Shauna Pomerantz

Professor, Child and Youth Studies
Undergraduate Program Director

905-688-5550 x5371
shauna.pomerantz@brocku.ca

How do young people, technologies, social worlds, creative practices, and families interconnect to affect each other? My research addresses this question as my teen daughter and I explore the importance of social media, particularly TikTok, in the lives of children and youth. You can listen to us talk about it on CBC’s the Current, read my reflections on learning TikTok dances from my daughter during COVID-19 in the Globe and Mail, and check out our new book chapter, A TikTok Assemblage: Girlhood, Radical Media Engagement, and Parent-Child Generativity. We are currently working on new research titled Watching TikTok, Talking Feminism: Slipping the Confines of Adult-Child Hierarchies.

More generally, my research interests include media studies, youth studies, girlhood studies, popular culture, gender and education, intersectionality, social justice, qualitative inquiry, and feminist, poststructural, and posthuman theories. I am author of Girls, Style, and School Identities: Dressing the Part (Palgrave, 2008), co-author, with Dawn Currie and Deirdre Kelly, of Girl Power: Girls Reinventing Girlhoods (Peter Lang, 2009), and co-author, with Rebecca Raby, of Smart Girls: Success, School, and the Myth of Post-Feminism (University of California Press, 2017). When not working, I like listening to music, lifting weights, watching smart shows and movies (especially coming of age narratives), and hanging out with my family.

Research Interests

  • Media studies, youth studies, girlhood studies
  • Popular culture: social media, music, film
  • Gender and education
  • Social lives of young people
  • Social justice and anti-oppressive pedagogies
  • Feminist, poststructural, and posthuman theories
  • Post feminist contexts
  • Intersectionality
  • Qualitative inquiry

Publications and collections

Books

Pomerantz, S. & Raby, R. (2017). Smart girls: Success, school, and the myth of post-feminism. Oakland, CA: University of California Press.

Currie, D. H., Kelly, D.M. & Pomerantz, S. (2009). ‘Girl power’: Girls reinventing girlhood. New York: Peter Lang.

Pomerantz, S. (2008). Girls, style, and school identities: Dressing the part. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

 

Book chapters

Pomerantz, S. & Field, M. (2022). Watching TikTok, feeling feminism: Intergenerational flows of feminist knowledge. In T. Boffone (Ed.), TikTok cultures in the United States. Routledge

Pomerantz, Shauna & Field, Miriam. (2021). A TikTok assemblage: Girlhood, radical media engagement, and parent-child generativity. In Fiona Blaikie (Ed.), Visual and Cultural Identity Constructs of Global Youth: Situated, Embodied and Performed Ways of Being, Engaging and Belonging. New York: Routledge.

Pomerantz, Shauna. (2020). Girlhood studies. The SAGE Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood Studies, Daniel Thomas Cook (Ed.). London: SAGE.

Raby, Rebecca & Pomerantz, Shauna. (2018). Dress codes as gender politics: Feminist action in Canadian high schools. In Xiaobei Chen, Rebecca Raby, and Patricia Albanese (Eds.), The Sociology of Childhood and Youth Studies in Canada: Categories, Inequalities, Engagement (293-313). Toronto: Canadian Scholar’s Press.

Raby, Rebecca & Pomerantz, Shauna. (2016). Landscapes of academic success: Girls, location, and the importance of school culture. In Claudia Mitchell & Carrie Rentschler (Eds.), Girlhood studies and the politics of place: Contemporary paradigms for research (68-86). New York, Oxford: Berghahn Books.

Pomerantz, Shauna & Raby, Rebecca. (2015). The post-nerd: Reading smart girls in post-feminist popular culture. In Clare Bradford & Mavis Reimer (Eds.), Girls, Texts, Cultures (287-312). Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier Press. [Awarded a Children’s Literature Association (ChLA) Edited Book Award: 2015 Honour Title].

Currie, Dawn H., Kelly, Deirdre M., & Pomerantz, Shauna (2011). Skater girlhood: Resignifying femininity, resignifying feminism. In Christina Scharff & Rosalind Gill (Eds.), New Femininities: Postfeminism, Neoliberalism and Identity (293-305). London: Palgrave.

