Elizabeth Losh is a media theorist and

digital rhetoric Digital rhetoric can be generally defined as communication that exists in the digital sphere. As such, digital rhetoric can be expressed in many different forms —including but not limited to text, images, videos, and software. Due to the incr ...

scholar, who is a professor of

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

and

American Studies American studies or American civilization is an interdisciplinary field of scholarship that examines American literature, history, society, and culture. It traditionally incorporates literary criticism, historiography and critical theory. Schol ...

at the

College of William and Mary The College of William & Mary (officially The College of William and Mary in Virginia, abbreviated as William & Mary, W&M) is a public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia. Founded in 1693 by letters patent issued by King William III ...

Education

Elizabeth Losh earned a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

(''magna cum laude'') from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

, a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing, and a PhD in English with an emphasis in critical theory from

University of California at Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and pr ...

. She was Director of Academic Programs, Sixth College at

University of California at San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is t ...

, where she also taught in Communication, Visual Arts, and the Interdisciplinary Computing in the Arts major. She is a member of the editorial board of the journal '' Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience''.

Academic contributions

Losh is a founding member of

FemTechNet FemTechNet (FTN) is a feminist network of scholars, artists, and activists known for its feminist, decentralized pedagogy experiments. FemTechNet became the focus of various media outlets when it broadcast its efforts to "storm" Wikipedia under its ...

, an international organization devoted to promoting collaborative research, pedagogy and online learning innovation in feminist art, media and science and technology studies. In 2007, Losh was awarded the John Lovas Memorial Webblog prize. Losh's main areas of contribution are in interrogating the assumptions embedded in the rhetorics of news, information and pedagogy in digital media platforms and projects, particularly within online cultures and where online cultures intersect with spaces like classrooms and institutions like journalism.

Publications

Losh is the author of books including ''The War on Learning: Gaining Ground in the Digital University'', a book that, as

Times Higher Education ''Times Higher Education'' (''THE''), formerly ''The Times Higher Education Supplement'' (''The Thes''), is a British magazine reporting specifically on news and issues related to higher education. Ownership TPG Capital acquired TSL Education ...

reviewer Tara Brabazon writes, addresses "what happens when education is treated like a product and not a process" and asks "who speaks for the students?". The

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a public university, public research university located in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidn ...

Review of Books notes that Losh "effectively moves beyond the headlines and bestsellers that warn of literacy and attention crises among device-devoted youth, and those that dismiss the academy as a hopeless anachronism, to painstakingly deconstruct the 'rhetoric of crisis'". With Jonathan Alexander, Losh is the author of a guide to writing that introduces graphics as a means of doing pedagogy: ''Understanding Rhetoric: A Graphic Guide to Writing''. Losh is also the author of the ''Virtualpolitik: An Electronic History of Government Media-Making in a Time of War, Scandal, Disaster, Miscommunication, and Mistakes'' (MIT Press, 2009), a work highly recommended by

Immersive Journalism Immersive Journalism is a form of journalism production that allows first person experience of the events or situations described in news reports and documentary film. Using 3D gaming and immersive technologies that create a sense of "being there ...

for being a book that "closely examines the government’s digital rhetoric in such cases and its dual role as media-maker and regulator"

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Losh, Elizabeth University of California, San Diego faculty Harvard University alumni University of California, Irvine alumni Living people College of William & Mary faculty Year of birth missing (living people)