MIKE ALVAREZ
Writer / Scholar
PhD, MFA
Articles / Essays
SCHOLARLY PUBLICATIONS
"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."
"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.
"Internet-Assisted Suicide in Japan, 1998-2013." Technoculture: An Online Journal of Technology in Society 8 (2018). LINK TO ESSAY
"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.
"The Creativity and Suicide of Robin Williams: A Phenomenological Study." Mad in America: Science, Psychiatry and Social Justice. 11 Aug. 2018. LINK TO ESSAY
"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
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
"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
"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
"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
CREATIVE PUBLICATIONS
"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
"The Devastating Impact of Parental Suicide and Arrested Grief in I Am Not Okay with This." Tor.com, 18 May 2020. LINK TO ESSAY
"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
"Admission: A Story of Solidarity and Survival." Mad in America, 25 Oct. 2017. LINK TO STORY
"How 13 Reasons Why Gets It Right." Amherst Bulletin, 18. Aug. 2017, A4. LINK TO COLUMN
"Two for the Price of One." New Writing 13.2 (2016): 291-296. PDF OF STORY
"Engulfment." The Awakenings Review 16.2 (2015): 5-12. PDF OF STORY
"Good Girl vs. Bad Girl: Patriarchy and Authenticity in The Bell Jar." Pitkin Review Fall (2012): 119-125.
"Onset." Connotation Press: An Online Artifact 1.4 (2012). LINK TO STORY
"The Many Voices of Sybil." Mason's Road 5.2 (2012). LINK TO ESSAY