Notre Dame Student | Teaching Assistant, “Drunk on Film”
Sammi Dunlap is a student at the University of Notre Dame studying psychology with minors in business, economics, and digital marketing. She serves as a teaching assistant for “Drunk on Film,” a widely popular course that explores the portrayal of alcohol in media and its influence on real-world drinking culture.
Dunlap first took the course as a student after hearing about it through campus buzz and quickly became deeply engaged with its themes. The class gave students a rare opportunity to openly discuss drinking culture — including the role that marketing, social pressure, and media storytelling play in shaping expectations around alcohol.
Rather than presenting alcohol as simply good or bad, the course encourages students to examine why people drink and how cultural narratives influence those decisions. For Dunlap, the experience helped highlight the gap between the glamorous portrayal of drinking in film and the more complicated reality many students encounter in college.
As a member of Gen Z, Dunlap has witnessed firsthand how attitudes toward alcohol are evolving. Many students today are more aware of the health risks associated with heavy drinking and are increasingly interested in moderation, intentional drinking, or alcohol-free alternatives.
In Please Drink Responsibly, Dunlap offers insight into how younger generations are beginning to rethink the role alcohol plays in social life — reflecting a broader cultural shift that is reshaping drinking norms among young adults.