Throughout graduate school, Dr. Knopf focused her studies on presidential address, with a particular interest in the rhetoric of civil religion. This line of inquiry led her to war rhetoric, which prompted curiosity about militarism and civil-military relations. Eventually, her research into war history and propaganda brought her into epistolary studies, comics studies, and then into popular culture more broadly, sparking an active and ongoing research agenda into rhetoric of popular arts, visual rhetoric, and public memory. This work explores humor, horror, health, and human identity. Dr. Knopf's scholarship of political and military infotainment and entertainment is award-winning and has earned international recognition.
Recognizing that her formal education did not encompass popular culture, she actively pursues professional development opportunities to deepen her understanding of pop culture studies and history. She is also keenly interested in engaging students through popular culture and regularly uses cartoons and clips in her classes.
Scholarship in Pop Culture & Military Studies
Teaching Popular Culture
🗲COMM390: Comm-ics Research
SUNY Potsdam 🐻
Spring 2015
🗲COM329: Horror in Media & Comm
SUNY Cortland 🐲
Fall 2019
🗲COMM390: Politics of Poltergeists
SUNY Potsdam 🐻
Spring 2017
🗲Comic Book Club
SUNY Potsdam 🐻
Faculty Advisor, Fall 2013-Summer 2017
Professional Development
Selected Popular Culture
• Hanna-Barbera: From Modern Stone-Age to Meddling Kids. Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, San Francisco State University. 30 Jan. – 6 Mar. 2025. • Teaching Women’s History through Music with TeachRock. TeachRock. 19 Feb. 2025. • Be Your Own Fairy-Tale Heroine. The Carterhaugh School. 17 Jan. 2025. • To Be Told at Dusk: Victorian "Winter's Tales" of Specters and Shades. The Carterhaugh School. 23 Dec. 2024. • Glamour & Gloomth: Why We Need the Gothic More than Ever. The Carterhaugh School. 27 Nov. 2024. • LibraryCon Live!: Library Journal & School Library Journal. 14 Nov. 2024. • Graphic Medicine and the Rhetoric of Health. RSA Summer Institute. 22-25 May. 2023. • LibraryCon Live! “A virtual festival for book nerds, librarians, and fans of graphic novels, SF, and fantasy. Library Journal/School Library Journal. 6 Nov. 2019. • Designing Comics Courses. CSS Lunch Workshop. 25 Jul. 2019. • Power and Responsibility: Doing Philosophy with Superheroes. edX with the SmithsonianX and HarvardX. 23 Apr. 2019-11 Jun. 2019. • POPX3.1 Star Trek: Inspiring Culture and Technology. edX with the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum. 1 Apr. 2019-14 Apr. 2019. • Hollywood: History, Industry, Art. edX with the University of Pennsylvania, PennX. Nov. 2016. • POPX2.1 Rise of the Superheroes and Heroes of the Future. Smithsonian National Museum of American History with edX. 5 Jul.-26 Jul. 2016. • How to Make a Comic Book. High Tech High Graduate School of Education with Coursera. 29 Feb.-18 Apr 2016. • Comics: Art in Relationship. California College of the Arts with Kadenze. 16 Feb.-22 Mar. 2016. • The Gothic Revival, 1700-1850: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Coursera with the University of Stirling, Scotland. 29 Feb.-4 Apr. 2016. • Superhero Entertainments. National University of Singapore with Coursera. 28 Sep.-22 Nov. 2015. • POPX1.1x The Rise of Superheroes and Their Impact on Pop Culture. Smithsonian National Museum of American History with edX. 5 May-9 Jun. 2015. • Teaching Communication Courses with Feature Films. NCA Short Course. 12 Nov. 2004. • Engaging the Masses: Creative Uses of Popular Culture in Teaching. Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. 5 Mar. 2004.
Civil-Military Studies
• “Broken Kites”: The Representation of Vets in Comics of the Vietnam War. Stirling Maxwell Centre, & the Andrew Hook Centre for American Studies, University of Glasgow. 6 Mar. 2025. • Women and the Military in the 11th Century: Mathilda of Flanders and the Norman Conquest of England. SUNY Cortland Sandwich Seminar. 5 Mar. 2025.. • Pearson's Looking Through the Canvas with Henry Sayre on Two Practically Unknown Manet Landscapes and the War that Made Them. Pearson Digital Learning. 14 Nov. 2024. • Book Talk: Rebels at the Gates with Robert Watson. U.S. Capitol Historical Society. Zoom: 29 Oct. 2024. • Soldiers in Skirts: How to Join WAAC during World War. National First Ladies Library. 19 Aug. 2021. • Elizabeth Becker: You Don’t Belong Here, How Three Women Rewrote the Story of War. Pritzker Military Museum & Library. 16 Mar. 2021. • Cold War Tech: Spies, Cameras, & Incredible Images. Pritzker Military Museum & Library and the Spy Museum. 10 Mar. 2021. • Letter Writing: From Personal Connection to Sharing Values. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. 19 Feb. 2021:. • Rod and WWII. Serling Fest 2018. 6 Jul. 2018.. • Paradoxes of War. Princeton University with Coursera. 24 Jan.-4 Apr. 2016. • The Camera Never Lies (Film, Images and Historical Interpretation). University of London International Programmes with Coursera. 4 Aug.-12 Sep. 2014. • Remembering as Citizens: Rhetoric, Memory, & Citizenship. RSA Summer Institute at UCB. 24-26 Jun. 2011.
