“We love our superheroes because they refuse to give up on us. We can analyze them out of existence, kill them, ban them, mock them, and still they return, patiently reminding us of who we are and what we wish we could be.” - Grant Morrison
Quinn is a first-year PhD student in Media Studies at University of Colorado Boulder. Their research centers mainly around superhero media of all types, including films, television, comic books, and amusement park theming. Their current projects include: “Boys Will Be Superheroes: Morals and Masculinity in 2010s Disney” (accepted for presentation at PCA 2026), which explores the way Disney used superhero media (the MCU and Lab Rats) to begin to define their version of masculinity in the 2010s; “Style, Substance, and Sexuality: Young Avengers and Queer Futurity”, which compares the way sexuality is portrayed in two recent Young Avengers series through visual elements; “Tasha Davenport: The Best TV Mom?”, which explores the concept of motherhood within the Disney Channel brand through the lens of Lab Rats; and an untitled project that discusses how the differing implementation of Marvel superhero IP in Disneyland and Universal’s Islands of Adventure reflects the values of the companies that run the parks.
