Education

The University of Texas at Austin

Ph.D., Media Studies (2015)
Supervisor: Dr. Shanti Kumar.

Inaugural recipient, Outstanding Dissertation Award. Department of Radio-TV-Film, The University of Texas at Austin.

The University of Texas at Austin

M.A., Media Studies (2009)

Pomona college

B.A., Media Studies, Film/Video Concentration

Research Keywords

Digital/social media and cultural studies. Media and cultural anthropology. Digital design-based research. Ethnography. Tumblr. Queer of color critique. Gender and sexuality studies. Critical race theory. Asian American Studies. Internet cultures.

Appointments

July 2020-present

Assistant Professor. Department of Asian American Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara

I teach classes on Asian Americans and the media as well as gender and sexuality. My research program combines Asian American Studies, critical race theory, digital and social media studies, human-centered design, and queer of color critique.

2020-2021 Scheduled Classes (subject to change):
Fall 2020: AS AM 118 Asian Americans in Popular Culture
Winter 2021: AS AM 127 Asian American Film, Television, Digital Media
Spring 2021: AS AM 8 Introduction to Asian American Gender and Sexuality

July 2018-June 2020

University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellow. Department of Informatics, University of California, Irvine

The University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program was established in 1984 to encourage outstanding women and minority Ph.D. recipients to pursue academic careers at the University of California. The current program offers postdoctoral research fellowships, professional development and faculty mentoring to outstanding scholars in all fields whose research, teaching, and service will contribute to diversity and equal opportunity at UC. Mentor: Dr. Mimi Ito.

Jan 2016-July 2018

Postdoctoral Scholar. Digital Media and Learning Hub, University of California Humanities Research Institute

How can we use digital media to connect under-resourced families with meaningful extracurricular opportunities for their young learners? I led a comprehensive design research process to develop novel digital tool(s) to address this question, piloting a successful SMS program that delivered out-of-school learning opportunities to over 70 families in Santa Ana, CA. Capabilities include: design and conduct large-scale ethnographic research, qualitative data analysis, lead all-team strategy meetings, persona generation, scenario writing, storyboard generation, concept validation, community outreach and brokering organization partnerships. Supervising PI: Dr. Mimi Ito.

 Aug 2011-Dec 2015

Graduate Research Assistant. The University of Texas at Austin

What is keeping highly-motivated first-generation high-school graduates from crafting meaningful next steps to postsecondary ed? Our team spent over a year embedded in an Austin-area public high school to help answer this question. One big hint: social and cultural capitals are as important as digital media interventions in school. Capabilities included: creating coding schemes and organizing all qualitative data analysis, intensive long-time-on-task ethnographic interviewing with youth (100+ hours), writing internal reports. Supervising PI: Dr. S. Craig Watkins.

Honors and Awards

2019

Best Paper (Honorable Mention), 14th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games, San Luis Obispo, CA.

2018

University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship. Department of Informatics, University of California, Irvine.

University of Michigan LSA Collegiate Postdoctoral Fellowship. Department of Communication Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (declined).

2016

Fully-Funded Participant, Inside/Outside: Queer Networks in Transnational Perspective Summer School. Leibniz Universität Hannover, Germany.

2015

Inaugural recipient, Outstanding Dissertation Award. Department of Radio-TV-Film, The University of Texas at Austin.

2015

Jesse H. Jones Fellowship in Communication. Moody College of Communication, The University of Texas at Austin (declined).

2012

Summer Fellow, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Digital Media and Learning Summer Institute. Convened at Microsoft Research New England, Cambridge, MA.

 2010

Invited Fully-Funded Participant, International School for Digital Transformation. Universidade do Porto, Portugal.

Publications

Books

Alexander Cho. The Passionate Terrain: Queer Youth of Color, Affect, and the Shape of Social Media. In preparation.

Allison McCracken, Alexander Cho, Louisa Stein & Indira Neill Hoch, Eds. a tumblr book: Platform and Culture. The University of Michigan Press. In production. Forthcoming 2020.

S. Craig Watkins with Andres Lombana-Bermudez, Alexander Cho, Vivian Shaw, Jacqueline Ryan Vickery and Lauren Weinzimmer. The Digital Edge: How Black and Latino Youth Navigate Digital Inequality. New York: NYU Press. December 2018.

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles & Peer-Reviewed Published Proceedings

Alexander Cho, A.M. Tsaasan, & Constance Steinkuehler. “The Building Blocks of an Educational Esports League: Lessons from Year One in Orange County High Schools.” In Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (FDG ’19). Best Paper (Honorable Mention).

Alexander Cho, Roxana Herrera, Luis G. Chaidez, & Adilene Uriostegui. “The ‘Comadre’ Project: An Asset-Based Design Approach to Connecting Low-Income Latinx Families to Out-of-School Learning Opportunities.” In Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’19).

