Hello, I'm Nancy Johnson-Hunt
Bio
I'm a former ad planner turned PhD Candidate and popular culture scholar at the Auckland University of Technology. After a decade-long career within the advertising and marketing industry, both in Aotearoa and North America, I decided to step into academia to take on my doctoral research at AUT. My research interests include the diffusion of advertising culture, the construction of ethnic and racial identity in popular culture, and the influence of the media in shaping everyday lives and stories. Upon returning to academia, I have now been published across multi/inter-disciplinary fields, including advertising and popular culture studies, Gothic studies, and ethnicity and cultural studies. I am currently writing on a book of essays on motherhood and through the BIPOC lens and eventually hope to continue to create intersectional work which resonates across nuanced topics of womanhood, race and identity.
Education
PhD - Popular Culture
Auckland University of Technology
2020 – (in progress)
Honors degree - Communications Studies (Creative Industries)
Auckland University of Technology
2012 – 2013
Bachelor’s Degree - Journalism, Public Relations, Business
Auckland University of Technology
2007 – 2010
Publications
- Johnson-Hunt, N. (2020). Dreams for Sale: Ideal Beauty in the Eyes of the Advertiser. M/C Journal, 23(1). https://doi.org/10.5204/mcj.1646
- Johnson-Hunt, N. (2021). Young Adult Gothic Fiction: Monstrous Selves/Monstrous Others, Michelle J. Smith and Kristine Moruzi (eds)(2021). Australasian Journal of Popular Culture, 10(1-2), 159-161.
- Piatti-Farnell, L., Johnson-Hunt, N. (2023). Vampires and Desire: Blood, Sex, and Ritual in Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy Fiction. In: Bacon, S. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of the Vampire. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82301-6_95-1
- Johnson-Hunt, N. (2023). We’re Human Too, You Know”: Tethered Journeys and Shadowed Struggles in Jordan Peele’s Us (2019). In S. Bacon (Ed.). Female Identity in Contemporary Fictional Purgatorial Worlds (pp. 221–237). London, Bloomsbury Academic.
- Johnson-Hunt, N., & Piatti-Farnell, L., Ed. (2024). Chapter 9: Voodoo, Hoodoo, and Friends on the Other Side: Magic, Cultural Echoes, and the Gothic Trajectories of Difference in Disney’s The Princess and the Frog. In Disney Gothic Dark Shadows in the House of Mouse (pp.131-1145). Lexington Books. https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781666907209/Disney-Gothic-Dark-Shadows-in-the-House-of-Mouse
- Forthcoming Co-Authored Publication (2025): 'Fairies: A Companion' Publisher TBA Title: The Fated Fairy: Sookie Stackhouse as a Plaything in HBO’s True Blood (2008-2014)
Media Publications
Sauce: Editorial Work
- https://www.saucemag.co.nz/culture/nancy-on-motherhood
- https://www.saucemag.co.nz/beauty/beauty-blast-number-10
- https://www.saucemag.co.nz/style/gift-guide-based-on-horoscope
- https://www.saucemag.co.nz/culture/one-day-Netflix-review
- https://www.saucemag.co.nz/style/met-gala-2024
Conference & Symposium Presentations
2021 - Symposium on ‘Identity and Popular Culture’
Hosted Online by the Popular Culture Research Centre, AUT 1st-2nd September 2021
Title of Paper: What’s the Catch?: Indian Matchmaking in Reality TV Romance
2022 - “Gothic Trajectories” GANZA Interim Conference
Hosted Online 27th – 28th January 2022
Title of Paper: Liberating the Grotesque: The Transmogrification of Racial Identities on Lovecraft Country
2022 - 'See and Be Seen: An Interdisciplinary Conference on Storytelling and Identity in Popular Culture'
Hosted Online 13-14 September 2022
Title of Paper: “I want to believe in romance”: The representation of queer and racial identities in Netflix’s Heartstopper (2022-)
2022 - 'Hauntings: AHSN Halloween Symposium'
Hosted Online 30th October 2022
Title of Paper: “You Thought I was Dead”: The Lingering Recessions of Tethered Blackness in Jordan Peele’s Us (2019)
2023 - 'Gothic Networks: Webs, Traps, and Global Trends' GANZA Interim Conference
Co-hosted Online by Curtin University, Perth, Australia - 24 – 25 January 2023
Title of Paper: Magic on the Margins: The Villainous Networks of
Dr Facilier as a Queer and Racialized Character in Disney’s The Princess and the Frog (2009)
2024 - 'Transformation: AHSN Halloween Symposium'
Title of Paper: Transformation Central: Magic, Cultural Echoes, and the Politics of Difference in The Princess and the Frog (2009)
ACADEMIC ROLES
Editorial Assistant - Aeternum Journal - 2021-2024
- Assistance with editorial tasks, such as copy and proofing content, facilitation and sourcing of rigorous academic peer reviews/reviewers.
Research Assistant - Auckland University of Technology - 2022 - 2023
- Assistance with research-related academic administrative tasks.
- Conference planning and development.
- Facilitation and communication of academic project management
Gothic Association of New Zealand and Australia (GANZA) - Conference Administrator 2021-2024
- The Gothic Association of New Zealand and Australia brings together scholars, students, teachers, artists and writers who have a shared interest in the Gothic. The Association is academic in nature and takes an interdisciplinary perspective which unites all aspects of Gothic culture, including literature, film, music, technology, popular culture, architecture, and fashion.