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Lisa M. Stulberg, in conversation with David Monahan, discusses & signs How to Win a Culture War: LGBTQ+ Social Change Through Pop Culture
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Lisa M. Stulberg, in conversation with David Monahan, discusses & signs How to Win a Culture War: LGBTQ+ Social Change Through Pop Culture

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Featured Book

Book cover: How to win a culture war: LGBTQ+ social change through pop culture by Stulberg, Lisa M.

How to win a culture war: LGBTQ+ social change through pop culture

"It can be hard to see social change while we are living it, but popular culture often holds up the best mirror. Lisa M. Stulberg has been paying close attention to the ways popular culture has been used to advance LGBTQ social change. She argues that, despite substantial barriers, people in Hollywood and in professional sports are working to change American culture through their art, their sport, and their politics. They are deliberately waging a culture war, and they are largely winning. Stulberg shows this through 144 in-depth qualitative interviews with-among others-television, film, and theater actors; TV and movie producers, directors, and writers; television show creators; others in the entertainment industry (such as casting directors, publicists, entertainment lawyers, and studio executives); musicians; athletes; political and sports writers; and activists. These include visible stars such as Will and Grace's Eric McCormack, both Indigo Girls, and several former NFL players, as well as the writers and producers pulling the strings on some of pop culture's boldest moves forward--the writers, producers, and agents whose names we might not know, but whose work keeps us company in our leisure time. Stulberg augments her interview material with some rich, descriptive detail of the shows, films, and plays that are central here and an extensive knowledge of the popular press coverage of the people, creative content, and politics that are at the center of this project. From all of this rich insider insight and cultural material, Stulberg has come up with a playbook for how to win a culture war, which is more urgently needed now than ever before"--

This book will be available for purchase at the event.

About This Event

How elite athletes and entertainment industry movers and shakers work to win the culture war for LGBTQ+ social justice.The unquestionable runaway television hit of late 2025 was Crave/HBO Max's Heated Rivalry, a show that tells the love story of two queer ice hockey players. This show--and the wider social context around it--would have been unthinkable without the courageous writing, art, and advocacy of previous generations of LGBTQ+ people and their allies in the entertainment industry. In How to Win a Culture War, sociologist Lisa M. Stulberg argues that, despite substantial barriers, past and current creatives and athletes are changing American culture through their contributions to arts, sports, and politics.Stulberg conducted in-depth interviews with 170 culture workers--including television, film, and theater actors and creators; musicians; elite athletes; and activists over the span of 14 years. These include stars such as Will & Grace's Eric McCormack, Orange Is the New Black's Lea DeLaria, Olympic diver Greg Louganis, and several former NFL players, as well as the TV and movie writers, producers, and directors behind some of pop culture's boldest moves. These culture makers take six primary steps toward LGBTQ+ social change: they become visible, use available platforms, change their workplaces, overachieve, become normal, and stay queer. In this work, they are opening up the culture, changing hearts and minds, and building community, even amid a fresh round of ruthless political attacks on LGBTQ+ people.Providing rich behind-the-scenes insight and cultural material, Stulberg outlines an urgently needed playbook for how to win a culture war.

Featured Author

Photograph of Lisa Stulberg

Stulberg, Lisa M.

Lisa M. Stulberg is associate professor of sociology of education at New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development and an affiliated faculty member in the Department of Sociology at NYU. Her research focuses on the politics of race and education, affirmative action in higher education, school choice policy and politics, and LGBTQ+ social change. She is the author of Race, Schools, and Hope: African Americans and School Choice after Brown (Teachers College Press, 2008) and LGBTQ Social Movements (Polity, 2018). She is the co-editor (with Eric Rofes) of The Emancipatory Promise of Charter Schools: Toward a Progressive Politics of School Choice (SUNY Press, 2004) and the co-editor (with Sharon Lawner Weinberg) of Diversity in American Higher Education: Toward a More Comprehensive Approach (Routledge, 2011). She is a frequent speaker and editorial writer on schooling, pop culture, and politics. She is also a devoted fan of television, an enthusiastic reader of fiction, and a strong advocate for institutional change in higher education through her work with NYU Steinhardt’s Womxn and Work Task Force, LGBTQ Working Group, and the Council for Action and Advocacy United for Social Justice and Equity (now called CAUSE). She currently is working on a book with Anthony S. Chen, of Northwestern University, on the origins of race-conscious affirmative action in college admissions. She received an A.B. from Harvard College, a Masters in Social Science (M.Soc.Sci.) in Cultural Studies from the University of Birmingham (in the U.K.), and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California at Berkeley.

In Conversation With

David Monahan

David Monahan is an executive producer and writer on Ginny & Georgia for Netflix and recently wrapped production on the feature, Goodbye Girl, for Amazon/MGM that he wrote with his longtime partner, Danielle Hoover. He has written and produced a number of hit shows, including Liv and Maddie, Life in Pieces, and Insatiable. He got his start as an actor on Dawson’s Creek in 2000 and has acted in dozens of television shows and films, including Big Little Lies, Dexter, Crossing Jordan, and The Dark Knight Rises. He has appeared in national ad campaigns with his husband, actor Larry Sullivan, for Target, Sabra, and a viral Campbell’s Soup spot that earned them the title of Sexiest Pitchmen Alive in People Magazine’s 2015 Sexiest Man issue. Monahan is a graduate of Harvard University.

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