Communication · Media · Culture

Kyle A. Hammonds, PhD

Assistant Professor of Instruction·Program Head, MAISUniversity of Texas at Dallas

My teaching and research explore how popular media — film, comics, podcasts, and fan communities — shape the way audiences make meaning. The work sits at the meeting point of communication, media studies, and philosophy.

Portrait of Kyle A. Hammonds in academic setting

Research

What does this work actually study?

Communication research asks how messages move, how meaning is made, and what happens when a media text — a film, a song, a podcast episode — enters a community and is reworked. My work focuses on the active side of that process: how fan communities, audiences, and crowds turn shared stories into shared identity.

Some of it sits inside the classroom, where popular culture becomes a way to ask hard questions about politics and belief. Some of it sits in the archive, tracing how a single image or storyline moves through decades of discourse.

  • Media and Popular Culture

    Film, comics, podcasts, and television studied as cultural objects — not just entertainment, but evidence of how a society talks to itself.

  • Hermeneutics

    The philosophy of interpretation: how readers, viewers, and listeners build meaning from a text, and how communities argue about which readings count.

  • Critical Fan Studies

    Fan communities as sites of identity, conflict, and political work. The dark side of fandom is as worth studying as the celebratory side.

  • Narrative Theory

    How stories — the ones we tell about ourselves, our institutions, and our enemies — shape what we believe to be true and reasonable.

By the numbers

A career built on classrooms, conferences, and careful reading.

  • Since 2010

    Teaching at the secondary and university level

  • 25+

    Peer-reviewed publications across journals, handbooks, and book chapters

  • 30+

    Competitive conference papers and invited talks

  • 2024

    NCA Top Paper, Theatre/Film/New Multimedia Division

For students

Thinking about taking my class?

My courses are reading-heavy, writing-heavy, and built around discussion. Expect to watch a lot of film and analyze a lot of media. The Teaching page lays out my approach to the classroom, my AI policy, and what each course will ask of you.

Get in touch

For research collaboration, teaching inquiries, or speaking.

The fastest path is email. The contact page accepts the same message with a few more fields.

kyleahammonds@gmail.com