Ryan Schnurr

Hi there—Ryan Schnurr here.

I’m a writer, producer, teacher, cultural historian and media scholar working at the intersection of U.S. culture and literature, film and media studies, and the built environment.

I currently teach English and media studies in the Department of Humanities and Communication at Trine University. I’m also a research partner at the Northwestern University Humanity and Technoscience (HAT) Lab. I’ve got a PhD in American Studies from Purdue University and an M.A. in Communication and Media Studies from the University of Illinois-Chicago.

My research focuses on structures and infrastructures in popular media—energy imaginaries, cities and visual culture, television and post-9/11 affect, etc. It’s appeared in Popular Culture Studies Journal, In Media Res, and MidAmerica: The Journal of the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature.

I also do a lot of journalistic and public humanities work, collaborating with Indiana Humanities, Belt Magazine, and the public radio show Points North, among others. I created and produced the podcast series Fire!, which Bill McKibben of The New Yorker called a “fascinating new podcast about some of the remarkable industrial fires in American history.” (I talked about it here.)

I’ve also written and made audio about trains, oil pipelines, windmills, state borders, and bird-friendly architecture, among other things.

Get in touch: ryanschnu at gmail.

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