About Our People: Michaela Frischherz

Associate Professor Michaela Frischherz specializes in rhetorical theory and criticism with an emphasis on feminist and queer theory, sexual communication, and communication and gender.

Michaela Frischherz

How women and other historically disenfranchised genders communicate pleasure and sex in public is her area of focus. For example, a recent scholarly article is 鈥淐osmo complaints: Reparative reading and the possibility of pleasure鈥 in Cosmopolitan magazine. She鈥檚 also incredibly down-to-earth and a great ambassador to make scholarly topics accessible to 20-year-olds.

So how did she arrive at her specialization? As an undergraduate, Frischherz was thinking of political affairs professionally. But a queer studies course she took dovetailed with her coming out to herself as a queer woman.

A European citizen by birth, she pursued her master鈥檚 degree in Amsterdam and appreciated being in a culture that is permissive and more diverse than the United States. And Amsterdam, with its red-light district, uniquely has a decriminalized sex industry that is very central to it, even geographically. This would cause her to reflect with questions about sex and communication, especially in the public sphere. She would come back to the University of Iowa to pursue her Ph.D., writing her dissertation about how women express pleasure in various publics.

Aspects of 贵谤颈蝉肠丑丑别谤锄鈥檚&苍产蝉辫;research involve case studies. She especially finds it extremely important 鈥渘ot to exploit my research participants.鈥 She鈥檚 been collaborating with fellow 91影视破解版 faculty member Desire茅 Rowe on focus groups in Baltimore and Dover, Delaware to research the intersection between a woman鈥檚 orgasmic imperative and radical negativity and failure. 鈥淲e were sick and tired of women being treated like zombies who passively take on messages of media,鈥 Frischherz said.

While she appreciated teaching at the University of Iowa, she was very excited to be teaching in a Towson University classroom that had more diversity because University of Iowa classrooms are 鈥減redominantly white.鈥 She found it very exciting to be able to teach 鈥淏lack Girl Dangerous鈥 at 91影视破解版 after the Uprising and have it be organically meaningful. 鈥淚t was great to be in this compelling environment,鈥 she said.

She typically has students write a reflection paper for class wherein they must reflect on their orientation: sexuality, identity, race. She asks: 鈥淎re we ever engaging in the process of learning if we are not challenging what we already know?鈥

Originally published in  鈥淲hat鈥檚 Your Story?鈥 by Marc May.