Pomerantz, Shauna. (2008). Style and girl culture. In Claudia Mitchell & Jacqueline Reid-Walsh (Eds.), Girl culture: An encyclopedia, Volume 1 (64-72). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. [5500 words]

Kelly, Deirdre, M., Pomerantz, Shauna & Currie, Dawn H. (2007). “You can break so many more rules:” The identity play and work of becoming girl skaters. In Michele Donnelly & Michael Giardina (Eds.), Youth cultures & sport: Identity, power, and politics (113-126). New York: Routledge.

Pomerantz, Shauna. (2006). “Did you see what she was wearing?” The power and politics of schoolgirl style. In Yasmin Jiwani, Candis Steenbergen, & Claudia Mitchell (Eds), Girlhood: Redefining the limits (173-190). Montreal, PQ: Black Rose Books.

Academic articles

Pomerantz, S. (2021). Immanent cinematic girlhoods: The ordinary affects in/of Eighth Grade. Feminist Media Studies, online first.

Al-Jbouri, Elizabeth & Pomerantz, Shauna (2020). A new kind of monster, cowboy, and crusader? Gender hegemony and flows of masculinities in Pixar animated films. Boyhood Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal. 13(1), 43-63.

Pomerantz, Shauna & Raby, Rebecca (2020). Bodies, hoodies, schools, and success: Posthuman performativity and smart girlhood. Gender & Education. 32(8), 983-1000.

Bablak, Larissa, Raby, Rebecca, & Pomerantz, Shauna. (2016). “I don’t want to stereotype, but it’s true”: Maintaining whiteness at the center through the ‘smart Asian’ stereotype in high school, Whiteness & Education, 1(1), 54-68.

Raby, Rebecca & Pomerantz, Shauna (2015). Playing it down/playing it up: Girls strategic negotiations of academic success. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 36(4), 507-525.

Pomerantz, Shauna, Raby, Rebecca & Stefanik, Andrea (2013). Girls run the world? Caught between sexism and postfeminism in the school. Gender & Society, 27(2), 185-207.

Pomerantz, Shauna & Raby, Rebecca. (2011). “Oh, she’s so smart”: Girls’ complex engagements with post/feminist narratives of academic success. Gender and Education, 23(5), 549-564.

Pomerantz, Shauna. (2009). Between a rock and a hard place: Un/defining the “girl.” Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures, 1(2), 147-158.

Kelly, Deirdre, M. & Pomerantz, Shauna (2009). Mean, wild, and alienated: Girls and the state of feminism in popular culture. Girlhood Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal. 2(1), 1-17.

Pomerantz, Shauna. (2007). Cleavage in a tank top: Bodily prohibition and the discourses of school dress codes. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 53(4), 373-386.

Currie, Dawn H., Kelly, Deirdre, M. & Pomerantz, Shauna. (2007). Listening to girls: Discursive positioning and the construction of self. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 20(5), 377-400.

Currie, Dawn H., Kelly, Deirdre, M. & Pomerantz, Shauna. (2007). “The power to squash people”: Understanding girls’ relational aggression. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 28(1), 23-37.

Kelly, Deirdre M., Pomerantz, Shauna & Currie, Dawn H. (2006). “No Boundaries?” Girls’ interactive, online learning about femininities. Youth and Society, 38(1), 3-28.

Currie, Dawn H., Kelly, Deirdre, M. & Pomerantz, Shauna. (2006). “The geeks shall inherit the earth”: Girls’ agency, subjectivity and empowerment. Journal of Youth Studies, 9(4), 419-436.

Kelly, Deirdre M., Pomerantz, Shauna & Currie, Dawn H. (2005). Skater girlhood and emphasized femininity: “You can’t land an ollie properly in heels!” Gender and Education, 17(3), 229-249.

Pomerantz, Shauna, Currie, Dawn H. & Kelly, Deirdre M. (2004). Sk8er girls: Skateboarding, girlhood, and feminism on the move. Women’s Studies International Forum, 27(5-6), 547-557.

Presentations

Pomerantz, S (2021, May 7-9). A TikTok education: Post qualitative transformations of the adult/child hierarchy [Paper presentation]. Canadian Sociological Association, Congress (online).

