Academic Bio
Kai Prins (they/them) is a PhD candidate studying Rhetoric, Politics, and Culture in the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Their research takes an interdisciplinary approach to studying advertising, marketing, and branding as they influence the formation and performance of identity in digital and consumer culture. They specialize in the intersections of gender, media, and culture in the marketing and advertising of social justice and “culture war” issues; the convergence of wellness, gender, and conspiracy theory in digital media; and the mainstreaming and commoditization of drag performance.
They have experience in both rhetorical/textual analysis and qualitative methods, and their research and teaching is supplemented by their practical experience in marketing communication, as well as their background in podcasting, voice over, and theatre. They are equipped to teach across a number of disciplines including rhetoric; media studies; feminist, queer, and masculinity studies; strategic communication (Ad/PR and marketing); and performance studies.
Kai is also an award-winning drag king and burlesque performer, known as Will X. Uly (pronounced “Will Actually”). Their titles include Winner of the 23rd annual San Francisco Drag King Contest (2018), Leading Man of the Hollywood Burlesque Festival (2019), and Mr. FIVE Nightclub (2021).
Education & Experience
Kai received their BA in English in 2008 from the University of Florida. Since 2008, they have worked as: the Director of the Drama Department at Olympic Heights Community High School in Boca Raton, FL; an Expert and Mentor in Apple Retail in both Boca Raton, FL and San Jose, CA; and the Content Marketing Manager for several B2B companies, as well as for Bayarea.com, in the SF Bay Area. They also ran a wellness coaching business and was the host of the Finding Our Hunger and Your Body, Your Brand podcasts. They received their MA in Communication Arts in 2021 from the University of Wisconsin - Madison.
University Teaching Experience
Lecturer/Primary Instructor
CA 100: Introduction to Speech Composition
CA 260: Communication and Human Behavior
CA 371: Communication and Conflict Resolution
Teaching Assistant
CA 200 - Introduction to Digital Communication
CA 260 – Communication and Human Behavior
CA 262 – Theory & Practice of Argumentation and Debate
Grader
CA 316 – Gender and Communication
Other Roles
Editorial Assistant for the International Journal of Cultural Studies (Current)
For EIC Dr. Jonathan Gray: Handle submissions and commissioned content, shepherding them through the review process from submission to eventual publication in a timely manner; serve as point person for emails to the journal; liaise with, and be a resource to, editors, special issue editors, editorial board members, submitters, authors, and potential submitters; work on publicity and promotion of the journal and its articles across various social media platforms including X and Facebook; maintain up-to-date records and profile information for reviewers and authors.
Project Assistant for General Education Rebranding Initiative with Dr. Sara McKinnon (2023-2024)
Contributed to the design and facilitation of focus groups with various University stakeholders, including students, instructors, advisors, parents, and alumni; Designing Qualtrics survey and analyzing results; writing a report on the findings and making recommendations to the General Education committee and Vice Provost’s office; collaborating with University Marketing to envision design and roll out of new language for general education on the website, in marketing materials, and among instructors and advisors.
Project Assistant for the Department of Communication Arts (2022-2023)
Acted as interim communications specialist for the department; wrote blog posts announcing Comm Arts initiatives, awards, grants, and news; ran Comm Arts social media accounts; edited staff photos and updated “People” page; contributed to department campaigns, such as Day of the Badger fundraising.
Design Lab Consultant (2020-2021)
Wrote, recorded, and produced instructional videos and other media for the Design Lab website and YouTube channel; Developed and presented workshops on multimedia design, including Recording and Editing for Podcasts, Storytelling for Podcasts, Storytelling for Film, Design for Print, Design for Digital Visual Projects, Turning Posters into Presentations, Presentations for Marketing, Design for Advertisements, Design for Print and Web Journalism, Designing Academic and Business Websites, and more; Conducted virtual one-on-one consultations with students and faculty to assess and develop clear, cogent, and effective design for multimedia projects.
Research Assistant (2020)
Conducted research of the congressional archives for Dr. Sara McKinnon’s forthcoming book.
