Meet Patricia Ventura, Ph.D.

Biography

Faculty member since 2005

Patricia Ventura, Ph.D., is a professor and department chair of  Literature, Media, and Writing (formerly English) and the interim division chair of humanities.

Patricia Ventura was born in Itajuba, MG, Brazil, and immigrated to central Florida at the age of 5, where she grew up. She studied political science in college before shifting to graduate school to study English. Her teaching and research reflect her intellectual focus on politics and culture. Her specific disciplines include media and film studies, critical and cultural theory, and American cultural studies.

Among other publications, she has written or edited three books. The first, "Neoliberal Culture: Living with American Neoliberalism," deals with US media, literature, architecture, and social policies resulting from neoliberalism at the end of the Cold War. Her most recent book, co-written with Edward Chan, is "White Power and American Neoliberal Culture," which speaks to the urgency of the current moment by working through sources such as white terrorist manifestos, white power utopian fiction, neoliberal think tank reports, and neoconservative policy statements to analyze the intersections of white supremacy and neoliberal culture in the United States. Also with Dr. Chan, she edited and contributed to the book "Race and Utopian Desire in American Literature and Society" and edited a special issue of the "Journal of Utopian Studies" on race and utopia. She has also edited and contributed to a special double issue of the journal "Genre" titled "Circulating 'America.”'

Education

• Ph.D., University of Florida
• M.A., University of Florida
• B.A., Clemson University

Courses Taught

• American Literature Survey
• American Mythologies
• Conspiracy and American Culture
• Introduction to Critical Studies in English
• Race and Media
• Reality and Media: Documentary Film and Reality TV
• Feminist Film Criticism
• Images of Women in the Media
• Introduction to Popular Culture and Media Studies
• Literary and Critical Theory

Research Interests

• Cultural Studies
• American Studies
• Neoliberal Culture Studies
• Film and Media Studies

Select Publications