Kathryn Pallister Ph.D.
As a five-year-old fan of the show “The Brady Bunch,” Dr. Kathryn Pallister knew somehow that television would play a major role in her life, and today her teaching and research frequently focus on the storytelling power of TV. Her time at the liberal arts-focused Gonzaga University netted her an honor’s degree in Public Relations, as well as the desire to learn more about how communication impacts people’s everyday lives.She went on to earn an MA in Communications Studies at the University of Calgary, focusing on multicultural feminism in the CBC television show “North of 60.” She then completed a PhD in Sociology, specializing in Communications and Cultural Studies, at the University of Alberta. During her time at U of C, she began teaching part-time in the Communications Studies area at Red Deer College, eventually moving into a full-time continuous position. Her current teaching workload at RDC includes courses in writing and interpersonal communication, along with courses in mass media, popular culture, and film history. Teaching these subjects allows her to read what she considers to be the most interesting student papers on campus, on topics such as movie franchises, fashion, advertising, and, of course, television. Recently, she has been researching and writing about how parenting is portrayed in television and other forms of popular culture, and she has just begun a project on nostalgia television in the age ofNetflix. This is pretty much a full-circle return to her five-year-old self’s fascination with “The Brady Bunch.”
Ph.D. Sociology, University of Alberta
M.A. Communications Studies, University of Calgary
B.A. Public Relations (Honors), Gonzaga University
Mass Media, Popular Culture, Film History, Interpersonal Communication, Written Communication.
Selected Publications:
- Pallister, Kathryn, ed. Netflix Nostalgia: Streaming the Past on Demand. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2019
- Pallister, Kathryn. “Modern Fathers in Modern Family: The Impact of Generational Difference on Fatherhood Styles.” Pops in Pop Culture: Fatherhood, Masculinity and The New Man, edited by Elizabeth Podnieks, 233-249. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2016.
- Pallister, Kathryn. “And Now, the Breast of the Story: Breastfeeding Portrayals in Contemporary Television.” Mediating Moms: Mothers in Popular Culture, edited by Elizabeth Podnieks, 221-235. Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 2012.
Recent Conference Presentations:
2019 Popular Culture Association Conference, Washington, D.C. Presented paper
"Are you afraid we'll understand?: Parents on trial in the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why."
2017 Popular Culture Association Conference, San Diego, California
Presented paper “Beverly Goldberg, The Original Smothers: The Goldbergs, Nostalgia,
and Intensive Parenting
2016 Popular Culture Association Conference, Seattle, Washington
Presented paper “Time Travel and Parenting in Once Upon a Time”
2015 Popular Culture Association Conference, Chicago, Illinois
Presented paper “Deuce the Daddy Detective: Reading the New Dad in Jeffrey Allen’s
“Stay at Home Dead” Mystery Series”
Community Involvement:
- Public speaking judge for Lacombe 4H club
- Presented to Alberta Sports Development Centre elite youth athletes group
- Facilitated workshop for Alberta Professional Golfers Association
Current Research:
- Parenting and popular culture
- Generational trends and differences
- Nostalgia television