NEWS
NORMAN, OKLA. – Victoria Sturtevant, an associate professor of film and media studies at the University of Oklahoma, has been named the recipient of the 2025 John G. Cawelti Award for the Best Textbook/Primer by the Popular Culture Association. The honor recognizes her latest book, It’s All in the Delivery: Pregnancy in American Film and Television Comedy, which explores how pregnancy is portrayed, and often distorted, in comedic movies and television shows throughout U.S. history.
“I’ve been working on this book since I was pregnant with my oldest son, who’s now 16,” she said. “I kept noticing how often pregnancy was misrepresented, trivialized or completely overlooked. This book is my attempt to trace how those portrayals have shaped and reflected cultural attitudes over time.”
The book begins with the silent film era, when even showing a baby bump was considered taboo, and traces the gradual shifts in visibility and storytelling. Milestones like Lucille Ball’s groundbreaking portrayal of pregnancy in I Love Lucy are central moments in that history. Sturtevant argues that, even after pregnancy became technically permissible on screen, mainstream narratives often continued to marginalize the experience, favoring comedic portrayals of confused or overwhelmed fathers-to-be.
The annual John G. Cawelti Award recognizes textbooks and primers that employ innovative and unique approaches to popular and American culture in the classroom.
“To know that the committee saw the book as useful in the classroom means a great deal. Bridging the gap between academic analysis and broader conversations about media is something I care deeply about,” she said.
This is Sturtevant’s third book. It is receiving critical praise from Library Journal and the Kraszna Krausz Foundation. Her previous work, Hysterical! Women in American Comedy, co-edited with Linda Mizejewski, also received recognition from the Popular Culture Association, earning the Susan Koppelman Award in 2017. She published A Great Big Girl Like Me: The Films of Marie Dressler in 2009.
About the project
At the University of Oklahoma, Sturtevant teaches courses on film history, theory, and criticism, including writing about film and media, gender and media, classical Hollywood cinema, and cinemas of childhood. She is also an affiliated member of the Women’s and Gender Studies faculty.
About the University of Oklahoma
Founded in 1890, the University of Oklahoma is a public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. As the state’s flagship university, OU serves the educational, cultural, economic and health care needs of the state, region and nation. For more information about the university, visit www.ou.edu.
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