is a Japanese
cultural anthropologist
Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans. It is in contrast to social anthropology, which perceives cultural variation as a subset of a posited anthropological constant. The portman ...
who is a Professor in Residence at the Humanities Research Institute at the
University of California, 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 p ...
. Her main professional interest is young people's use of media technology. She has explored the ways in which digital media are changing relationships, identities, and communities.
Early life
Mizuko Ito grew up between the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
and
Japan. In Japan, she attended
Nishimachi International School
Nishimachi International School (西町インターナショナルスクール), established in 1949, is an international school located in the Azabu area of Tokyo, Japan. Co-educational, non-sectarian, private K-9 day school. The main language o ...
and the
American School in Japan
The American School in Japan (ASIJ; ja, アメリカンスクール・イン・ジャパン) is an international private day school located in the city of Chōfu, Tokyo, Japan. The school consists of an elementary school, a middle school, and a ...
. She did her undergraduate work at
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 ...
, graduating in 1990 with a degree in East Asian studies: her thesis was "Zen and Tea Ritual: A Comparative Analysis."
Ito did her graduate work at
Stanford University. In 1991, she received a Masters of Arts degree in anthropology; her thesis was "The Holistic Alternative: A Symbolic Analysis of an Emergent Culture." In 1998, she received a Ph.D. from the Department of Education for her dissertation: "Interactive Media for Play: Kids, Computer Games and the Productions of Everyday Life." In 2003, she received a Ph.D. from the Department of Anthropology for her dissertation: "Engineering Play: Children’s Software and the Productions of Everyday Life."
Ito lives in Southern California with her husband,
Scott Fisher, a virtual reality researcher, and their two children. She keeps a Bento Moblog, a visual record of the school lunches she prepares for her kids. Ito's brother is
Joi Ito
is a Japanese entrepreneur and venture capitalist. He is a former director of the MIT Media Lab, former professor of the practice of media arts and sciences at MIT, and a former visiting professor of practice at the Harvard Law School. Ito has ...
, former director of the
MIT Media Lab
The MIT Media Lab is a research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, growing out of MIT's Architecture Machine Group in the School of Architecture. Its research does not restrict to fixed academic disciplines, but draws from ...
. With her brother, she hosts Chanpon.org.
Career
Research interest
Ito's main professional interest are
connected learning and young people's use of media technology. She has explored the ways in which digital media are changing relationships, identities, and communities. With Misa Matsuda and Daisuke Okabe, Ito edited ''Personal, Portable, Pedestrian: Mobile Phones in Japanese Life'' (
MIT Press
The MIT Press is a university press affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts (United States). It was established in 1962.
History
The MIT Press traces its origins back to 1926 when MIT publish ...
, 2005).
She also investigated
otaku
is a Japanese word that describes people with consuming interests, particularly in anime, manga, video games, or computers. Its contemporary use originated with a 1983 essay by Akio Nakamori in '' Manga Burikko''. may be used as a pejorat ...
fan culture with collaborators Daisuke Okabe and Izumi Tsuji, which resulted in the book ''Fandom Unbound: Otaku Culture in a Connected World''.
Titles and grants
Ito is currently the Research Director of the Digital Media and Learning Hub, and a Professor in Residence at
University of California, 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 p ...
's Department of Anthropology, Department of Education, Department of Informatics, and School of Education. She is also the
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Chair in Digital Media and Learning.
In 2006, Ito received a
MacArthur Foundation
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is a private foundation that makes grants and impact investments to support non-profit organizations in approximately 50 countries around the world. It has an endowment of $7.0 billion and p ...
grant to "observe children's interactions with digital media to get a sense of how they're really using the technology." This work led to creation of the ''Digital Media and Learning Research Hub'' (housed in the
University of California Humanities Research Institute) and the publication of two books: ''Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out'' and ''Engineering Play: A Cultural History of Children's Software''.
Ito is CEO of Connected Camps, a benefit corporation that provides online learning programs in coding and the digital arts.
Bibliography
In January 2013, Ito and her collaborators, who include Kris Gutierrez, Sonia Livingstone, Bill Penuel,
Jean Rhodes, Katie Salen, Juliet Schor, Julian Sefton-Green, and S. Craig Watkins, release
''Connected Learning: An Agenda for Research and Design'' a synthesis report of th
''Connected Learning Research Network''
Mizuko Ito wrote or contributed to several books:
* Ito, Mizuko. "Virtually Embodied: The Reality of Fantasy in a Multi-User Dungeon" in ''Internet Culture'', edited by David Porter. Routledge, 1997.
* Ito, Mizuko, Daisuke Okabe, Misa Matsuda, Eds. ''Personal Portable Pedestrian: Mobile Phones in Japanese Life''. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2005.
* Ito, Mizuko. "Introduction." ''In Networked Publics'', edited by Kazys Varnelis, 1-14. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2008.
* Ito, Mizuko, Heather A. Horst, Matteo Bittanti, danah boyd, Becky Herr Stephenson, Patricia G. Lange, C. J. Pascoe, and Laura Robinson. ''Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project In The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Reports on Digital Media and Learning''. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2008.
* Ito, Mizuko. ''Engineering Play: A Cultural History of Children's Software''. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2009.
* Ito, Mizuko, Daisuke Okabe, Izumi Tsuji, Eds. ''Fandom Unbound: Otaku Culture in a Connected World.'' New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012.
* Ito, Mizuko, Kris Gutiérrez, Sonia Livingstone, Bill Penuel, Jean Rhodes, Katie Salen, Juliet Schor, Julian Sefton-Green, S. Craig Watkins. 2013. ''Connected Learning: An Agenda for Research and Design''. Irvine, CA: Digital Media and Learning Research Hub.
* Ito, Mizuko, Sonja Baumer, Matteo Bittanti, danah boyd, Rachel Cody, Becky Herr, Heather A. Horst, Patricia G. Lange, Dilan Mahendran, Katynka Martinez et al. ''Hanging Out, Messing Around, Geeking Out: Kids Living and Learning with New Media''. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2013. .
See also
*
Digital anthropology
Digital anthropology is the anthropological study of the relationship between humans and digital-era technology. The field is new, and thus has a variety of names with a variety of emphases. These include techno-anthropology, digital ethnograp ...
*
Connected learning
References
External links
Ito Faculty Profile, The Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences, University of California IrvineMizuko "Mimi" Ito's Personal/Professional Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ito, Mizuko
1968 births
American academics of Japanese descent
Harvard University alumni
Japanese anthropologists
Living people
Japanese mass media scholars
MUD scholars
Stanford University alumni
University of California, Irvine faculty
Japanese women anthropologists
People from Kyoto
Japanese emigrants to the United States
American School in Japan alumni