Lisa Nakamura
Encyclopedia
Lisa Nakamura is Director and Professor of Asian American Studies Program at the Institute of Communication Research at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
and a Ph.D. in English from the Graduate Center at City University of New York
.
She is a professor of Media and Cinema Studies; professor of Asian American Studies; and professor of Gender and Women’s Studies. She is a member of the editorial board of the “Journal of Asian American Studies
, Communication” and “Critical/Cultural Studies,” “Games and Culture,” and “New Media and Society.”
,” “The Women’s Review of Books,” Camera Obscura,” and the Iowa Journal of Cultural Studies.” Currently Nakamura is working on a new monograph on Massively Multiplayer Online Role playing games, the transnational racialized labor, and avatarial capital in a “postracial” world. And currently she teaches courses on Asian Americans and media as well as advanced courses on new media criticism, history, and theory.
, City University of New York
argues that the book's central insight is that the Internet is a “visual technology, a protocol for seeing that is interfaced and networked in ways that produce a particular set of racial formations.” From Facebook
to YouTube
to avatars to video games, visual representations online incorporate the embodied, gendered, and racialized self online.
Doris Witt of the University of Iowa
reviews The book, “Race in Cyberspace” edited by Beth E. Kolko, Lisa Nakamura, and Gilbert B. Rodman. In an effort to open up a “space where a larger, more extended, and more inclusive conversation about race and cyberspace can take place,” Witt discusses how the book discusses the processes through which race is performed online by privileged consumers of cyberspace rather than the way in which cyberspace has been produced by and has helped reproduce a racialized global division of labor.
As reviewed by Samantha Blackmon from Purdue University
, Nakamura’s third book, “Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet,” aims to interrogate how the internet shapes and reshapes our perceptions of race, ethnicity, and identity. Blackmon states that Nakamura names the images of racial identity online that shape the specific perceptions of cybertypes, and how these cybertypes are often determined and defined by the racial and ethnic stereotypes that are already established in our current society.
Member, Association for Asian American Studies
, 1999–present
Member, American Studies Association, 1998–present
Member, Association of Internet Researchers
, 2001–present
Member, Society for Cinema and Media Studies
, 2003–present
Member, Console-ing Passions, 2005–present.
City University of New York
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Education
Lisa Nakamura earned a B.A. from Reed CollegeReed College
Reed College is a private, independent, liberal arts college located in southeast Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus located in Portland's Eastmoreland neighborhood, featuring architecture based on the Tudor-Gothic style, and a forested canyon wilderness...
and a Ph.D. in English from the Graduate Center at City University of New York
City University of New York
The City University of New York is the public university system of New York City, with its administrative offices in Yorkville in Manhattan. It is the largest urban university in the United States, consisting of 23 institutions: 11 senior colleges, six community colleges, the William E...
.
She is a professor of Media and Cinema Studies; professor of Asian American Studies; and professor of Gender and Women’s Studies. She is a member of the editorial board of the “Journal of Asian American Studies
Journal of Asian American Studies
The Journal of Asian American Studies is a triannual academic journal established in 1998 and is the official publication of the Association for Asian American Studies. The journal publishes scholarly articles exploring theoretical developments, research interests, policy and pedagogical issues...
, Communication” and “Critical/Cultural Studies,” “Games and Culture,” and “New Media and Society.”
Contributions
Nakamura is the Director of the Asian American Studies Program, Professor in the Institute of Communication Research and Media Studies Program and Professor of Asian American Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. Her main areas of contribution are in interrogating the racial/ethnic assumptions embedded in the representations of race in digital media, particularly within gaming cultures. She is the author of “Digitizing Race: Visual Cultures of the Internet”, “Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identify on the Internet,” and is co-editor of “Race in Cyberspace.” She has also published articles in “Critical Studies in Media Communication,” “PMLA,” “Cinema JournalCinema Journal
The Cinema Journal is published by the Society for Cinema and Media Studies . It features articles on film studies, television studies, media studies, visual arts, cultural studies, film and media history, and moving image studies....
,” “The Women’s Review of Books,” Camera Obscura,” and the Iowa Journal of Cultural Studies.” Currently Nakamura is working on a new monograph on Massively Multiplayer Online Role playing games, the transnational racialized labor, and avatarial capital in a “postracial” world. And currently she teaches courses on Asian Americans and media as well as advanced courses on new media criticism, history, and theory.
Books
Nakamura's book, “Digitizing Race: Visual Cultures of the Internet,” discusses the visual cultures of the Internet and the type of information we seek online. She is interested in the emergence and immense popularity of racially themed websites that are created by for and about people of color. She is interested in what she terms the “racio-visual logic of the internet.” Jessie Daniels of Hunter CollegeHunter College
Hunter College, established in 1870, is a public university and one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York, located on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Hunter grants undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate degrees in more than one hundred fields of study, and is recognized...
, City University of New York
City University of New York
The City University of New York is the public university system of New York City, with its administrative offices in Yorkville in Manhattan. It is the largest urban university in the United States, consisting of 23 institutions: 11 senior colleges, six community colleges, the William E...
argues that the book's central insight is that the Internet is a “visual technology, a protocol for seeing that is interfaced and networked in ways that produce a particular set of racial formations.” From Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
to YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
to avatars to video games, visual representations online incorporate the embodied, gendered, and racialized self online.
Doris Witt of the University of Iowa
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...
reviews The book, “Race in Cyberspace” edited by Beth E. Kolko, Lisa Nakamura, and Gilbert B. Rodman. In an effort to open up a “space where a larger, more extended, and more inclusive conversation about race and cyberspace can take place,” Witt discusses how the book discusses the processes through which race is performed online by privileged consumers of cyberspace rather than the way in which cyberspace has been produced by and has helped reproduce a racialized global division of labor.
As reviewed by Samantha Blackmon from Purdue University
Purdue University
Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana, U.S., is the flagship university of the six-campus Purdue University system. Purdue was founded on May 6, 1869, as a land-grant university when the Indiana General Assembly, taking advantage of the Morrill Act, accepted a donation of land and...
, Nakamura’s third book, “Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet,” aims to interrogate how the internet shapes and reshapes our perceptions of race, ethnicity, and identity. Blackmon states that Nakamura names the images of racial identity online that shape the specific perceptions of cybertypes, and how these cybertypes are often determined and defined by the racial and ethnic stereotypes that are already established in our current society.
Membership
Member, UW-Madison Mellon Study Group on Electronic Music: The Subject of Electronica, 2002–2004Member, Association for Asian American Studies
Association for Asian American Studies
The Association for Asian American Studies is an organization founded in 1979 to promote teaching and research in Asian American Studies. Its official journal is the Journal of Asian American Studies....
, 1999–present
Member, American Studies Association, 1998–present
Member, Association of Internet Researchers
Association of Internet Researchers
Founded in 1999, the Association of Internet Researchers is an learned society dedicated to the advancement of the transdisciplinary field of Internet studies...
, 2001–present
Member, Society for Cinema and Media Studies
Society for Cinema and Media Studies
The Society for Cinema and Media Studies is an organization of professors and scholars. Its home office is at the University of Oklahoma, but it has members throughout the world....
, 2003–present
Member, Console-ing Passions, 2005–present.
External links
Notable Graduates of Reed CollegeCity University of New York
City University of New York
The City University of New York is the public university system of New York City, with its administrative offices in Yorkville in Manhattan. It is the largest urban university in the United States, consisting of 23 institutions: 11 senior colleges, six community colleges, the William E...
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign