Teacher · Scholar · K-Pop Aficionado
Nicholas E.Miller
Teacher and interdisciplinary scholar working across comics, media, and popular culture, with a focus on literary and cultural studies approaches.
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Academic Path
Appointments
Mary Institute and Saint Louis Country Day School2023–Teacher, English Department
Sayre School2021–2023Teacher, English Department
Valdosta State University2018–2021Assistant Professor, English Department
Hollins University2016–2018Visiting Assistant Professor, English
Washington University in St. Louis2015–2016Postdoctoral Fellow, English Department
Education
Ph.D., English and American Literature2014Washington University in St. Louis
M.A., English and American Literature2008Washington University in St. Louis
B.A., English Languages and Literatures2006Michigan State University
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Research Interests
iK-Pop &
Global Mediagirlhood · narrative · performance · platforms · worldbuilding
Global Mediagirlhood · narrative · performance · platforms · worldbuilding
iiComics &
Visual Culturearchives · superheroes · visual narratives · webtoons
Visual Culturearchives · superheroes · visual narratives · webtoons
iiiIdentity &
Embodimentculture · gender · posthumanism · race · sexuality
Embodimentculture · gender · posthumanism · race · sexuality
ivTransmedia &
Narrative Formadaptation · Gothic · paratexts · remediation · storyworlds
Narrative Formadaptation · Gothic · paratexts · remediation · storyworlds
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Books
Monograph
Grrrl Krush: Mapping the Transmedia Girlscapes of K-Pop
In progress
Monograph
Dazzler: Gender and the Performance of Mutancy
In progress
Edited Volume · Co-edited
Futures of Cartoons Past: The Cultural Politics of X-Men: The Animated Series
Forthcoming · View →
Edited Volume
The Cultural Politics of Transmedia Storytelling in K-Pop
Forthcoming · View →
Edited Volume
Critical Approaches to Transmedia Storytelling in K-Pop
Buy / view →
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Articles & Chapters
Peer-Reviewed Articles
“Mind the Glitch: Neuronormativity and the Aesthetics of Mental Illness in Marvel’s The New Mutants and FX’s Legion”
2028
Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies 22.1 · Forthcoming
“Now That It’s Just Us Girls”: Transmedial Feminisms from Archie to Riverdale
2018
Feminist Media Histories 4.3
“Asexuality and Its Discontents: Making the ‘Invisible Orientation’ Visible in Comics”
2017
Inks: The Journal of the Comics Studies Society 1.3
“In Utter Fearlessness of the Reigning Disease”: Imagined Immunities and the Outbreak Narratives of Charles Brockden Brown
2017
Literature and Medicine 35.1
Selected Book Chapters
“The Blue Age of K-Pop: Webtoons and Virtual Idols in MAVE: Another World”
Forth.
In The Blue Age of Comic Books
“‘I Can’t Believe She Got Lizzo to Feature!’: Culturally Relevant Pedagogy at the Intersection of Comics, Fandom, and Popular Music”
Forth.
In Remixing Comix Ed: Examining the Intersections of Hip-Hop Culture, Critical Pedagogy, and Comic Books · Peter Lang
“Toward a Theory of Multiversal Girlhood in K-Pop: Recursive Adolescence and the Billlieverse”
Forth.
In The Multiverse in Popular Culture · University of Wisconsin Press
“Fungal Posthumanism and Ecological Horror in Sayuri Ueda’s ‘The Street of Fruiting Bodies’”
Forth.
In The Palgrave Handbook of Fungal Horror in Popular Culture · Palgrave Macmillan
“Stillness in Motion: BIBI, Hongdae, and Flâneuserie Under Platform Capitalism”
2026
In The Flâneuse in Literature and Culture: Women Wandering Purposefully · Routledge
“‘They’re Two People in One Body’: Nested Sovereignties and Mixed-Race Mutations in FX’s Legion”
2021
In Mixed-Race Superheroes · Rutgers University Press
“Disco, Derby, and Drag: The Queer Politics of Marvel’s Dazzler”
2020
In The Oxford Handbook of Comic Book Studies · Oxford University Press
“Ormond; or, The Secret Witness”
2019
In The Oxford Handbook of Charles Brockden Brown · Oxford University Press
Essays & Editorials
“The Comfort of Symbol: Why We Teach Fiction but Fear Witness”
2026
Inks: The Journal of the Comics Studies Society 10.1 · Editorial
Public Scholarship
- The Middle SpacesCountry Music, She-Ra, Abbott, Birds of Prey
- Just Teach OneTeaching The Black Vampyre
- Peephole JournalLatinx Labor and Whiteness in Vida
- SequartThe Feminist and Queer Wonder Woman
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Teaching
Course Constellation
K-Pop and Storytelling Across Media
English 8: The Stories We Carry
English 9: Crossing Thresholds
The 1619 Project
Black Lives Matter
Contagion
The Speculative Fictions of Janelle Monáe
Latinx Literature and Popular Culture
Fan Studies and Social Media
Addiction, Media, and American Culture
Comics as Literature
Non-Compliant: Feminism and Comics
Women in Science Fiction
Monsters, Madness, and the Macabre
Mixture and Miscegenation
The Savage and The Civilized
Early American Masculinities
Approach to Teaching
My teaching brings literary study, media literacy, and popular culture into conversation, with close attention to how form and context shape meaning. I want students to encounter voices and perspectives, especially those too often pushed to the margins of traditional curricula, while thinking about literacy as something that extends beyond print. Visual media literacy is central to that work: students learn to read images and form with the same care they bring to language. Across those modes, I ask students to develop claims that make their thinking visible, using close attention to evidence as the foundation for critical inquiry. The classroom should remain welcoming and structured while leaving students room to struggle with difficult questions, take intellectual risks, and develop interpretations that are their own.
