Mizuko Ito
Curriculum Vitae
Annenberg Center for Communications
743 West Adams Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90089
http://www.itofisher.com/PEOPLE/mito/index.html
mito@itofisher.com
EDUCATION
January 2003 Ph.D., Stanford University Department of
Anthropology. Dissertation: Engineering Play: Children's Software
and the Productions of Everyday Life
January 1998 Ph.D., Stanford University School of Education,
Dissertation: Interactive Media for Play: Kids, Computer Games and the
Productions of Everyday Life.
December 1991 M.A., Stanford University, Department
of Anthropology. Thesis: The Holistic Alternative: A Symbolic Analysis
of an Emergent Culture.
June 1990 B.A., Harvard University, East Asian Studies,
phi beta kappa, magna cum laude. Thesis: Zen and Tea Ritual:
A Comparative Analysis.
FELLOWSHIPS AND GRANTS
2001-2002 Abe Fellowship One year research grant to
conduct comparative ethnography of children and media in Japan and the US.
1999-2001 Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
Postdoctoral Fellowship Two year postdoctoral research grant for the
study of children’s video game play in Tokyo.
1997-98 National Science Foundation Program in Societal
Dimensions of Science, Engineering and Technology Research grant for
study of SeniorNet online community. With co-PIs Charlotte Linde, Beth
Mynatt, Annette Adler, and Vicki O'Day.
1997-98 Mellon/Russell-Sage Research grant for video
analysis and development of CD-ROM for the Fifth Dimension Afterschool Clubs
1997, June Phi Beta Kappa Northern California Association
Graduate Scholarship
1996-97 Spencer
Foundation Dissertation Fellowship
1992-93 Stanford
University School of Education Fellowship
1989, summer Reischauer Institute Award for Undergraduate
Summer Research in Japan
FIELDWORK
1999-present Children’s media technology and mobile
communications use, Tokyo, Japan.
1998-1999 Children’s software development, San Francisco
Bay Area.
1997-1998 Computer use among members of SeniorNet, a
national network of computer using seniors.
1994 -96 Computer game play in after-school clubs in
California and North Carolina.
1994-95 Use of computer-based collaborative work system,
study for Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, CA.
1993-94 Community construction in a multi-user Internet
gaming site.
1993, summer Home and office computer use, study for
Apple Computer, CA.
1992, summer Home entertainment technology use, study
for Apple Computer, CA.
1992-94 Classroom use of computer-based middle school
mathematics curriculum, in California, for the Institute for Research on
Learning, CA.
1990-91 Key metaphors of New Age communities, San Francisco
Bay Area.
1989, summer Food rituals in Rinzai Zen temple in Kyoto,
Japan.
PUBLICATIONS
"Making a Place for Seniors on the Net: SeniorNet, Senior Identity, and
the Digital Divide." With Vicki O’Day, Annette Adler, Charlotte Linde,
and Elizabeth Mynatt. Computers and Society. 31(3): 15-21.
"Cemeteries, Oak Trees, and Black and White Cows: Learning to Participate
on the Internet." With Vicki O’Day, Charlotte Linde, Annette Adler and Elizabeth
D. Mynatt. Papers from Computer Supported Collaborative Learning 1999.
"Learning from Seniors in Network Communities." With Elizabeth D.
Mynatt, Annette Adler, Charlotte Linde, and Vicki O’Day. Proceedings of SeniorCHI
1999.
"The Network Communities of SeniorNet." With Elizabeth D. Mynatt,
Annette Adler, Charlotte Linde, and Vicki O’Day. Proceedings of European
Conference on Computer Supported Collaborative Work, Copenhagen, Denmark,
September 1999.
"Inhabiting Multiple Worlds: Making Sense of SimCity 2000TM in the Fifth
Dimension." In Robbie Davis-Floyd and Joseph Dumit eds., Cyborg Babies.
New York: Routledge, 1998.
"Network Communities: Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed..."
With Elizabeth Mynatt, Annette Adler and Vicki O'Day. Computer Supported
Cooperative Work: The Journal of Collaborative Computing 6: 1-35, 1997.
"Design for Network Communities." With Elizabeth Mynatt, Annette Adler
and Vicki O'Day. In Proceedings for the 1997 Annual Conference
on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 1997.
"Trodes, Gloves and Goggles." with Scott S. Fisher. In Proceedings
for the 1997 Meetings for the International Society for Optical Engineering.
1997.
"Virtually Embodied: The Reality of Fantasy in a Multi-User Dungeon."
In David Porter ed., Internet Culture. New York: Routledge, 1996.
"Introduction: Joichi and Mizuko Ito Interview." with Joichi Ito.
In Lynn Hershman Leeson ed., Clicking In: Hot Links to a Digital Culture.
Seattle: Bay Press, 1996.
