Faculty Profiles

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Dr. Katie Kapurch

  • Professor - English
Portrait of Dr. Katie Kapurch

Biography and education

Katie Kapurch, Ph.D. is Professor of English at Texas State University. As a scholar of pop culture, she has written widely about Disney and the Beatles, as well as other pop phenomena including Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, and the Twilight series.

Katie is currently working on several books, including one about the Disneyfication of pop musicians and another about the mermaid as pop icon. Katie serves as co-editor of the journal AMP: American Music Perspectives.

Katie also serves as Director of Communications for the Department of English.

Research Interests

  • Kapurch, Katie. Research Enhancement Program, Texas State University, $8000. (Submitted: October 2024, Funded: 2025 - 2026). Grant.
  • Kapurch, Katie (Principal). Awards for Faculty at Hispanic-Serving Institutions, National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), Federal, $60000. (Submitted: April 2018, Funded: January 2020 - December 2020). Grant.
  • Kapurch, Katie. Research Enhancement Program, Texas State University, $8000. (Submitted: October 2020, Funded: January 2021 - May 2022). Grant.
  • Kapurch, Katie (Principal). Research Enhancement Program, Texas State University. (Submitted: October 2016, Funded: January 2017 - September 2017). Grant.
  • Kapurch, K. (n.d.). The Disneyfication of Pop: The Beatles, Beyoncé, and Taylor Swift. Bloomsbury Academic. Retrieved from https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/disneyfication-of-pop-9798765100059/
  • Kapurch, K. (2024). Once Upon a Fishtail in Aquamarine, an Ecofeminist Fairy Tale: Mermaids and/as Water Girls from 19th Century Fairy Tales to Disney’s The Little Mermaid (1989; 2023). Interdisciplinary Literary Studies, 26(3), 320–354. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.5325/intelitestud.26.3.0320
  • Kapurch, K., Mills, R., & Heyman, M. (Eds.). (2023). The Beatles and Humour: Mockers, Funny Papers, and Other Play. Bloomsbury Press.
  • Kapurch, K., & Everett, W. (2023). Come Together: Feeling the Distemper of Murk and Elation with the Beatles (1969) and with Sheila E. and Ringo Starr (2017 and 2020). In W. Moylan, L. Burns, & M. Alleyne (Eds.), Analyzing Recorded Music: Collected Perspectives on Popular Music Tracks. Routledge.
  • Kapurch, K., & Smith, J. M. (2023). Blackbird: How Black Musicians Sang the Beatles into Being-- and Sang Back to Them Ever After. Penn State University Press.
View all scholarly/creative works
  • Award / Honor Nominee: Presidential Excellence Award: Scholarly, College of Liberal Arts, Texas State University. February 1, 2018 - July 2018
  • Award / Honor Nominee: Presidential Excellence Award: Scholarly, Department of English, Texas State University. November 1, 2017 - February 2018
  • Award / Honor Recipient: College of Liberal Arts Achievement Award for Scholarly Excellence, College of Liberal Arts, Texas State University. August 2016
  • Award / Honor Nominee: Presidential Excellence Award: Scholarly, Department of English, Texas State University. November 1, 2015
  1. Member

    Liberal Arts Communicators Group

  2. Editor

    AMP: American Music Perspectives

  3. Editorial Review Board Member

    International Journal of Disney Studies

  4. Reviewer / Referee

    Cambridge University Press

  5. Coordinator / Organizer

    Children's Literature Association Annual International Conference in 2018

  6. Other

    Springsteen Symposium hosted by Monmouth University

  7. View all activities