John Paul Taylor

My research focuses primarily on the relationship between popular media representation and the built environment. For example, my current book project analyzes how the United States Interstate Highway System changed the way that popular film and television represented urban, rural, and suburban spaces during its primary period of construction (1956-1993). A second research project I am conducting concerns how old and new media platforms have cultivated a post-apocalyptic urban aesthetic linked to the rapid gentrification of certain U.S. cities during the 21st century. My other media studies research interests include video game studies, horror film, "bad" and "outsider" cinema, and utopian studies.

Beyond my interest in media studies I am interested in alternative writing and composition pedagogies that interrogate the foundations of the English language and the study of English as an academic discipline and consider how we might enact linguistic justice in writing instruction.