Professor Crawford Presents at PCA/ACA National Conference

Professor Russ Crawford presented his paper: "Parker and Stone: the Search for the Political and Cultural Center," at the National Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Meeting held in New Orleans, LA between April 8-11. Crawford's paper explored how Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park and films such as Team America: World Police have consistently presented a message of bi-partisanship in their work.

Crawford's research focuses on how the popular culture effects American politics and culture. Crawford's dissertation was published in June of 2009 as The Use of Sport in the Promotion of the American Way of Life During the Cold War: Cultural Propaganda, 1946-1963by The Edwin Mellen Press (the photo above shows him standing next to his book - green cover - at the Mellen exhibit at the conference). Crawford has also furnished a chapter ("The Nationalist Pastime: Baseball and Nationalism in the United States, Cuba, and Japan") to a forthcoming anthology on sport and politics to be published by McFarland Publishing later in 2009.