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Selected Presentations
Conference Presentations
“Running in a Dress”: Originary Adaptation and K-Pop’s Emancipatory Princess2027Modern Language Association
“K-Pop as Queer Method: Generative Unruliness and Transnational Reception”2026Society for Cinema and Media Studies
“Fairy Queens and K-Pop Dreams: A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Its Contemporary Afterlives”2026Modern Language Association
“K-Pop Pedagogy: Multimodal Literacies and Transmedia Storyworlds”2024National Council of Teachers of English
“Until You Can Love It Again”: Poetry and the Cultivation of a New American Sueño2022National Council of Teachers of English
“I Can’t Believe She Got Lizzo to Feature!”: Culturally Relevant Pedagogy at the Intersection of Comics and Hip-Hop2022American Educational Research Association
Invited Talks
Guest Lecture: “X-Scholars Assemble! (Roundtable)”2025Webster University
Guest Lecture: “American Comics”2024Webster University
Guest Lecture: “Gender and Mediated Feminism in the X-Men”2021Alabama School of Math and Science
“Queer Migrations and the Latinx Television Reboot”2020Valdosta State University
“Why Black Lives (Still) Matter: Facing Ferguson in 2020”2020Valdosta State University
Guest Lecture: “Seeing Differently: Comics and Identity”2019University of Florida
“Posthuman Blackness: Unmaking the Black Body in Kindred”2019Valdosta State University
Guest Lecture: “What Is Representation? Race and Gender in Popular Culture”2018Patrick Henry High School
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Selected Service & Awards
Academic Service
- Faculty Co-Sponsor, Dungeons and Dragons Club (2024–)
- Faculty Sponsor, K-Pop Club (2023–)
- Faculty Representative, Admissions Committee (2023–present)
- Faculty Advisory Committee, Sexuality and Gender Alliance (2021–2023)
- Faculty Advisor, Comic Book Club (2019–2021)
- Facilitator, Digital Campus Counterspaces (2020)
- Facilitator, Popular Culture in the University Classroom (2019)
Professional Service
- Executive Board Member, Comics Studies Society (2021–2022)
- National Faculty Advisory Committee, Perusall (2020–2021)
- CSS Prizes Selection Committee, Comics Studies Society (2020)
- Advisory Board Member, Charles Brockden Brown Society (2013–2015)
- Social Strategist, Comics Studies Society (2021–)
- Social Media Team, Society of Early Americanists (2014–2016)
Awards & Fellowships
- Governor’s Teaching FellowInstitute for Higher Education · 2020–2021
- Honorable Mention, CSS Article PrizeComics Studies Society · 2019
- Mellon Fellow, Writing Across the CurriculumHollins University · 2017–2018
- Most Accessible Professor, Arts & Sciences CouncilWashington University in St. Louis · 2016
- Outstanding Faculty, Justin X. Carroll HonoraryWashington University in St. Louis · 2014
- Outstanding Faculty, Association of Latin American StudentsWashington University in St. Louis · 2014
- Liberman Fellow, Liberman Graduate CenterWashington University in St. Louis · 2010–2014
- Harvey Fellow in American Culture StudiesWashington University in St. Louis · 2007–2014
- Gerry and Bob Virgil Ethic of Service AwardWashington University in St. Louis · 2013
- John Gannon FellowWashington University in St. Louis · 2011–2012
- Graduate Student Leader of the YearWashington University in St. Louis · 2011
- Dean’s Award for Teaching ExcellenceWashington University in St. Louis · 2010
- First Prize, Graduate Research SymposiumWashington University in St. Louis · 2010