She holds an M.A. from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. from the CUNY Graduate Center, in sociology. She is the author of Recreational Terror: Women and the Pleasures of Horror Film Viewing (SUNY Press, 1997). She has published articles on the horror genre in the Journal of Film and Video, and Paradoxa: Studies in World Literary Genres. Recent publications deal with the depiction of blowback on Battlestar Galactica, and the treatment of 9/11 on Jericho. She is currently working on a project on “Discourses of Death, Torture, and Terrorism in Television and Film after 9/11.” She teaches courses on Television Culture, Television Genres, and Complex TV Narratives, among others.