publications
Book Projects:
American Hypernostalgia: The Never-Ending End of the 20th Century on TV (manuscript in preparation)
Summary:
Nearly a decade after the debut of “over-the-top-TV’s” mega-hit of Stranger Things (Netflix, 2016−2025); deep into Disney’s franchises and remakes to the point of fatigue; and in the wake of Donald Trump’s return to the White House and second-round weaponization to “Make America Great Again (Again)”; this book identifies and interrogates a new, heightened televisual phase of “hypernostalgia.” Streaming televisual nostalgias have not only increased in quantity but have “supersized” in quality: programs embrace exaggeration, intensity, and narrative complexity, gravitating towards genres of excess and absurdity such as horror, musical comedy, and sensationalized biographical dramas, as well as generic hybridizations. Moreover, such media nostalgias distinctly periodize the 1980s and 1990s distinguishing an indulgent fascination with reenvisioning the end of “The American Century” on television. This project assesses how televisual hypernostalgias reperform and amplify representations of “Americanness” (e.g., values of diversity, democracy, freedom, family, prosperity, individuality, exceptionalism) to leverage the ongoing culture wars within the “streaming wars,” to capitalize on larger media economies of attention, addiction, and authenticity. A range of recent hypernostalgic television series and limited series that revive, revise, retcon, and re-narrativize cultural histories and media properties from 1980−2000 will be analyzed as case studies, including Punky Brewster (Peacock, 2021); Saved By the Bell (Peacock, 2020−2021); Chucky (TV series 2021−2024 Syfy and USA/NBC Universal-Comcast); Cobra Kai (Netflix, 2018−2025); Pam & Tommy (Hulu, 2022); Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story (Netflix 2024); Girls5Eva (Peacock, 2021−2022; Netflix, 2024); and Yellowjackets (Showtime, 2021−present).
This project argues that the "Eighties" and "Nineties" have become the “vintage” periods of choice for storytelling and reconceptualization on television because they hold the most “nostalgic capital.” Hypernostalgic television series thereby source their highest rate of “return,” in seasons, profit and/or social media buzz, by leveraging aspects of the culture wars that were first firmly etched in these two decades, for resonance today. While the project interrogates the dangers of being “stuck” in a loop of the culture wars, practices, and products of these two decades, it also assesses the potentiality of hypernostalgic television to function as cultural critique and a pathway forward. A better understanding and management of hypernostalgia may be key to untangling the present predicament of cultural stasis and political polarization in the United States and finding a viable way out of it. The book evaluates how and why certain histories and cultures indicative of the end of “The American Century” are revisited, and what new perspectives and lessons can be afforded via such reimagination on television.
Secondary Projects:
The Zombie Art Apocalypse
Making Interwaves: Downtown New York’s Queer Feminist Creative Economy (1975–1989)
Refereed Book Chapters
“Artsy Fartsy: Pecker and the Guilty Pleasures of John Waters’ ‘Bad’ Art Habits,” in Refocus: The Films of John Waters, eds. Brian Brems and Michelle E. Moore (Edinburgh University Press, forthcoming October 2025).
“The Gen X to Z Screen Connection: Representations of ‘Old’ versus ‘New’ TV Teens in the Legacy Revival,” in
Teens on Screens in the 21st Century, eds. Timothy Shary and Elissa Nelson (chapter submitted, forthcoming 2026).
“‘Cobra Kai Never Dies’: Reframing Masculinities in the Karate Kid’s Nostalgic Transgenerational Reboot,” in
The ’80s Resurrected: Essays on the Decade in Popular Culture Then and Now, ed. Randy Laist. McFarland, 2023: 79–92.
“Beyond the Beginnings of Ends: Quit Lit’s Critique of the Academic-Industrial Complex and its Legacy,” in A Quit Lit Reader, ed. Chris Flanagan et al. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 2022: 175–192.
“Tracking Hypernostalgia: Soundtrack Albums and the Return of the Cassette in American Film and Television,” in The Soundtrack Album: Listening to Media, eds. Laurel Westrup and Paul Reinsch. New York: Routledge, 2020: 190–208.
