From creating her own course on the ethics of reality television to providing expert commentary on the media world, Brandy Monk-Payton, PhD, associate professor of communication and media studies, is an unabashed TV buff. Step into her office, and you’ll find artifacts from across the entertainment world: a vintage television, a Justin Bieber doll, and even a painting of a Black Peter Griffin.
A TV From the 1980s
One of the most noticeable items in Monk-Payton’s office is a miniature television set from the 1980s, which she found at a vintage shop in Chelsea.
“Sometimes I bring it into class to show students what TVs looked like before,” she said. “They’re so used to watching screens everywhere, whether that be their laptop or phone, but a box TV is something of an alien object.”
Mei, the Misunderstood Red Panda
Usually perched on a red armchair is a plush of the main character from Turning Red, Pixar’s 2022 coming-of-age film about a teenage girl navigating adolescence, family expectations, and the challenge of embracing who she is.
“I was really into that movie and what it represented,” said Monk-Payton. “I identify with the main character and being kind of awkward when I was younger … the communication with my mother … and realizing that legacies, traditions passed down across generations can be a point of pride. They don’t have to be swept away.”
A Civil Rights Icon
Nearby is a Barbie doll depicting civil rights activist Rosa Parks, a gift from Monk-Payton’s mother.
“My mother grew up in that era. She saw a powerful Black woman [in Rosa Parks], and I think she wanted to give it to me as something to present in my office,” said Monk-Payton. “I teach a course called Television, Race, and Civil Rights, so I’m sure she thought about that as well.”
Peter Griffin from Another Universe
Propped against a wall is a painting Monk-Payton made at a friend’s Family Guy-themed paint-and-sip party, featuring an unexpected twist on the show’s patriarch.
“I went off script and made Peter Griffin Black,” said Monk-Payton. “Over the past 15 years, it has been more of a trend within television and film to change the race of a character in order to be more inclusive and diverse. There are a lot of criticisms of that practice, but as long as you understand that their actions, dialogue, and performance have to engage with that change—and it has to resonate with that culture—I think that’s fine and can provide something new.”
A Belieber Doll
Sharing space with her Rosa Parks Barbie is one of the biggest pop stars of all time.
“This is my prized Justin Bieber Barbie doll,” she said. “I’m really into his pop R&B sound, and I think he’s a really talented vocalist.”
If she ever met Bieber, she already knows what she would say: “I, too, am standing on business”—a reference to a viral video in which Bieber told paparazzi to leave him alone.
“[That phrase] means he’s here, he’s authentic, and he’s doing the work,” she said.
One of the ‘Best’ TV Shows of All Time
A poster for one of Monk-Payton’s favorite shows, The Walking Dead, hangs on her magnetic wall.
“I pretty much watched every single episode from the original series multiple times. There’s something about post-apocalyptic storytelling that intrigues me,” Monk-Payton said. “It was the top cable TV show from the 2010s … but it’s so not a Gen Z TV program. When I mention it, people are like, what is The Walking Dead?”
Her students, she noted, have their own television obsessions, including reality shows like Love Island.
‘You Have Opened the Gate’
Perhaps the most distinctive feature of Monk-Payton’s office is a collection of anonymous student quotes covering a wall.
At the beginning and end of her TV Theory and Criticism course, Monk-Payton asks students to respond to the prompt, “What is television?” Over the past nine years, generations of students—including former student Erin Clewell ’19, co-head of digital at The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon—have contributed answers. Monk-Payton saves her favorites for the wall.
Some offer straightforward definitions. Others are more personal, reflecting on the course or on the students’ own relationships with television.
“I always come back to this one,” Monk-Payton said, pointing to a quote that reads: “You have opened the gate.”
“Television can really be anything at this point that engages with a screen,” she said. “And so I want them to speculate about it and to imagine the possibilities and potentials of television … that anything is possible.”
This interview has been edited and condensed.
