Learning at McKendree: Brenda Boudreau, Ph.D.
Dr. Brenda Boudreau is a literary scholar with a strong research background in film,
television and popular culture. In 2014 she spent the spring semester researching
and analyzing women in contemporary cable television series and completed a prospectus
for a book project, Third Wave Feminism Comes of Age: Cable Television’s Challenge to Postfeminism.
She also finished final revisions on an essay, “Dexter and Breaking Bad: The Post-
Feminist (Anti)Hero,” which will be published in a collection called From Backlashes to New Frontiers: Visions of Postfeminist Masculinity in American Popular Culture. She recently finished an essay called “’Who’s Wearing the Pants in the Family?’:
White Male Paranoia in Breaking Bad.” She presented a shorter version last April at the Popular Culture Convention, where
her students often present as well.
“I am excited about the research and writing I do and I bring this into the classroom
in ways that I hope inspire students to see themselves as part of an intellectual
community.”
Sabbaticals are extremely important to faculty scholarship because longer projects
require a lot of careful, sustained research. Most faculty members teach 12 or more
credit hours per semester, when responsibility to their students is their foremost
concern.
“Having a full semester sabbatical to research and write or present or paint or perform
allows for a creative, productive, and energizing time for scholarship,” Boudreau
said. It also helps professors connect with students in myriad ways.
“Students see us researching and writing, and faculty often bring this process into
their classrooms to help guide students. McKendree faculty have distinguished themselves
by completing books and essays during their sabbaticals, contributing to their fields
of research and, I would argue, improving the reputation of McKendree University as
a serious academic institution. I am grateful that the Board of Trustees recognizes
scholarship as being important enough to grant sabbaticals.”
Undergraduate students are eligible to submit their research or creative writing for publication in Scholars, our online journal of undergraduate research, or in The Montage, our literary magazine. Learn more about Academics at McKendree University.
