Victoria Sturtevant, associate professor of film and media studies at the University of Oklahoma, has received the 2025 John G. Cawelti Award for the Best Textbook/Primer from the Popular Culture Association for her book, It’s All in the Delivery: Pregnancy in American Film and Television Comedy (University of Texas Press, 2024).
The award-winning monograph explores the evolution of pregnancy tropes in comedic movies and television shows from the silent film era through present day, highlighting how media can often misrepresent, trivialize, or overlook women’s experiences.
A University of Oklahoma faculty member since 2022, Dr. Sturtevant teaches courses on film history, theory, and criticism. Her scholarship specializes in the portrayals of race, class, and gender in American film. In addition to her latest work, Dr. Sturtevant is co-editor of Hysterical!: Women in American Comedy (University of Texas Press, 2017) and the author of A Great Big Girl Like Me: The Films of Marie Dressler (University of Illinois Press, 2009).
Dr. Sturtevant is a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Toledo in Ohio, where she earned bachelor’s degrees in psychology and English literature. She holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. in women’s studies from Emory University in Atlanta