Alexander Cho. “Default Publicness: Queer Youth of Color, Social Media, and Being Outed by the Machine.” New Media & Society 20(9) pp. 3183-3200. (OnlineFirst: Dec. 12, 2017).

Book Chapters

Alexander Cho, Vivian Shaw & S. Craig Watkins. “Dissonant Futures.” In The Digital Edge: How Black and Latino Youth Navigate Digital Inequality. Ed. S. Craig Watkins. New York: NYU Press. December 2018.

Alexander Cho. “Disruptive Joy: #BlackOutDay’s Affirmative Resonances.” In A Networked Self and Love. Ed. Zizi Papacharissi. New York: Routledge. 2018.

Alexander Cho. “Queer Reverb: Tumblr, Affect, Time.” In Networked Affect. Eds. Paasonen, Susanna, Ken Hillis & Michael Petit. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 2015.

Alexander Cho. “Social Media,” “Hapa,” & “Eurasian” encyclopedia entries. In Multicultural America: A Multimedia Encyclopedia. Ed. Cortés, Carlos E. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. 2013.

Spence, J.; Straubhaar, J.; Cho, A., & Graber, D. “Structuring Race in the Cultural Geography of Austin.” In The Persistence of Inequality in the Technopolis: Race, Class, and the Digital Divide in Austin, Texas. Spence, J. and Straubhaar, J. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. 2012.

Invited Articles

Alexander Cho. “Ethnography and the Geography of Learning.” Ethnography Matters, July 25, 2013.

Alexander Cho. “Dissonant Futures: The Importance of Aligning Digital Media and Learning Environments with Future Orientation in Schools.” Connected Learning Research Network Blog, MacArthur Digital Media and Learning Initiative. November 26, 2012.

Alexander Cho. “Lady Gaga, Balls Out: Recuperating Queer Performativity.” FlowTV.org, 10.5, August.

Alexander Cho. “The Big Sell.” GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies. Moving Image Review. Theme: Queer in Media Studies. 15(4): 618-619.

Alexander Cho. “Silence is Golden: Erasing Gay Olympic Champion Matthew Mitcham.” FlowTV.org, 8.07, September.

Book Reviews

Alexander Cho. Review of Muslim Cool: Race, Religion, and Hip Hop in the United States. Cinema Journal, vol. 57, no. 1.

Alexander Cho. Review of Media Queered, ed. Kevin J. Barnhurst. E3W Review of Books, Department of English, University of Texas at Austin.

Invited Presentations and Lectures

Invited Guest Speaker. “Staying Afloat: What It’s Like to Be a Queer of Color Student on Social Media.” NAFSA: Association of International Educators Annual Conference and Expo. Los Angeles, CA. May 2017.

Invited Speaker. “Who is Asian American? Multiracial Identity and the Changing Face of Asian America.” The Strake Foundation / Asian Pacific American Heritage Association Distinguished Speakers’ Series. Houston, TX. September 2014.

Invited Instructor. “Race Relations and the Media.” Anti-Defamation League Austin Summer Educators’ Institute, St. Edward’s University Professional Education Center. June 2013.

Invited Lead Discussant. “Cheese and Other Oddities: A Night of Asian American Theater and Film.” Lucky Chaos Theater Project. Austin, TX. April 2012.

Invited Speaker. “Asian and Asian American Images in US Media.” Asian American Leadership Institute, UT-Austin. November.

Invited Speaker/Poet. PEN Center USA: The Many Faces of the Korean-American Storyteller. The New L.A. Theater Center, Los Angeles, CA. August 2.

Invited Speaker. Queer Stories: Intersections of Culture and Sexuality, produced by UT-Austin’s Queer People of Color Student Association. University of Texas at Austin. April 24.

Refereed Conference Panels and Papers

“Authentic Esports, Enriched Curriculum.” Connected Learning Summit, Cambridge MA. August 2018.

“Prurient Participatory Politics: Tumblr’s CTRL+W33D and Vivian Fu.” Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Toronto. March 2018.

“Tumblr and its Pedagogies of Dissent.” Roundtable. American Studies Association Annual Meeting. November 2017.

“‘Tumblr is a Place to Express Myself’: Digital Design Considerations for Queer Youth of Color Activism.” Digital Media and Learning Conference, Irvine. October 2016.

“Forum: What’s in a Platform? Tumblr’s Feminist and Queer Spaces as New Sites of Scholarly Inquiry.” Roundtable. Console-ing Passions, Notre Dame, Indiana. June 2016.

“Selfie Politics: #BlackOutDay’s Affirmative Resonances.” Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Atlanta. March 2016.

Panel Chair, “Queer Media Affect: Locations and Mobilities of Feeling.” Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Montreal. March 2015.

