Regina Marchi
Associate Professor
PhD Area Coordinator for Media Studies
Journalism and Media Studies
Contact Info
Office:
CI-104
Phone:
848-932-8712
Fax:
732-932-6916
Email:
Office Hours:
On sabbatical fall 2013
Bio

Regina Marchi is an Associate Professor in the Department of Journalism and Media Studies at Rutgers University. She is also the Media Studies Area Coordinator for the Ph.D. program at SC&I, and an affiliated professor with the Rutgers Department of Latino and Hispanic Caribbean Studies.

Dr. Marchi conducts research and teaches courses in media theory and cultural studies, focusing on the intersections of media, culture and politics. Given concerns about the erosion of a broadly shared civic culture and an increasingly consolidated mass media landscape, her research examines alternative forms of political communication and civic engagement. Focusing on communication processes of populations historically marginalized from official politics and news media because of their class, race, ethnicity or age, she is ultimately interested in how media and popular culture advance or hinder possibilities for democratic participation.

She has been recognized for teaching excellence and is a recipient of the National James W. Carey Media Research Award from the Carl Couch Center for Social and Internet Research. She has also received an International Latino Book Award in the category of "Best Political/Historical Book." In addition, she has received a "Leaders in Diversity" Faculty Award from the Rutgers University Office of the President.

Prior to life in academia, Regina Marchi worked as a journalist in the US and Central America and spent several years as a community organizer and program administrator in the areas of health and urban environmental justice.


Dr. Marchi teaches courses in the following areas:

  • Gender, Race, and Class in the Media
  • Media and Social Movements
  • Media, Culture and Globalization
  • Communication, Information and Media Theory
  • Critical News Analysis
  • Latinos, Media and Popular Culture
  • Qualitative and Interpretive Research Methods

(PDFs of some of her publications can be downloaded from the "Other Information" section below.)

Education
Ph.D. in Communication, University of California San Diego
M.A. in English Literature, San Francisco State University
B.A. in English Literature and Rhetoric, Bates College
Research

Dr. Marchi's book, DAY OF THE DEAD IN THE USA: THE MIGRATION AND TRANSFORMATION OF A CULTURAL PHENOMENON (Rutgers University Press 2009), analyzes public cultural rituals as vernacular media that communicate about Latino identity and politics. In 2010, the book won the national James W. Carey Award for Media Research and also received an International Latino Book Award in the category of Best History/Political Book. Regina Marchi has been invited multiple times to discuss her research on National Public Radio and is a featured author on the international book website TheBrowser.com.

View Professor Marchi discussing her research interests on YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aj1RkzcihN0


*** Book Description: ***

alt

DAY OF THE DEAD IN THE USA:
THE MIGRATION AND TRANSFORMATION OF A CULTURAL PHENOMENON

“El Di­a de los Muertos” has enjoyed renewed popularity since the 1970s, when Chicano artists in the US began expanding “Day of the Dead” north of the border with altar exhibits, performance art, and other public expressions. This celebration is now featured in newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, museums, and commercial venues across the country.  Regina Marchi combines a mix of ethnography, historical research, oral history, and cultural analysis to explore the manifold and unexpected transformations that occur when the tradition is embraced by the US mainstream. DAY OF THE DEAD IN THE USA examines the influence of the mass media, consumer culture, and globalization on the growth of El Dia de los Muertos, providing insights into how public art and ritual can create community, transmit oppositional messages, and advance educational, political, and economic goals.


CURRENT RESEARCH:

Regina Marchi is currently working on a book project called YOUTH, MEDIA AND THE FUTURE OF NEWS, which investigates how people ages 14-22 become informed about current events. The research explores connections between young people's consumption of non-traditional news formats (i.e. blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, "fake news" shows) and the development of a sense of political awareness and civic engagement.

Publications and Presentations
  • Marchi, R. Day of the Dead in the USA: The Migration and Transformation of a Cultural Phenomenon. (Rutgers University Press).
  • Marchi, R. “The Moral Economy of Latino Art and Ritual” In M. Mattern and N. Love (Eds.), Doing Democracy: Activist Art and Cultural Politics. New York: SUNY Press (In press. Publication date: Winter 2013).
  • Marchi, R. “Hybridity and Authenticity in US Day of the Dead Celebrations,” Journal of American Folklore. (In press. Publication: Spring 2013).
  • Marchi, R. "With Facebook, Blogs and Fake News, teens reject journalistic 'objectivity,'" Journal of Communication Inquiry (Fall 2012) Online First doi: 10.1177/0196859912458700
  • Marchi, R. “Day of the Dead/El Día de los Muertos,” in M. Herrera-Sobek (Ed.) Encyclopedia of Latino Folklore, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Fall 2012.
  • Marchi, R. “From Disillusion to Engagement: minority teen journalists and the news media." Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism (13) 6:750-765. (Aug. 2012).
  • Marchi, R.  Review of book, Niether Here Nor There: Mexicans’ Quotidian Struggles with Migration and Poverty, Patricia Zavella.  American Ethnologist. 39(2). Winter 2012. American Anthropological Association.
  • Marchi, R. “Fusing Spanish, Indigenous and US Cultures to Communicate New Messages,” Camino Real: Estudios de las Hispanidades Norteamericanas, 3(5), Dec. 2011:103-125. Instituto Franklin-Universidad de Alcalá, Spain.
  • Marchi, R. Review of book, Crossing Borders with the Santo Niño de Atocha, Juan Javier Pescador.  The Americas: A Quarterly Review of Inter-American Cultural History.  66(4): 576-577.  April 2010.
  • Marchi, R. “Chicano Art as Alternative Media: Its influence on US society (and beyond).” The International Journal of the Arts in Society. 4(5): 447-464, Common Ground: January 2010. (Finalist for Best Research Paper of 2009-2010)
  • Marchi, R. "Z-Radio, Boston: Teen Journalism, Political Engagement, and Democratizing the Airwaves," Journal of Radio and Audio Media, 16(2):127-143, November 2009.
  • Marchi, R. “Race and the News: Coverage of MLK Day and Día de los Muertos in two California dailies,” Journalism Studies, vol. 9 (6):925-944. Dec. 2008. (Winner of Top Faculty Paper Award, Minorities & Media Division, AEJMC 2008)
  • Marchi, R. “Reframing the Runway: A case study of the impact of community organizing on news and politics,” Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism, vol. 6(4):465-485, Sage, 2005.
  • Marchi, R. “El Dia de los Muertos in the USA: Cultural Ritual as Political Communication,” pp. 261-283 in Spontaneous Shrines and the Public Memorialization of Death, Ed. Jack Santino: Palgrave, 2006.
  • Marchi, R. “Day of the Dead - a U.S. Holiday: Media, Ritual and a Quest for Connection,” pp. 280-307 in Religion, Media and the Marketplace, Eds. S. Hoover and L Schofield Clark: Rutgers University Press. 2007
  • Marchi, R. Spanish to English translation of book, The Festival Day of Saint John of Mixtepec, Oaxaca, by Ignacio Ochoa. Guatemala: The Nahual Institute, February 2006.
  • Marchi. R. Produced, filmed, edited, and subtitled Border Stories: Traveling to the US Sin Papeles, a half-hour documentary film about undocumented Guatemalans traveling by land to cross the US/Mexican Border. 2000.