Mimi Ito - Weblog

M.A. Anthropology, Ph.D. Education, Ph.D. Anthropology, Stanford University

Associate Researcher
University of California Humanities Research Institute,

Visiting Associate Professor
Keio University, Graduate School of Media and Governance

I am a cultural anthropologist who studies new media use, particularly among young people in Japan and the US. My research group at Keio University studies mobile technology use, and I recently completed a study with Peter Lyman and Michael Carter on a multi-year project on digital kids and informal learning, with support from the MacArthur Foundation. As part of this, I'm doing case studies of anime fandoms in Japan and the English-speaking online world. I edited a book for MIT Press with Daisuke Okabe and Misa Matsuda entitled, Personal, Portable, Pedestrian: Mobile Phones in Japanese Life., and my book on children's software, Engineering Play: A Cultural History of Children's Software is due out from MIT Press this fall, together with the book reporting on the digital youth project, Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out: Kids Living and Learning with New Media.

Professional credentials: a doctorate in Anthropology and a doctorate in Education, both from Stanford. Past workplaces: University of Southern California's Annenberg Center, The Institute for Research on Learning, Xerox PARC, Tokyo University, the National Institute for Educational Research in Japan, and Apple Computer.