Scholar Artist Teacher

Rick Pulos (he/him/his) is a critical qualitative interdisciplinary researcher and artist who studies the influence of popular culture and mass media in our everyday lives. He is especially interested in the community and culture of fandoms and the ways in which fandoms can become potential sights of belonging for those who are marginalized in society at large. He is currently working on his dissertation project Queering, Diversifying, and Transforming the Fan Convention which will include traditional text-based research and a related ethnographic film. This project focuses on queer Star Trek fans who navigate fan spaces and communities that have traditionally excluded them. 

As an artist, Rick is a media maker and theatre creator with a focus on storytelling. He creates practical content for social media marketing campaigns, artistic creations for theatrical projections, and ethnographic films about interesting people and communities. He is currently editing a documentary about The Theatre Company of Bryan-College Station. His media production skills include videography, editing (Adobe Premiere and Da Vinci Resolve), design (Adobe Creative Suite), and programming in Q-Lab. He is also a theatre producer and director, most recently leading a cast, crew, and orchestra in a production of 1776: The Musical. His love of pop culture is tempered by his research on (mis)representations/uses/misuses of gender, race, class, and sexuality in mainstream media. 

Rick holds a B.A. from Yale University in Film Studies, an M.A. in Media Arts from Long Island University-Brooklyn, and an M.A. in Strategic Communication from Regent University. He is currently the chair of the LGBTQ Caucus of the National Communication Association and an active Board Member of The Theatre Company of Bryan-College Station (TTC). He is also the creator and program director of TTC Teaches, a series of low-cost theatre workshops for the local community. His life, like his research and art, is intimately entangled with notions of community and belonging.