  was included in the book, Women’s Leadership in Popular Culture, a collection of essays that explore how women leaders are portrayed in pop culture.

The piece serves as an analysis of Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie,” and argues that the character of President Barbie, played by Issa Rae, offers an exciting vision for the future, but also underscores how far popular feminism has to go as it relates to identifying and addressing structural issues that are barriers. Flood offers a critique of President Barbie and envisions a script where the character uses her government position and leadership role to play a larger role in the reclamation of Barbie Land.

In the spring, Flood will also present research on Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” at the Society for Cinema & Media Studies conference, held in Chicago. She will serve as a panelist for the session, Screened Realities: Televised Identity and the Negotiation of Nationalism.