“The Nova Convention: Celebrating the Burroughs of Downtown New York,” in William S. Burroughs Cutting Up the Century, eds. Alex Wermer-Colan and Joan Hawkins. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2019: 80–96.
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
“‘Those Were the Days’: The Live Televisual Revival of the Musical and Retro Family Sitcom in the Post- Network Era.” The Australasian Journal of Popular Culture. 9.2 (2020): 231–246.
“Anatomy’s a Drag: Queer Fashion and Camp Performance in Leigh Bowery’s Birth Scenes.” Critical Studies in Men’s Fashion. 4.2 (2017): 185–202.
“TV Party: Downtown New York Scenes Live on Your TV Screen.” Sonic Visions: Popular Music on and after Television, Journal of Popular Music Studies. 25.3 (2013): 326–348.
Other Publications
“Case Study 2: Virtual Public Humanities Internships (2020–),” in the chapter, “A Space and A Place in Graduate Education,” in A Practitioner’s Guide to Supporting Graduate and Professional Students, eds. Valerie Shepard and April Perry. New York: Routledge, 2022: 181–184.
“Downtown New York’s Prodigal Sun.” American Book Review 41.3 (2020): 11–12.
Kim, Jihoon F., and Kristen Galvin. “An Interview with Simon Penny: Techno-Utopianism, Embodied Interaction and the Aesthetics of Behavior.” Leonardo Electronic Almanac. 17.2 (2012): 136–145.
Web Publications
Spiker, Christina M., and Kristen Galvin. “The Cost of Precarity: Contingent Academic Labor in the Gig Economy.” Art Journal Open. 1 May 2019.
Spiker, Christina M., and Kristen Galvin. “Generation Wipeout.” Theme: Precarity and Potential. Beyond Survival: Public Supports for the Arts and Humanities. Art Journal Open. 25 October 2018.
“It’s TV Party Time, Not Prime Time!” On My Video Phone: Popular Music on Screens. IASPM-US Website. 17 July 2013.
American Hypernostalgia: The Never-Ending End of the 20th Century on TV (manuscript in preparation)
Summary:
Nearly a decade after the debut of “over-the-top-TV’s” mega-hit of Stranger Things (Netflix, 2016−2025); deep into Disney’s franchises and remakes to the point of fatigue; and in the wake of Donald Trump’s return to the White House and second-round weaponization to “Make America Great Again (Again)”; this book identifies and interrogates a new, heightened televisual phase of “hypernostalgia.” Streaming televisual nostalgias have not only increased in quantity but have “supersized” in quality: programs embrace exaggeration, intensity, and narrative complexity, gravitating towards genres of excess and absurdity such as horror, musical comedy, and sensationalized biographical dramas, as well as generic hybridizations. Moreover, such media nostalgias distinctly periodize the 1980s and 1990s distinguishing an indulgent fascination with reenvisioning the end of “The American Century” on television. This project assesses how televisual hypernostalgias reperform and amplify representations of “Americanness” (e.g., values of diversity, democracy, freedom, family, prosperity, individuality, exceptionalism) to leverage the ongoing culture wars within the “streaming wars,” to capitalize on larger media economies of attention, addiction, and authenticity. A range of recent hypernostalgic television series and limited series that revive, revise, retcon, and re-narrativize cultural histories and media properties from 1980−2000 will be analyzed as case studies, including Punky Brewster (Peacock, 2021); Saved By the Bell (Peacock, 2020−2021); Chucky (TV series 2021−2024 Syfy and USA/NBC Universal-Comcast); Cobra Kai (Netflix, 2018−2025); Pam & Tommy (Hulu, 2022); Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story (Netflix 2024); Girls5Eva (Peacock, 2021−2022; Netflix, 2024); and Yellowjackets (Showtime, 2021−present).
This project argues that the "Eighties" and "Nineties" have become the “vintage” periods of choice for storytelling and reconceptualization on television because they hold the most “nostalgic capital.” Hypernostalgic television series thereby source their highest rate of “return,” in seasons, profit and/or social media buzz, by leveraging aspects of the culture wars that were first firmly etched in these two decades, for resonance today. While the project interrogates the dangers of being “stuck” in a loop of the culture wars, practices, and products of these two decades, it also assesses the potentiality of hypernostalgic television to function as cultural critique and a pathway forward. A better understanding and management of hypernostalgia may be key to untangling the present predicament of cultural stasis and political polarization in the United States and finding a viable way out of it. The book evaluates how and why certain histories and cultures indicative of the end of “The American Century” are revisited, and what new perspectives and lessons can be afforded via such reimagination on television.