Awards
Charles Chester Pearce Scholarship, 2024
For the purpose of funding student research and encouraging excellent performance skills. Department of Communication Arts, University of Wisconsin - Madison
Helen K. Herman Memorial Fund Scholarship, 2023
In recognition of excellence in research, teaching, and extra-curricular activities. Department of Communication Arts, University of Wisconsin - Madison
Elliot Dissertation Scholarship, 2023
For successfully defending the dissertation proposal within a year of passing preliminary exams. Department of Communication Arts, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Helen K. Herman Memorial Fund Scholarship, 2022
In recognition of excellence in research, teaching, and extra-curricular activities. Department of Communication Arts, University of Wisconsin - Madison
Exceptional Service, Campus-Wide TA Awards, 2022
Recognizes TAs who, in addition to their regular duties, perform exceptional service related to the educational mission of their department and our university (volunteerism, committee work, mentoring, etc.). Graduate School, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Lloyd Bitzer Essay Award, 2021
For excellence in rhetorical analysis and/or theory development by a graduate student in Rhetoric, Politics, and Culture. Department of Communication Arts, University of Wisconsin-MadisonRisser Award, 2021
For female scholars of high achievement and promise. Department of Communication Arts, University of Wisconsin-MadisonTop Student Paper Panel in Performance Studies, 2020
Performance Studies Division, National Communication Association Conference
Service
2023, Graduate Student Representative, Economics, Communication, and Society (ECS) Division, NCA
2023-2025, Co-President, Rhetoric Society of America (RSA) Graduate Student Chapter
2021-2023, Secretary, Rhetoric Society of America (RSA) Graduate Student Chapter
2019-2020, Area Rep, Graduate Student Organization (GSO)
LECTURES, CONFERENCES, & SYMPOSIA
Publications
Marketing, Advertising, Wellness, and Consumer Culture
Research Articles
Williamson, L.D. and K. Prins. (2023). Uncertain and Anxiously Searching for Answers: The Roles of Negative HealthCare Experiences and Medical Mistrust in Intentions to Seek Information from Online Spaces. Health Communication.
Prins, K. and M. Wellman. (2021). Dodging Negativity Like It’s My Freaking Job: Marketing Postfeminist Positivity through Beachbody Fitness on Instagram. Feminist Media Studies.
Book Chapters
Prins, K. (2022). “The Best a Man Can Be?: Finding a Place for the ‘Real’ Man in Grooming Advertisements.” In Cultures of Authenticity. Emerald Publishing.
Book and Media Reviews
Prins, K. (2022). “Review of Diners, Dudes, and Diets: How Gender and Power Collide in Food Media and Culture.” Journal of Consumer Culture.
Drag
Research Articles
Prins, K. and F. Zitzelsberger (2023). Towards a Posthuman Turn in Drag: Will the Queer Ever Be Human? Queer Studies in Media and Popular Culture 8(1), 3-13.
Prins, K. (2021). Monsters Outside of the Closet: Reading the Queer Art of Winning in The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula. QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking 8(2), 43-67.
Edited collections/Special Issues
Prins, K. and F. Zitzelsberger. Queer Studies in Media and Popular Culture – Posthuman Drag 8(1).
Book Chapters
Prins, K. (2024). “Toward a Theory of Homorelativity: Mapping Intersectionality on RuPaul’s Drag Race.” In Shifting Perspectives on Intersectionality. Verlag Herder.
Book and Media Reviews
Prins, K. (2023). The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula (2016–present), Season 4, USA: Boulet Brothers Productions. Queer Studies in Media and Popular Culture 8(1), 123-127.
Invited Lectures
“‘Friends Don’t Let Friends Shave with Woke Razors’: Commodity Activism and Economic Speech in the Age of Conservative Backlash”
POLI SCI 206: Introduction to Political Psychology, Political Science Department, University of Wisconsin - Madison, September 2024.
“Know, Like, and (Mis)Trust: Studying (Alt) Health Influencers and the People Who Follow them on Social Media”
Comm Arts 317: Rhetoric and Health, Department of Communication Arts, University of Wisconsin - Madison, March 2024.
“Drag Story Hours”
Picture Books, Diversity, and (Literary) Performance, American Studies Department, University of Passau, Germany, May 2023.
“Dodging Negativity Like It’s My Freaking Job”
COMM 491: Communicating Wellness on Social Media, Communication Department, University of Illinois – Chicago, September 2022.
“The Gay-te Keepers at the Fourth Wall: Queering the Borders of the Drag Stage”
Mapping the Margins, Revisited: Intersectionality and American Studies. University of Passau, Germany, American Studies Department, June 2021.
“Drag Kings Can Reign as Fierce as Queens: Theory and Performance of Masculinity in Drag”
Drag Performance in the U.S. University of Passau, Germany, American Studies Department, January 2021.
