Dr. Madeline (Maddie) Ullrich (she/they) is an Assistant Professor of Television Studies at Marist University. Ullrich’s research areas include feminist media studies, television studies, feminist film theory, queer theory, and narrative theory.

At Marist, Maddie teaches introductory courses (“Introduction to Media Studies, Fall 2025) and television studies courses such as “Television Theory and Criticism” (Fall 2025) and Special Topics in Television Studies (“LGBTV,” Fall 2025). In the past, Maddie has also taught other courses in television and film theory, including “Television and Gender,” “Queer Cinema,” “Film History 1989-Present”, and “Television History.” Additionally, Ullrich has developed and taught courses such as “Feminist Theory and Rhetoric” and “Understanding Film” for the Rochester Education Justice Initiative, a prison education program that provides accredited college courses in Western New York State prisons.

Ullrich’s first book manuscript Feeling Feminism on Television examines the resurgence of feminism on contemporary narrative TV, specifically how feminist TV in the present primarily addresses viewers through ambivalent or negative feelings. Situating this shift within television’s larger “affective turn,” Ullrich explores how the dominant representational mode within mainstream feminism—historically that of role models and positive images—is largely replaced with a mode of address that asks viewers to identify with negative and even antagonistic feelings. Rather than seeing television’s affective turn as the apotheosis of feminist storytelling, Ullrich explores the potential consequences of this move for both the television industry and for feminist politics, a shift that is perhaps indicative of an “identity crisis” for both television as a medium and feminism more broadly.