Alexis Carreiro , Ph.D

• Assistant Professor
• Knight School of Communication

Dr. Alexis Carreiro is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Queens University of Charlotte and the editor of the Knight School’s online Journal of Community Engagement through Digital and Media Literacy. This innovative, peer-review journal publishes research articles and creative digital projects that consider how and where digital and media literacy intersect with community engagement. The first issues launches in late 2012. Also, during her first year at Queens, she created a Digital Citizenship program as a way to help students see how to use digital technology in meaningful ways that positively impact the communities in which they work and live. (For more information, visit: http://tinyurl.com/d5wx3m6)

Her research and teaching examines the power, politics, and production of media and technology. Her publication “Rollergirls: Superhero Rhetoric in Post-Feminist Television” (about the TV series Rollergirls) critiques the “girl-power” concept as forms of feminist empowerment because it conflates superficial, post-feminist aesthetics with real feminist politics. She teaches students how media texts are constructed for political and ideological purposes as a way to inspire students to create their own stories—and solve—real social problems.

At Queens, she teaches Introduction to Mass Communication, Critical Approaches to Media, Modern Citizenship, and Introduction to Digital Media Production. Her professional experience includes event production (the Grammy Awards, New York City), corporate video production (various, Boston), media literacy grant research and implementation (Austin, Texas), and online publishing (Austin, Texas). She also co-directed and edited a short documentary about media literacy education. The documentary (Generation Digital) screened at film festivals in 2004 and 2008. Her practical expertise creating media texts enhances her critical ability to read and deconstruct them in the classroom.

She earned an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Communication (Radio-TV-Film) from the University of Texas-Austin.

Degrees

• M.A., Ph.D.  - Radio-TV-Film; The University of Texas-Austin