cultural sociology + media industries

I am particularly interested in how the epistemological, moral, and aesthetic commitments and practices of nonfiction media producers—altogether, the symbolic practice of representing reality—are shaped by media disruption.

My current research project—Documentary Disrupted: Ethics, Power, and the Symbolic Construction of Reality in the Streaming Era—examines the impact of platformization on the U.S. documentary film industry.

I utilize insights from cultural sociology, representation theory, and a political economy approach to media industry studies, connecting the symbolic construction of real-life events to ongoing media disruption, labor precarity, and inequality within the documentary field.

See sample work below.

Publications

Delp, Christine. 2025. “Cultural Critics as Moral Reputational Entrepreneurs: Controversy, Metaethical Discourse, and Authority in the Documentary Field.” Poetics 111.

Outstanding Graduate Student Paper Award, awarded by the Altruism, Morality, and Social Solidarity (AMSS) Section of the American Sociological Association (ASA)
Outstanding Graduate Student Paper Award, awarded by University of Minnesota Sociology

Delp, Christine and Penny Edgell. 2022. “Can Talk Reveal Nondeclarative Culture? Deliberation Strategies in Talking about Social Controversies.” Sociological Forum 37(4): 1018-1039.

Publications in Progress

Delp, Christine. “Morals, Money, and Power: The Limits and Obligations of an Ethic of Care in the U.S. Documentary Film Industry.” Under review.

Delp, Christine. “The Symbolic Construction of Reality, Rewired: Epistemic Strategies of Action, Risk, and Viralsimilitude in ‘The Gilded Age of Documentary.’” Presented at the 2025 International Communications Association (ICA) conference in Denver, Colorado and the 2025 International Sociological Association (ISA) Forum in Rabat, Morocco.

Delp, Christine. “The Village, the Castle, the Ivory Tower: Interactional Arenas of Cultural Valuation & the Reproduction of Inequality.”