Pomerantz, S. (2020). Polaroid intensities: Meeting girlhood on an immanent plane through past-present-futures. Paper to be presented at the Childhood and Time Conference on Childhood Studies IX, Tampere University, Finland, May 11-13, 2021. [Rescheduled due to Covid-19]

Pomerantz, S. (2020). The TikTok assemblage: Girlhood, critical media literacy, my daughter, and me. Paper to be presented at the Gender and Education Association Conference. University of Calgary, Canada, June 15-17, 2020. [Rescheduled due to Covid-19]

Murphy, E. & Pomerantz, S. (2020). On-line porn, microblogging, and queer youth sexuality: Tumblr’s adult-content ban and the educational implications of preserving queer youth space. Paper to be presented at the Gender and Education Association Conference. University of Calgary, Canada, June 15-17, 2020. [Rescheduled due to Covid-19]

Pomerantz, S. (2019). Within the Polaroid assemblage: The immanent possibilities of girlhood. Keynote address at ‘The Girl’: From Expansive Imaginings to Enlightened Embodiment symposium. York University, November 15-16, 2019.

Pomerantz, S. (2019). The first-year university experience. Invited speaker. Wilfrid Laurier University, October 24th, 2019.

Pomerantz, S., Zinga, D., & Parlatore, V. (2019). “I cried for, like, a month straight”: How gender, race, class, sexuality, and disability shape the first-year university experience.” Paper presented at the Canadian Sociological Association, Congress, University of British Columbia, June 5th, 2019.

Pomerantz, S. (2019). Girlhood is always in the room: Affective possibilities in Polaroid intensities. Paper presented at the International Girlhood Studies Association conference, Notre Dame University, USA, February 28-March 2, 2019.

Pomerantz, S. (2019). ‘It’s my Lifeblood’: Why we disparage what girls value most in their construction of self. Paper presented at the Impression Management: Constructions of visual and cultural identities in North American adolescence symposium, Brock University, February 1st, 2019.

Pomerantz, S. (2018). Girlhood studies and childhood studies meet at last: Past-present-futures and immanent possibilities. Keynote address at the Childhood Journal 25th Anniversary Conference, Trondheim, Norway, November 4-5, 2018.

Pomerantz, S. & Raby, R. (2017). Smart girls: Success, school, and the myth of post-feminism. Paper presented at the Conceptualizing Childhood conference. Brock University, October 12-14, 2017.

Pomerantz, S. & Raby, R. (2017). “I was getting top grades and I was starting to find my own self”: Girls, Academic Success, and Posthuman Performativity. Paper presented at the Canadian Society for the Study of Education. Ryerson University, May 27-31, 2017.

Raby, R. & Pomerantz S. (2016). Longing for perfection: The post-feminist myth of the ‘supergirl’. Paper presented at the National Women’s Studies Association, Montreal, Canada, November 9-13, 2016.

Pomerantz, S. (2016). She’s so unusual: Cyndi Lauper, Post-Feminism, and the spacetimemattering of girlhood. Keynote address at Women’s Studies and Feminist Research Day, Western University, April 28, 2016.

Raby, R. & Pomerantz, S. (2016). Dress Codes as gender politics: Feminist action in Canadian high schools. Paper presented at the Moving Forward Conference, Western University, Canada, April 23-25, 2016.

Pomerantz, S. & Raby, R. (2016). Girls Intra-Active: The Spacetimemattering of Smart Girlhood. Paper presented at the International Girlhood Studies Association. University of East Anglia, UK, April 7-9, 2016.

Pomerantz, S. & Raby, R. (2015). Smart girlhood as feminist stance? Pariah and alternative femininities in the school. Paper presented at Feminisms, Power and Pedagogy: 10th Biennial Conference of the Gender and Education Association. University of Roehampton, UK, June 24-26, 2015.

Pomerantz, S. & Raby, R. (2014). Smart girls: Surviving academic success in the girl power era. Paper presented at the Canadian Society for the Study of Education. Brock University, St. Catharines, Canada, May 25-28th, 2014.

Bablak, L., Raby, R., & Pomerantz, S. (2014). “I don’t want to stereotype, but it’s true”: Maintaining whiteness at the centre through the ‘smart Asian’ stereotype in high school. Paper presented at the Canadian Society for the Study of Education. Brock University, St. Catharines, Canada, May 25-28th, 2014.

