W
University of Washington

faculty

Ralina JosephJoseph, Ralina

Ph.D., University of California, San Diego, 2005

Office: CMU 339
E-Mail: rljoseph@uw.edu

Ralina L. Joseph, Assistant Professor, received her Ethnic Studies Ph.D. and M.A. from the University of California, San Diego and her American Civilization B.A. from Brown University.

Dr. Joseph is broadly interested in contemporary representations of race, gender, and sexuality in the United States. She recently completed her book manuscript, Beyond the Binaries: Reading Mixed-Race Blackness in the New Millennium. Beyond the Binaries investigates 1998-2008 era pop culture representations of multiracial African Americans in television, film, the internet, a novel, and a memoir. She is currently working on her second book project, Speaking Back: How Black Women Resist Post-Identity Culture, an examination of African American women’s resistance to “post-identity,” the ostensibly “after” moment of race and gender.

Joseph was featured on the Aug. 14, 2009 edition of KUOW Presents. She spoke about three shows with diverse casts that she enjoys watching: Grey's Anatomy, House Hunters and Scrubs.

Selected Publications

Ralina L. Joseph. “Tyra Banks Is Fat: Reading (Post-) Racism and (Post-) Feminism in the New Millennium.” In Press. Critical Studies in Media Communication.

Ralina L. Joseph. “‘Not By This Outside’: Selling Post-Race on America’s Next Top Model.” In Press. American Quarterly.

Ralina L. Joseph. “Changing Hair/Changing Race: Black Authenticity, Colorblindness, and Hairy Post-ethnic Costumes in Mixing Nia.” In Blackberries and Redbones: Critical Articulations of Black Hair/Body Politics in Africana Communities. Eds., Kimberly Moffitt and Regina Spellers. Creskill, NJ: Hampton Press, In press.

Ralina L. Joseph. “The Paradox of the Movement Child and the Tragic Mulatto: Rebecca Walker in Black, White, and Jewish.” The Black Scholar special issue, “The Politics of Biracialism.” In press.

Ralina L. Joseph. “‘Who is the Market for This Film?’: The Politics of Distributing Mixing Nia.” In Race/Gender/Media: Considering Diversity Across Audiences, Content, and Producers, edited by Rebecca Ann Lind, 286-293. Boston: Pearson Educational, Inc., 2004.

Classes

Undergraduate:
Race, Ethnicity, and Sexuality in the Media (COM/AES/WOMEN 389): Survey course examining the cultural forces and implications of race, gender, and sexuality in the media.

Representing Beyond the Binaries: Mixing Race, Gender, and Sexuality in the Media (COM 490/AES 490/WOMEN 486): Course examining the realities and ramifications of hybridized representations in mass media and the broader social and political dynamics in U.S. culture.

Black Cultural Studies (COM 495): Course examining historical, social, political, legal, and media discourses about Blackness in U.S. culture

Graduate:
Post-Ethnicity and Post-Feminism (COM 597): Course examining 21st century iterations of racism and misogyny in U.S. “post” culture, with attention to historical social, political, legal, and media dynamics at work.
Black Cultural Studies (COM 597): Course examining historical, social, political, legal, and media discourses about Blackness in U.S. culture.

Reading Race in Cultural Studies Theories and Methods (COM 597)