Select Conference Presentations
Marketing, Advertising, and Consumer Culture
“’Friends Don’t Let Friends Shave with Woke Razors’: Commodity Activism and Economic Speech in the Age of Conservative Backlash.”
Rhetoric Society of America. Denver, Colorado. May 2024.
“’Bravery & Bergamot’: Men’s Grooming Ads as a Sense-able Postfeminist Epideictic Rhetoric.”
Rhetoric Society of America. Denver, Colorado. May 2024.
“Goddesses of the ‘Gram: Re-Mystifying the Entrepreneurial #GirlBoss Through Divine Femininity.”
CO-AUTHOR with Megan Zahay. National Communication Association, Economics, Communication, and Society Division. National Harbor, MD. November 2023.
“‘Why I’ve Been Distant Lately’: The ‘Authentic’ Persona, Reverse Parasocial Relationships, and the Perceived Need to Confess in YouTube Travel Vlogs.”
CO-AUTHOR with Alicen Rushevics. Association of Internet Researchers Conference. Philadelphia, PA. October 2023.
“Money Talks – But Can It Care? Target-ing a Postfeminist Rhetoric of Care in Corporate Social Responsibility Advertising.”
National Communication Association, Economics, Communication, and Society Division. New Orleans, LA. November 2022.
“From Male Tears to Women’s Shopping Carts: Grooming Neoliberal Female Consumers through Depictions of Masculinity in Crisis in Men’s Grooming Ads.”
Emergent Femininities and Masculinities in 21st Century Media and Popular Culture. Athens, Greece. September 2022.
“Si(gh)tation: Targeting Race in Advertisements after the George Floyd Protests.”
Console-ing Passions. Orlando, Florida. June 2022.
“Real Men Wear Heels?: Finding Queer and Trans Masculinities in Axe’s ‘Find Your Magic’ Campaign.”
Rhetoric Society of America. Baltimore, Maryland. May 2022.
“Neoliberal Hege-MANy: Producing the Multiply Masculine Consumer in Dollar Shave Club Ads”
Popular Culture Association Conference. Virtual. June 2021.
“The Best a Man Can Be?: Finding a Place for ‘Real’ Men in Feminist Critiques of Authenticity in Self-Care Advertising”
Cultures of Authenticity Webinar Series. Virtual. November 2020.
Health and Wellness
“Uncertain and Anxiously Searching for Answers: The Roles of Negative Healthcare Experiences and Medical Mistrust in Intentions to Seek Information from Online Spaces.”
CO-AUTHOR with Dr. Lillie Williamson; National Communication Association, Health Communication Division. New Orleans, LA. November 2022.
“You are the CEO of your own body”: Leaning in by leaning out in neoliberal fitness rhetoric.” in “A Media Theory of Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss: On the Platformization of (Post-)Feminism(s) & Cultural Industry Research” Panel.
International Communication Association. Paris, France. May 2022.
“‘I’ve Always Posted about Politics’: The Visceral Convergence of Wellness Influencers and QAnon Conspiracy Theories in the Public Sphere.”
Rhetoric Society of America. Baltimore, Maryland. May 2022.
“Illness in the Wellness Model: Is Orthorexia a Communic(ate)able Disease?”
National Communication Association. Seattle, Washington. November 2021.
“#FaithandFitnessCollide: Spreading the Word of Multilevel Marketing in Christian Women’s Fitness Instagram Posts.”
CO-AUTHOR with Dr. Mariah Wellman. Association of Internet Researchers Conference. Virtual. October 2021.
Drag
“Post/human Drag: Drag Beyond Gender.”
CO-AUTHOR with Florian Zitzelsberger. Posthuman Bodies and Embodied Posthumanisms Conference. Virtual/University of Warwick and Nottingham Trent University. October 2022.
“‘Posthuman Realness’: Living for the Dead in Zombie Drag Performance”
CO-AUTHOR with Florian Zitzelsberger. Theorizing Zombiism II Conference. Virtual/University of Gothenburg. July 2021.
“Mask-ulinity: A Socially-Distanced Drag King Revue”
The UW System’s Women’s and Gender Studies Consortium & UW-Madison’s 4W Initiative. Resistance and Reimagination: Gender, Change, and The Arts. Virtual. April 2021.
“Drag Kings Can Reign as Fierce as Queens: The Feminine Art of Masculine Drag”*
National Communication Association, Performance Studies Division. Virtual. November 2020.
“The Queer Art of Winning: A Close Reading of The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula”
Supermodels of the World: A Drag Race Symposium. Virtual. September 2020.