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Sheri L. Parks

Graduate students in American Studies will find professors from a diversity of disciplines from among our substantial group of faculty affiliates.

In summer 2006, Assistant Professor Psyche Williams-Forson published her first book, Building Houses out of Chicken Legs, University of North Carolina Press

Learn more about the graduate students of American Studies

Associate Professor
301.405.6255
slp@umd.edu

Sheri L. Parks' interests revolve around popular American aesthetics with a special focus on culture, family, and gender. In particular she is interested in the aesthetics of everyday experiences, including mass media and other popular culture artifacts. Dr. Parks' work in the field of popular mythologies is informed by content studies, aesthetic analysis, and ethnography. Dr. Parks hosts "Clear Reception," a radio show featured on public radio stations.

Degrees:

Ph.D. Communication Studies (University of Massachusetts-Amherst, 1985)
M.A. Communication Studies (University of Massachusetts-Amherst, 1983)
B.A. English and Radio, Television and Motion Pictures (University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, 1978)

Publications:

• Lion Mother of the American Soul: The Black Maternal Figure in Popular Mythology. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, forthcoming.
• "Black Families and the Media." Managing Black/White Tensions at Home: Family Communication and Ethnic Cultural Diversity. Ed. T. Socha and R. Diggs. New York: Erlbaum, 1999.
• "Through Our Own Eyes." Black Film Review March 1995.
• "Ridicule as an Educational Corrective." Journal Of Educational Psychology 73 1981. 722-27.
• "In My Mother's House: Traditional Black Feminism in the PBS production of A Raisin in the Sun." Theatre and Feminist Aesthetics. Ed. K. Laughlin and C. Schuler. Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson, 1995.
• "In My Mother's House: Black Feminist Aesthetics, Television and A Raisin in the Sun." Feminism and Theater. Ed. C. Schuler. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson, 1993.
• "Feminism in the Lives of Ordinary Women." Barnard College Occasional Papers. Fall 1990.
• "The Effect of Ridiculing a Television Model on Children's Imitation of the Model's Behavior." Human Communication Research 10 1983. 243-55.

Courses Taught:

Marginality and Popular Culture (graduate)
Black Mother and Popular Mythology (graduate)
Gender Roles and Media (undergraduate)
Family and Popular Culture (undergraduate)
Children and Television (undergraduate)

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