Current Sociology MA Students

Briana L Pocratsky

Briana L Pocratsky

Briana L Pocratsky

Sociology: Sociology: popular culture, youth, class, sociology of everyday life

Briana L. Pocratsky is a doctoral student of public sociology at George Mason University and managing editor of The Sociologist, an open-access magazine of public sociology supported by the District of Columbia Sociological Society (DCSS) and George Mason University’s Department of Sociology and Anthropology. Her research focuses on representation in popular culture and how youth may use media in everyday life to make sense of the self and others.

Selected Publications

Pocratsky, Briana L. and Matti Z Pomeroy. 2017. "Breaking it Down: The Construction of Femininity in Just Dance." Red Feather Journal, 8(1): 1-18.

"Art Exhibition Expands the Construction of 'American Workers' in the Popular Imagination" in The Sociologist (May 2018 Issue)

"The Mall is Dead, Long Live the Mall" in The Sociologist (February 2018 Issue)

“'28 Blocks' Mural and Public Art” in The Sociologist (October 2017 Issue)

“Representations of South Asian Characters in U.S. Media” (interview) in The Sociologist (May 2017 Issue)

“Ballet and Bourdieu: Making Sense of The Nutcracker in Popular Culture” in The Sociologist (January 2017 Issue)

“Wearing Gay History: Using T-shirts as Narratives” (interview) in The Sociologist (September 2016 Issue)

Grants and Fellowships

George Mason University Presidential Scholarship (2015-Present)

Summer Presidential Fellowship, George Mason University (2016-2018)

Education

M.A. Popular Culture, Bowling Green State University (2015)

B.A. Sociology, Saint Vincent College (2013)

Recent Presentations

Pocratsky, Briana L. "Conspiracies, Work, and War: The Construction of Rural, White Masculinity on History." Paper presented at the Media Sociology Preconference. Philadelphia, PA, August 10, 2018.  

Pocratsky, Briana L. “The Fall of the Indoor Shopping Mall: How Shoppers Assign Meaning to a Dying Space.” Paper presented at the Eastern Sociological Society Meeting. Baltimore, MD, February 22-25, 2018.

Kiss, Marissa, Briana L. Pocratsky, Christian Rafael Suero, and Jason Smith. "Avenging Femininity: Jessica Jones and Intersectional Feminism.” Paper presented at the Eastern Sociological Society Meeting. Philadelphia, PA, February 23-26, 2017.

Pocratsky, Briana L. “Representation of the Grotesque Body in ESPN The Magazine's Body 2014: Prince Fielder.” Paper presented at The Ray Browne Conference on Cultural and Critical Studies, Bowling Green State University. Bowling Green, OH, February 13-15, 2015.