Students to take 'Disney & Pop Culture Politics' course this fall
Completion of the course will go towards a 'Gender Equality' credit.
The class 'will examine a wide variety of Disney media, looking at global representation, production, and audiences through an intersectional lens.'
This Fall, the University of South Florida (USF) is offering a “Disney & Pop Culture Politics” course. Completion of the course goes towards a “Gender Equality” credit.
The course “will examine a wide variety of Disney media, looking at global representation, production, and audiences through an intersectional lens.”
The course description does not clarify how intersectional analysis will be applied to Disney and popular culture.
The instructor of the course is Dr. Diana Leon-Boys, assistant professor of Women’s & Gender Studies.
Research conducted by Dr. Leon-Boys includes a paper titled “Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge as Postcolonial Fantasy: Disney, Labor, and the Renegotiation of Border Discourses.” In the paper, Leon-Boys aims to “examine Galaxy’s Edge as a discursive space that both subverts and reifies capitalist and racial ideologies.”
In a July 12 tweet, Ms. Leon-Boys stated that her research “focuses on race and digital backlashes against the backdrop of [Disney’s] long history of colorblind casting.”
Dr. Leon-Boys’ CV includes other Disney-related research, such as the article “No Spanish in Cinderella’s Kingdom: A Situated Ethnography of Disney World’s Engagement with Elena of Avalor.” In this piece, she argues that Elena Avalor, a Disney TV cartoon character, “exists as an outsider within the Disney park universe.”
Dr. Leon-Boys and USF have not responded to comments requested by Campus Reform.
