Wendy Peters
Associate Professor

Dr. Wendy Peters

Any / all

Biography

Dr. Wendy Peters works in the area of critical media studies and has research and teaching interests that include textual analysis, political economy and audience reception. Specifically, Wendy explores how media are integral to the reproduction, negotiation and securing of privilege and marginalization along axes of sex, gender, race, class and sexuality. Dr. Peters’ research primarily focuses on queerness and depictions of non-straight characters on television. All relevant publications are listed below.

Dr. Peters teaches the following courses: Gender and the Media; Queer Media; Race and Gender in Popular Culture; Reality TV and the Politics of Difference; Sex, Body and Identity, and Women, Media and Representation. Wendy won the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2023.

Positions

Full-time Faculty
Faculty of Arts and Science - Social and Cultural Studies - Sociology
Full-time Faculty
Faculty of Arts and Science - Social and Cultural Studies
Full-time Faculty
Graduate Studies - Sociology, MA

Education

Doctor of Philosophy, Sociology and Equity Studies, Collaborative Program with the Women and Gender Studies Institute, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto
2006
Master of Arts, Sociology and Equity Studies, Collaborative Program with the Women and Gender Studies Institute, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto
2001
Bachelor of Arts, Psychology, University of Winnipeg
1995
Areas of specialization
Critical Media Studies
Television Studies
Queer Theory
Post-Structural Theory
Critical Race Theory
Feminist Theory

Current University Committees & Engagement

Tenure and Promotion Committee.

Teaching Areas

Undergraduate Programs

  • Sociology
  • Social and Cultural Studies

Graduate Studies

  • Sociology, MA

Research

Research Interests

I work in the area of critical media studies and have research interests that include textual analysis, political economy, and audience reception. Specifically, I explore how media are integral to the reproduction, negotiation, and securing of privilege and marginalization along axes of sex, gender, race, class. and sexuality. My research primarily focuses on queerness and depictions of non-straight characters on television, alongside projects on reality TV. 

Current Research Projects / Labs

  • Tender TV in Turbulent Times: 2SLGBTQIA+ Viewers and Their Relationship to Netflix’s Heartstopper . Read More

Grants & Funding

Internal Research Grant, Nipissing University, 2025-2027

Open to Media Inquiries

Publications

Selected Publications Articles & Chapters

McDonald, Robin Alex, & Peters, Wendy. (2025). "If the art ends up being pretty, making it here won't be": Examining precarity, neoliberalism, and artists' labour on CBC's Crash Gallery. Canadian Journal of Communication, 50(2), 249–277. Both authors contributed equally to this work. Read more

Peters, W. (2022). Post-feminist, post-race and post-closet discourses in Critical Studies in Media Communication from 2000–2020. Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, 44(5), 469–492. Read more

Peters, W. (2018). The privilege of knowing better: Female millennial demographics and the representation of homophobia on teen TV. Queer Studies in Media & Popular Culture, 3(2), 191–211. Read more

Peters, W. (2018). Patient stories: Re-narrating illness and the value of the rejected body (pp. 307–322). In S. Bhattacharya & R. Wong (Eds.), Sharing Breath: Embodied Learning and Decolonization. Edmonton, AB: Athabasca University Press. Read more

Peters, W. (2016). Bullies and blackmail: Finding homophobia in the closet on teen TV. Sexuality & Culture, 20(3), 486–503. Read more

Peters, W. (2011). Pink dollars, white collars: Queer as Folk, valuable viewers, and the price of gay TV. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 28(3), 193–212. Read more

Peters, W. (2009). "It feels more like a parody": Canadian Queer as Folk viewers and the show they love to complain about. Journal of Lesbian Studies, 13(1), 15–24. Read more

Peters, W. (2005). Queer identities: Rupturing identity categories and negotiating meanings of queer. Canadian Woman Studies / Les Cahiers de la Femme, 24(2/3), 102–107. Read more

Selected Other Publications

Peters, W. (November 13, 2025). Sounding the alarm: Canadian academics, American reality TV labor, and constrained participation. In Media Res. Read more

McDonald, Robin Alex, & Peters, Wendy. (2025). Screening the subject: A review of multimedia and video artworks in the exhibition Scientia Sexualis. Screen Bodies, 10(2), 128–135. Both authors contributed equally to this work. Read more

Peters, W. (2022). "I'm the Industry Baby:" The political economy of Lil Nas X. Flow: A Critical Forum on Media and Culture, 29(2). Read more

Peters, W. (2016). Contours of the closet: Conceptualizing straight/gay on teen TV. FlowTV: A Critical Forum on Media and Culture, 22(5). Read more

Peters, W. (2016). Victim + bully = love. FlowTV: A Critical Forum on Television and Media Culture, 22(3). Read more

Peters, W. (2015). Teen TV's post-closet and postracial fictions. FlowTV: A Critical Forum on Television and Media Culture, 22(1). Read more