Katherine M. Bell teaches media & cultural studies and journalism in the Department of Communication at California State University, East Bay. Her research focuses on media portrayal of minoritized communities locally and transnationally. Her recent work examines celebrity and consumer culture, and the impact of celebritized discourses on mainstream understandings of race, gender, and sexuality. A former journalist, she worked at Canadian newspapers and with The Canadian Press news agency where her reporting emphasized environmental and industrial development issues as well as rural and indigenous communities.