"Theory, Method, and Design in Anthropologies of the Internet."
Social Science Computer Review 14(1): 24-26. 1996.
"Living Fictions: Extensions of Cybernetic Presence." Intercommunication.
6 (Autumn 1993): 118-123.
TALKS AND CONFERENCE PAPERS
"Hypersociality, Otaku, and the Digital Media Mix." Society for the
Social Studies of Science meetings, New Orleans, 2002.
"Japanimation, Media Mixing, and Hypersociality." Invited Talk for
the Michigan State University Asian Studies Center’s Japanese Animation Film
and Lecture Series. October 29, 2002.
"Play in an Age of Digital Media: Children's Engagements with the Japanimation
Media Mix." Abe Symposium Sponsored by the Abe Fellowship Program.
Tokyo, April 12, 2002.
"The Media Mix: Multiple Embodiments of Japanimation Characters." Society
for the Social Studies of Science meetings, Boston, 2001.
"Mobile Phones, Japanese Youth, and the Re-placement of Social Contact."
Society for the Social Studies of Science meetings, Boston, 2001.
"Children’s Software, Media Fetishism, and the Special Effect." American
Anthropological Association meetings, Chicago, 1999.
"Network Locality." Society for the Social Studies of Science meetings,
San Diego, 1999.
"Kids and Simulation Games: Subject Formation through Human-Machine Interaction."
Society for the Social Studies of Science meetings, Tucson, 1997.
"Proliferating Presences: Ethnographic Subjectivity in a Distributed Educational
Research Consortium." American Anthropological Association meetings, San
Francisco, 1996
"Uses and Subversions of SimCity 2000." Society for the Social Studies
of Science meetings, Bielefeld, Germany, 1996.
"Imagining Virtuality: Trodes, Gloves and Goggles 1984-1996." Oksnoen
Symposium on "Images of Technology," Norway, 1996.
"Cybernetic Fantasies: Extensions of Selfhood in a Multi-User Dungeon."
American Anthropological Association meetings, Atlanta, 1994.
"Cyborg Couplings in a Multi-User Dungeon." Society for the Social
Studies of Science meetings, New Orleans, 1994.
CONFERENCE AND WORKSHOP ORGANIZATION
2002 Co-organizer with Daisuke Okabe
of K-Times: Social and Cultural Contexts of Mobile Communications in Japan,
Keio University Shonan Fujisawa Campus
1996 Co-organizer with Joan Fujimura
of three-part panel, Emergent Information Technologies, Annual Meeting of
the Society for the Social Studies of Science, Bielefeld, Germany.
1996 Co-organizer and co-chair with
Stefan Helmreich of two-part panel, Multiple Entanglements, Multiple Fieldsites:
Shifting Ethnographic Positions and Methods in the Study of Technoscience,
Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, San Francisco.
1994 Co-organizer with Joan Fujimura of three-day invitational
workshop, Biology, Computers and Society: At the Intersection of the 'Real'
and 'Virtual,' at Stanford University.
WORK HISTORY
2002-present Visiting Scholar Annenberg Center for Communications,
University of Southern California
2001-present Visiting Associate Professor Keio University
Graduate School of Media and Governance
1999-2002 Postdoctoral Fellow Japan National Institute
for Educational Research
1999-2000 Visiting Scholar University of Tokyo Graduate
School of Humanities and Sociology
1997 - 1999 Research Scientist, SeniorNet project and
Fifth Dimension project, Institute for Research on Learning.
1994 - 1997 Research Associate, Fifth Dimension After-School
Clubs Evaluation at the Institute for Research on Learning, Menlo Park, California.
Mellon Foundation funded project.
1994 - 1996 Consultant to Network Places Team, Xerox
Palo Alto Research Center.
1994, summer Field-based User Study Intern, Apple Computer,
Applesoft Human Interface Design Center.
1993-94 Research Assistant to Professor Joan Fujimura,
Stanford Department of Anthropology and Program in the History and Philosophy
of Science.
1993-94 Teaching Assistant, to Professor Carol Delaney,
Stanford Department of Anthropology, Symbolic Anthropology.
1993-94 Teaching Assistant, to Professors Raymond McDermott
and Thomas Rohlen, Stanford School of Education, Culture Theory.
1993, summer Field-based User Study Intern, Apple Computer,
Advanced Technology Group/Human Interface Group.
1992-94 Fieldworker, Middle-school Mathematics through
Applications Project at the Institute for Research on Learning. NSF
funded project.
1991, spring Teaching Assistant, to Professor Carl Bielefeld,
Stanford Department of Religion, Introduction to Zen Buddhism.
PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
American Anthropological Association
American Educational Research Association
Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility
National Communication Association
phi beta kappa
Society for the Social Studies of Science
LANGUAGES
English: First
Language
Japanese: Fluent