Hello, I'm Nancy Johnson-Hunt

Nancy Johnson-Hunt is a former advertising suit and strategist turned Ph.D. Candidate and popular culture scholar at Auckland University of Technology. After a decade-long career within the advertising and marketing industry, both in New Zealand and North America, she has recently returned to AUT, joining the Popular Culture Research Centre.  Her 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, Nancy has been published across multi/inter-disciplinary fields, including popular culture studies, Gothic studies, and ethnicity and cultural studies.  Alongside her academic interests, her work in beauty, fashion and retail has remained extensive, from brand strategy and marketing for The Warehouse Group, styling with brands such as Juliette Hogan and Wixii and more recently contributing editorial work for Sauce. She is currently writing a book of essays on motherhood through the BIPOC lens. She hopes to continue to create intersectional work which resonates across nuanced topics of womanhood, race and identity.

Ph.D.  - 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

Ph.D.  - 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

Ph.D.  - 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

• 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: 'Fairies: A Companion' Publisher TBA Title: The Fated Fairy: Sookie Stackhouse as a Plaything in HBO’s True Blood (2008-2014) - Blair Speakman and Nancy Johnson-Hunt

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

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 Co-Authored Paper: “I want to believe in romance”: The representation of queer and racial identities in Netflix’s Heartstopper (2022-)

2022 - 'Hauntings: A 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 Co-Authored 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)