Media, American Culture, and Global Perspective: Images, Ideas, and Illusion: Proceedings of the 11th Annual Conference of the Croatian Association for American Studies

Authors

Lovorka Gruić Grmuša (ed)
Sveučilište u Rijeci, Filozofski fakultet
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4187-2652
Sanja Runtić (ed)
Sveučilište Josipa Jurja Strossmayera u Osijeku, Filozofski fakultet
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4723-7788
Petra Sapun Kurtin (ed)
Sveučilište u Rijeci, Filozofski fakultet
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8564-3907
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17234/9789533792774

Synopsis

This volume comprises the proceedings of the 11th Annual Conference of the Croatian Association for American Studies, Media, American Culture, and Global Perspective: Images, Ideas, and Illusion, which was held on March 31, 2023 at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Rijeka. The conference brought together eighteen scholars from Europe and the United States, who collectively explored the intricate interplay between media, technology, and culture. This scholarly assembly provided a platform for in-depth discussions on how media influences our global society. The keynote lecture, delivered by Professor Emerita Denise Pilato from Eastern Michigan University, titled Patterns of Perception in Media Culture: The Paradoxical Effect of Digital Images, set the stage for an intellectually stimulating exchange of ideas. Contributions from various disciplines reflected the interdisciplinary nature of the discussions, offering multifaceted perspectives on the construction, perpetuation, and significance of media representations within both the global landscape and the American cultural milieu.

The five chapters presented in this volume are intended to extend and deepen the conversation initiated at the conference. Apart from addressing the West’s long-standing influence over the world’s media systems and how it has surveyed and shaped the economy, affected human consciousness, and promoted ideologically biased reality, the contributions to this volume also examine the complexities inherent in the rapid proliferation of data and imagery, drawing attention to the vulnerability in the consumption of ideas and the potential for disinformation fueled by both legitimate media outlets and overseas bots, along with important facts and essential information that characterize our increasingly interconnected digital era. Through a thorough investigation of a wide array of cultural and semiotic practices—ranging from fiction, TV series, docuseries, and film to the far-reaching implications of digital platforms, such as war blogs, podcasts, and propaganda mechanisms particularly evident during the COVID-19 pandemic—this collection offers a profound examination of media’s role in shaping contemporary cultural narratives and emphasizes the need for critical assessment and enhanced media literacy, recognizing that everyday digital images and other media outlets are consumed by global audiences that interpret meaning through diverse cultures, values, traditions, and life experiences.

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Author Biographies

Lovorka Gruić Grmuša, Sveučilište u Rijeci, Filozofski fakultet

Lovorka Gruić Grmuša is Full Professor in the Department of English, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Rijeka, Croatia. Her research interests encompass American studies, postmodern and contemporary American literature, the interrelation between memory and identity, media studies, and interdisciplinary approach to temporality and space-time. She is the author of The Novelistic Vision of Kurt Vonnegut (FFRI, 2015), co-author of Memory and Identity in Modern and Postmodern Literature (Springer, 2022), and co-editor of the collection of essays Space and Time in Language and Literature (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009). She has been awarded several grants, including the Duke University Literature grant (2009), Fulbright scholarship (UCLA, 2005–2006), and Erasmus+ fellowships (Eastern Michigan University and Florida Gulf Coast University, 2025).

Sanja Runtić, Sveučilište Josipa Jurja Strossmayera u Osijeku, Filozofski fakultet

Sanja Runtić is Professor of American literature at the Department of English, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Osijek and the current president of the Croatian Association for American Studies. Her teaching and research interests are in the areas of American and Canadian studies, Native American literature, Indigenous studies, postcolonial studies, postmodernism, and women’s studies. She is the co-author of Suvremena književnost američkih starosjedilaca (2013), author of Vrijeme buđenja: (De)konstrukcija ženskog subjektiviteta u američkoj fikcionalnoj prozi na prijelazu iz 19. u 20. stoljeće (2019), and co-editor of SIZE ZERO / MALA MJERA V: Politika i poetika ženskog pisma – komparativne perspektive (2019), Essays in Honour of Boris Berić’s Sixty-Fifth Birthday: “What’s Past Is Prologue” (2020), Breaking Stereotypes in American Popular Culture: Proceedings of the 10th Annual Conference of the Croatian Association for American Studies (2023), and (Un)Following in Winnetou’s Footsteps: Representations of North American Indigeneity in Central Europe (2024). She was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Arizona (2003–2004), a Research Scholar at the John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies (2002) and Centro Studi Americani (2022), and Erasmus+ Fellow at the University of Central Oklahoma (2017) and Roosevelt Institute for American Studies (2023).

Petra Sapun Kurtin, Sveučilište u Rijeci, Filozofski fakultet

Petra Sapun Kurtin teaches at the Department of English (Division of Anglophone Literatures, Cultures, and Media; Division of Translation Studies) at the University of Rijeka, where she earned a dual degree in English and German Language and Literature. For her interdisciplinary research on cities and literature, she was awarded a Fulbright scholarship (New York University in New York City and Tulane University in New Orleans, US) as well as a year-long Doctoral Fellowship at the Wirth Institute, University of Alberta in Canada. She was twice elected President of the Croatian-Canadian Academic Society, co-founded the Young Canadianists network, and served as a member of the Executive Board of Wirth Alumni Network. Her research and teaching interests are in American, Canadian, and mediterranean studies, focusing on the intersection of technology, spatiality, culture, and narratives. Her doctoral thesis examines representations of New Orleans as a port city in contemporary American texts. In addition to her academic work, she has worked as a literary editor in publishing, translator, and consultant in the creative industries, and has extensive experience serving as a liaison between local institutional partners and international guests for cultural and academic events.

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29. siječnja 2026.

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ISBN-13 (15)

978-953-379-277-4

Publication date (01)

2026