Student Achievements
Communications Graduate Student Presents at MPCA/ACA Conference
November 02, 2021
Trigger Warning: Sexual assault mention
Communications graduate student Brittany Bahl presented at the annual conference for the Midwest Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association (MPCA/ACA), a regional branch of the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association (PCA/ACA), on October 7, 2021.
The PCA is an organization of scholars and enthusiasts who study popular culture and offers a venue where members can share ideas and interests about the field. Its mission is to promote the global study of popular culture by establishing conferences, publications, and discussions.
Bahl presented her paper titled Prince Akeem's Stolen Royal Oat: The Rhetoric and Legacy of Coming to America, where she examines Coming to America (1988) and Coming 2 America (2021) as a legacy film franchise through a comparative and feminist lens. The paper explores how toxic masculinity within U.S. culture casts a comedic guise on sexual assault towards men and other problematic practices associated with toxic masculinity.
“I chose to write [this paper] because when I first saw the film I was astounded by the treatment of Prince Akeem's sexual assault within the film,” said Bahl. “I was even more surprised to see many film critics and reviewers did not address this problem.”
Bahl is expecting to graduate in the Winter of 2022. She is planning to apply to Ph.D. programs in Rhetoric to study the rhetoric of toxicity and how a rhetoric of empathy might help address toxic rhetoric symptoms. Congratulations, Brittany Bahl!