Pomerantz, S. & Raby, R. (2013). Looking pretty/being smart: Girls’ embodiment of academic success in the school. Paper presented at the National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA), November 7-9. Cincinnati, USA.

Raby, R. & Pomerantz, S. (2013). “Complicating the centre: Negotiating academic success in Niagara Region high schools” for the Sociology of Childhood Days conference, “Childhood and Diversity – Multiple Childhoods?, June 2013, Halifax.

Raby, R. & Pomerantz, S. (2012). Landscapes of academic success: Girls, school culture, and the importance of location. Girlhood Studies and the Politics of Place: New Paradigms of Research Symposium, October 10-12. McGill University, Montreal, Canada.

Raby, R., Pomerantz, S. & Stefanik, A. (2012). Playing it up or playing it down: The pleasures and hazards of being a smart girl in high school. Paper presented at the Canadian Society for the Study of Education. Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Canada. May 25-29th.

Pomerantz, S., Raby, R. & Stefanik, A. (2012). Girls run the world? Caught between sexism and post-feminism in the school. Paper presented at the American Education Researcher Association (AERA), April 14, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Pomerantz, S. & Raby, R. (2011). The new (post) nerd: Smart girls, post-feminism, and popular culture. Paper presented at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences (Canadian Society for Studies in Education), June 1, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, Canada.

Pomerantz, S. & Raby, R. (2010). The new nerd: Girls re-signifying academic success. Reimagining Girlhood: Communities, Identities, Self-Portrayals Conference, SUNY, Cortland, USA.

Pomerantz, S. & Raby, R. (2010). Smart girls: Negotiating academic identities in a “post-feminist” era. American Educational Research Association (AERA), April 30-May 4, Denver, Colorado, USA.

Pomerantz, S. (2009). Un/defining the “girl.” Paper presented at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences (Association for Research in Cultures of Young People), May 26, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.

Pomerantz, S. (2009). “What are you doing here, anyway?” Performing feminist poststructural ethnography in the school. Paper presented at the Researching Youth Conference, March 28, University of Toronto, Canada.

Pomerantz, S. (2008). The art of girls’ style. Paper presented at the Teenage Cultural Practices Symposium, November 7-8, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada.

Raby, R. & Pomerantz, S. (2008). Beyond Lisa Simpson and Rory Gilmore: Girls, Smartness, and the School. Paper presented at the Canadian Association for the Study of Women and Education (CASWE) Institute. Vancouver, Canada.

Pomerantz, S. (2007). Plugging into Youths’ Pop Culture: Music, Style and Identities. Paper presented at the Redefining Student Engagement Conference, November 8-9, Centre for Urban Schooling, Department of Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning, OISE/UT, Toronto, Canada.

Pomerantz, S. & Kelly, D.M. (2006). Mean, lost and alienated: Girls and the state of feminism in popular culture. Paper presented at the Midwest Popular Culture Association, October 27-29, Indianapolis, USA.

Pomerantz, S. (2005). “I have my style”: Girls, social worlds, and school identities. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association, April 11-15, Montreal, Canada.

Pomerantz, S. (2003). “Did you see what she was wearing?” The power and politics of schoolgirl style. Paper presented at the Transforming Spaces: Girlhood, Agency and Power Conference, November 21-23, Montreal, Canada.

Pomerantz, S. (2002). Gaining “props” in the skate park: Emerging feminisms on the new micro-battlefield. Paper presented at the Third Wave Feminism Conference, University of Exeter, July 23-25, Exeter, England.

Pomerantz, S. (2001). Bad girls finish first: Presenting a new schoolgirl imaginary. Paper presented at the Canadian Society for Studies in Education, Laval University, May 23-26, Quebec City, Canada.

Pomerantz, S. (2001). Girls in the hall: Popular pedagogical regimes of girlhood in the school. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association, April 10-14, Seattle, USA.

Pomerantz, S. & Benjamin, A. (2000). When you act like an adult . . . I’ll treat you like one! Investigating representations of adulthood in popular culture. Paper presented at the Adult Education Research Conference, June 2-4, Vancouver, Canada.

Pomerantz, S. & Benjamin, A. (2000). (Ad)dressing the student’s body: Containment of young women’s sexuality in school dress code policies. Paper presented at the Canadian Society for Studies in Education, May 24-28, Edmonton, Canada.