Secondary Projects:
The Zombie Art Apocalypse
Making Interwaves: Downtown New York’s Queer Feminist Creative Economy (1975–1989)
Refereed Book Chapters
“Artsy Fartsy: Pecker and the Guilty Pleasures of John Waters’ ‘Bad’ Art Habits,” in Refocus: The Films of John Waters, eds. Brian Brems and Michelle E. Moore (Edinburgh University Press, forthcoming October 2025).
“The Gen X to Z Screen Connection: Representations of ‘Old’ versus ‘New’ TV Teens in the Legacy Revival,” in
Teens on Screens in the 21st Century, eds. Timothy Shary and Elissa Nelson (chapter submitted, forthcoming 2026).
“‘Cobra Kai Never Dies’: Reframing Masculinities in the Karate Kid’s Nostalgic Transgenerational Reboot,” in
The ’80s Resurrected: Essays on the Decade in Popular Culture Then and Now, ed. Randy Laist. McFarland, 2023: 79–92.
“Beyond the Beginnings of Ends: Quit Lit’s Critique of the Academic-Industrial Complex and its Legacy,” in A Quit Lit Reader, ed. Chris Flanagan et al. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 2022: 175–192.
“Tracking Hypernostalgia: Soundtrack Albums and the Return of the Cassette in American Film and Television,” in The Soundtrack Album: Listening to Media, eds. Laurel Westrup and Paul Reinsch. New York: Routledge, 2020: 190–208.
“The Nova Convention: Celebrating the Burroughs of Downtown New York,” in William S. Burroughs Cutting Up the Century, eds. Alex Wermer-Colan and Joan Hawkins. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2019: 80–96.
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
“‘Those Were the Days’: The Live Televisual Revival of the Musical and Retro Family Sitcom in the Post- Network Era.” The Australasian Journal of Popular Culture. 9.2 (2020): 231–246.
“Anatomy’s a Drag: Queer Fashion and Camp Performance in Leigh Bowery’s Birth Scenes.” Critical Studies in Men’s Fashion. 4.2 (2017): 185–202.
“TV Party: Downtown New York Scenes Live on Your TV Screen.” Sonic Visions: Popular Music on and after Television, Journal of Popular Music Studies. 25.3 (2013): 326–348.
Other Publications
“Case Study 2: Virtual Public Humanities Internships (2020–),” in the chapter, “A Space and A Place in Graduate Education,” in A Practitioner’s Guide to Supporting Graduate and Professional Students, eds. Valerie Shepard and April Perry. New York: Routledge, 2022: 181–184.
“Downtown New York’s Prodigal Sun.” American Book Review 41.3 (2020): 11–12.
Kim, Jihoon F., and Kristen Galvin. “An Interview with Simon Penny: Techno-Utopianism, Embodied Interaction and the Aesthetics of Behavior.” Leonardo Electronic Almanac. 17.2 (2012): 136–145.
Web Publications
Spiker, Christina M., and Kristen Galvin. “The Cost of Precarity: Contingent Academic Labor in the Gig Economy.” Art Journal Open. 1 May 2019.
Spiker, Christina M., and Kristen Galvin. “Generation Wipeout.” Theme: Precarity and Potential. Beyond Survival: Public Supports for the Arts and Humanities. Art Journal Open. 25 October 2018.
“It’s TV Party Time, Not Prime Time!” On My Video Phone: Popular Music on Screens. IASPM-US Website. 17 July 2013.
