Lori Lopez

Gendered Dynamics in Hmong American New Media Cultures

For over 260,000 Hmong Americans living in the U.S., digital media play a key role in creating and maintaining connections and identities.  My research explores the unique characteristics of the Hmong American media landscape, focusing in particular on the gendered dimensions of media production and consumption.  In my forthcoming book manuscript, I ask how Hmong digital media cultures reflect and shape changing power dynamics for women, as well as how new technologies are remediating traditional forms of Hmong culture and community.  This project is based on an ethnographic analysis of a wide range of everyday interactions with media technologies—including an examination of new forms of radio that rely on mobile phones, community debates facilitated through YouTube videos, and the development of podcasts, Twitter hashtags, and Facebook groups for Hmong Americans.

Lori Kido Lopez is Assistant Professor of Media and Cultural Studies in the Communication Arts Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is also an affiliate of the Asian American Studies Program and the Gender and Women’s Studies Department.  She is the author of Asian American Media Activism: Fighting for Cultural Citizenship (2016, NYU), and co-editor of the forthcoming Routledge Companion to Asian American Media.  She is the founder of the national Race & Media Conference, and was a recipient of the Outstanding Women of Color Award in 2015.