 I am an Assistant Professor at the Department of Communication at the University of Memphis and an Affiliated Faculty at the Center for Research on Women. I received a PhD in Communication in 2006 from the Institute of Communication Research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Prior to UofM, I was a faculty at the Media Studies program at the University of California, Berkeley and an Affiliated Faculty at the Berkeley Center for New Media. I was a UCB faculty expert in new media during 2008 election. I also consulted for Bay Area companies on new media's impact on various social and cultural practices. My research focuses on cultural studies of science, technology and medicine, critical/cultural theory, and media studies. I published work on health information technology, personal genomics, networks and globalization, and visual culture’s engagement with scientific and medical research. I am an avid fan of monster and horror media and I regularly teach a course on monster films. Currently I am working on a book manuscript titled Pandemics in the Media (under contract with Peter Lang ) and an edited collection Monstrous Culture in the 21st Century (under contract with Continuum Press; first editor with Diem-my Bui) My other current projects include article-length works on biocapital and biotechnology in the film Splice and autoethnographic study of identity in personal genomics. In October 2012 I am a Bright Ideas Fellow-in-Residency at the Genomics Forum at the University of Edinburgh. I am also giving talks on pandemics, citizenship, and digital technology at Lancaster University and the University of Exeter. |