Dissertation:
The Art of Parties: Downtown New York Cultural Scenes, 1978–1983 (University of California, Irvine, 2015)
Abstract:
At the decadal turn of 1980s, Downtown New York was paradoxically characterized by crisis alongside unprecedented social and cultural freedom. These circumstances yielded a cultural explosion of unbridled creativity and experimentation across the arts commonly known as the “Downtown scene.” My dissertation adopts the interdisciplinary perspective of visual cultural studies to examine the creative economy that both shaped and energized this prolific time and place. This project maps Downtown New York’s cultural explosion through an examination of what I call the “art-party”—interdisciplinary and socially engaged practices that structured the city’s thriving creative economy. In contrast to existing scholarship on Downtown, which tends to focus on one artist, medium, or subculture, my dissertation uses the art-party as a framework to interpret Downtown’s vibrant sites of collective experimentation that mixed art forms and embraced non-normative lifestyles. Challenging the broad turn toward social conservatism and neoliberalism identified with the election of Ronald Reagan, art-parties forged alternative and queer spaces of possibility, performance, and play that enabled the sharing of progressive politics and the rewriting of cultural systems of meaning. A telling reminder, the untold story of the art-party is crucial to the cultural vitality and viability of New York City, which has become increasingly jeopardized as a creative site for local and independent cultural producers, and moreover, non-normative cultures that have critically constituted vanguards.
Theoretically, I frame the art-party as an agent of both creative placemaking and queer worldmaking. Creative placemaking refers to strategies whereby different sectors (e.g. public, private) form alliances to shape public space around culture and the arts. Here, queer worldmaking refers to a public kind of performance, from theatre to community media to everyday ritual, which imagines or even concretizes better modes of living and being for queer identified and/or queer-friendly people. Building from archival research and interviews, my project investigates three case studies: 1) the art, film, and performance-oriented nightclub, Club 57 (1978–83); 2) the live public access cable television program, Glenn O’Brien’s TV Party (1978–82); and 3) the interdisciplinary and experimental symposium celebrating William S. Burroughs, the Nova Convention (1978). Each art-party variously engages in queer worldmaking and creative placemaking to illustrate Downtown’s flourishing creative economy, and to articulate Downtown as place, style and attitude.
The Art of Parties: Downtown New York Cultural Scenes, 1978–1983 (University of California, Irvine, 2015)
Abstract:
At the decadal turn of 1980s, Downtown New York was paradoxically characterized by crisis alongside unprecedented social and cultural freedom. These circumstances yielded a cultural explosion of unbridled creativity and experimentation across the arts commonly known as the “Downtown scene.” My dissertation adopts the interdisciplinary perspective of visual cultural studies to examine the creative economy that both shaped and energized this prolific time and place. This project maps Downtown New York’s cultural explosion through an examination of what I call the “art-party”—interdisciplinary and socially engaged practices that structured the city’s thriving creative economy. In contrast to existing scholarship on Downtown, which tends to focus on one artist, medium, or subculture, my dissertation uses the art-party as a framework to interpret Downtown’s vibrant sites of collective experimentation that mixed art forms and embraced non-normative lifestyles. Challenging the broad turn toward social conservatism and neoliberalism identified with the election of Ronald Reagan, art-parties forged alternative and queer spaces of possibility, performance, and play that enabled the sharing of progressive politics and the rewriting of cultural systems of meaning. A telling reminder, the untold story of the art-party is crucial to the cultural vitality and viability of New York City, which has become increasingly jeopardized as a creative site for local and independent cultural producers, and moreover, non-normative cultures that have critically constituted vanguards.
Theoretically, I frame the art-party as an agent of both creative placemaking and queer worldmaking. Creative placemaking refers to strategies whereby different sectors (e.g. public, private) form alliances to shape public space around culture and the arts. Here, queer worldmaking refers to a public kind of performance, from theatre to community media to everyday ritual, which imagines or even concretizes better modes of living and being for queer identified and/or queer-friendly people. Building from archival research and interviews, my project investigates three case studies: 1) the art, film, and performance-oriented nightclub, Club 57 (1978–83); 2) the live public access cable television program, Glenn O’Brien’s TV Party (1978–82); and 3) the interdisciplinary and experimental symposium celebrating William S. Burroughs, the Nova Convention (1978). Each art-party variously engages in queer worldmaking and creative placemaking to illustrate Downtown’s flourishing creative economy, and to articulate Downtown as place, style and attitude.