“Liberté, Égalité, Beyoncé”: Queer Youth of Color and Territories of Insurgence.” Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Montreal. March 2015.

“Digital Vocations: Race, Capital, and Creativity in the Information Economy.” Co-Author with Vivian Shaw. American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, Media Sociology Preconference. August 2014. (In absentia)

Panel Originator and Chair, “The Remediation of Race: New Media, Selective Memory, and the Politics of Resistance.” Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Chicago. March 2013.

“On the Intimate Refrain: Mixed-Race Asian Americans and Tumblr.com.” Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Chicago. March 2013.

“Teaching Digital Media Production in a High School: Exploring Porous Classroom Boundaries, Blurring Formal/Informal Learning, and Examining Entrepreneurship.” Co-Author with Jennifer Noble and Andres Lombana-Bermudez. American Educational Research Association, San Francisco. April 2013.

“Touching for Longing: Gay Male Affective Networks on Tumblr.com.” Association of Internet Researchers Conference. Seattle, Washington. October 2011.

“Queer Tumblrs, Networked Counterpublics.” International Communications Association. Boston, Massachusetts. May 2011.

“Mixed-race mimic meme: Magibon’s impossible referent.” Critical Ethnic Studies Conference. University of California, Riverside. March 2011.

“Negotiated Revelations: Asian-Descent Multiracial Identities, MySpace.com, and the Politics of Online Embodiment.” Critical Mixed Race Studies Conference. De Paul University, Chicago. November 2010.

“Queer Temporality, Sexy Machines, and the Closet: Public Anonymity and Self-Exposure on GuysWithiPhones.com and ChatRoulette.com.” Future/NO Future: An Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Conference on the Future of Gender and Sexuality Studies. University of Pennsylvania. September 2010.

Whiteness, Masculinity, and Hyperlinked Scopophilia: SeanCody.com’s Straight Boys Gone Wild.” Association of Internet Researchers Conference. Milwaukee, WI. October 2009.

“‘Is There Anyone Else Like Me???’ The Hapa Project on MySpace: Social Networking and Multiracial Identity.” Mongrel America: American Studies Graduate Student Conference. Austin, TX. October 2008.

“The Queerest of the Queer: YouTube, Chris Crocker, and Discourses of Heteronormativity” Emerging Scholarship in Women’s and Gender Studies Conference, Austin, TX. April 2008.

Conference Roundtables

2010

Roundtable Moderator. “The Pitfalls of Positive Representation II.” Flow Conference 2010, Austin, TX. October 1.

Roundtable Participant. “Media Studies and Asian American Studies: Issues and Intersections.” Association for Asian American Studies Annual Conference, Austin, TX. April 9.

2009

Roundtable Organizer and Moderator. “Hacking the Ivory Tower: The Intersections of New Media, Academic Scholarship, and Pedagogy.” FlowTV.org 5th Anniversary Colloquium, The University of Texas at Austin. October 30.

2008

Roundtable Moderator. “The Long Laugh: Asian American Television and Comedy.” Flow Conference 2008. The University of Texas at Austin. October 10.

Roundtable Moderator. “More Failure” (on failures of gender and race representation in television). Flow Conference 2008. The University of Texas at Austin. October 10.

Academic Service

2012

Elected Officer, Department of Radio-TV-Film Graduate Student Organization, University of Texas at Austin.

2011

Graduate Student Representative. TV Studies Tenure-Track Faculty Search Committee. (Successful hire.) Department of Radio-TV-Film, University of Texas at Austin.

2009

Co-Coordinating Editor. FlowTV.org. (Graduate student online journal, Department of Radio-TV-Film, University of Texas at Austin.)

2008

Senior Editor, Special Features. FlowTV.org

Editorial Shepherd. The Velvet Light Trap. (Graduate student print journal, Department of Radio-TV-Film, University of Texas at Austin.)

Member, Organizing Committee. Flow Conference 2008.

2007

Column Editor. FlowTV.org

Selected Popular Press Publications

“Change in the Lone Star State.” The Advocate. September, 2009.

“Sidestepping the SXSW Scene: Corporate sponsors? Big buzz? These homegrown Texas queers say “No thanks” to the South by Southwest hype machine.” Advocate.com. March 24, 2009.

“Our Own Private Auteur: Vanguard Filmmaker Gus Van Sant Tackles Harvey Milk’s Story.” Interview with filmmaker Gus Van Sant. Frontiers, October 8, 2008.

“(S)he Bop!: An unlikely Texas queer rock fest draws hipster gender-benders of all persuasions.” Advocate.com, April 11, 2008.

“More Human than Truman: Infamous Reassembles the Gay Love Story Between the Lines of In Cold Blood.” The Advocate, October 24, 2006.

“Passion Play: Star Trek’s George Takei Comes Out in an Exclusive Interview.” Frontiers, October 18, 2005.

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