Specializations

• Race and communication
• (De)coloniality
• Critical race studies
• Community-led organizing
• Media and cultural studies: policing; forced migration; critical media studies; urban history
• Performance studies: community-engaged pedagogy; oral histories; critical performance ethnography

Publications and Presentations

• Kaczynski, S. M., Foster, M. N., Taylor, C., & Zantizo, C. (forthcoming). Censorship as care: Towards a twenty-first century engaged performance pedagogy. Applied Theatre Research.
• Kaczynski, S. M. (2026, April). “Unraveling the Minnesota Paradox: Mapping Racial Harm and Repair Through Tax-Base Sharing in South Minneapolis.” Top Debut Paper Award at Central States Communication Association 95th Annual Convention, Minneapolis, MN.
• Kaczynski, S. M., & Foster, M. N. (2025). Gamification of terror: Critical performance ethnographic analysis of disciplinary power in Netflix’s “Unlocked: A Jail Experiment.” The Prison Journal, 105(4), 423–445. https://doi.org/10.1177/00328855251355495
• Kaczynski, S. M. (2021, November). “‘Sixteen shots and a cover-up!’: News media discourse of Chicago’s fight for police reform.” Top Paper Award in Activism and Social Justice Division: National Communication Association (NCA) 107th Annual Convention, Seattle, WA.