

MIKE ALVAREZ
Writer / Scholar
PhD, MFA
Articles / Essays
SCHOLARLY PUBLICATIONS
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"Closed World, Wounds Open. Open World, Wounds Closed: Metacultural Commentaries on Digital Media and Youth Suicide in Jan Komasa's Suicide Room." Mortality 26.4 (2021). Special issue: "Young People Encountering Mediated Death."
"The Suicidal Self in Cyberspace: Discursive Constructions of Identity in a Pro-Recovery Suicide Forum." Frontiers in Communication 6 (2021). Special issue: "The Role of Media in Suicide and Self-harm: Cross-disciplinary Perspectives."
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"Discursive Tensions and Contradictions: A Cultural Analysis of an Online Self-Harm Forum." Communicating With, About, and Through Self-Harm: Scarred Discourse. Ed. W. Bareiss. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2020. 113-133.
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"Internet-Assisted Suicide in Japan, 1998-2013." Technoculture: An Online Journal of Technology in Society 8 (2018). LINK TO ESSAY
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"Cultural Discourse Analysis as Critical Analysis: A View from Twin Oaks and SuicideForum.com," with J. Flanigan. Engaging and Transforming Global Communication through Cultural Discourse Analysis: A Tribute to Donal Carbaugh. Eds. M. Scollo and T. Milburn. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2018. 73-90.
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"The Creativity and Suicide of Robin Williams: A Phenomenological Study." Mad in America: Science, Psychiatry and Social Justice. 11 Aug. 2018. LINK TO ESSAY
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"Online Spectatorship of Death and Dying: Pleasure, Purpose and Community in BestGore.com." Participations: Journal of Audience & Reception Studies 14.1 (2017): 2-21. LINK TO ARTICLE
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Review of Snuff: Real Death and Screen Media, eds. N. Jackson, S. Kimber, J. Walker, and T. J. Watson. Popular Culture Studies Journal 5.1&2 (2017): 201-205. PDF OF REVIEW
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"On Creativity, Suicide, and the Necessity of Seeing New Connections to Address Social Ills." Teaching Transformation: Progressive Education in Action. Eds. L. Weil and C. Mirriam-Goldberg. Plainfield, VT: Goddard Graduate Institute, 2017. 198-203. PDF OF ESSAY
"Technocratic Death Denial as Disavowal of Life: Lessons from Brave New World and The Abolition of Man." Science Fiction and the Abolition of Man: Finding C. S. Lewis in Sci-Fi Films and Television. Eds. M. Boone and K. Neece. Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2016. 251-263. PDF OF ESSAY
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"Mediated Suffering and the Global Imaginary: Representations of the Other in the Wake of Typhoon Haiyan." Cross-cultural Studies 1.12 (2014): 95-121. PDF OF ARTICLE
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"U.S. Patterns of Mental Health Service Utilization for Transition-Age Youth and Young Adults," with K. Pottick, S. Bilder, A. Vander Stoep, and L. Warner. Journal of Behavioral Health Services & Research 35.4 (2008): 373-389. LINK TO ABSTRACT
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CREATIVE PUBLICATIONS
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"I <3 NY." A Tether to this World: Stories and Poems About Recovery. Ed. E. Nichols-Frazer. Charlotte, NC: Mint Hill Books, 2021. 147-153. PDF OF STORY
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"The Devastating Impact of Parental Suicide and Arrested Grief in I Am Not Okay with This." Tor.com, 18 May 2020. LINK TO ESSAY
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"A Story that Took Place One Summer. A Story that Took Place One Evening: Suicide Bereavement and Recovery in Given." Anime News Network, 6 Dec. 2019. LINK TO ESSAY
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"Admission: A Story of Solidarity and Survival." Mad in America, 25 Oct. 2017. LINK TO STORY
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"How 13 Reasons Why Gets It Right." Amherst Bulletin, 18. Aug. 2017, A4. LINK TO COLUMN
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"Two for the Price of One." New Writing 13.2 (2016): 291-296. PDF OF STORY
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"Engulfment." The Awakenings Review 16.2 (2015): 5-12. PDF OF STORY
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"Good Girl vs. Bad Girl: Patriarchy and Authenticity in The Bell Jar." Pitkin Review Fall (2012): 119-125.
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"Onset." Connotation Press: An Online Artifact 1.4 (2012). LINK TO STORY
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"The Many Voices of Sybil." Mason's Road 5.2 (2012). LINK TO ESSAY
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