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Av-Culturation

From the exotic to the mundane, Metanomics explores avatar culture. Anthropologists Tom Boellstorff and Celia Pearce are developing new methods and theories about human relationships in virtual worlds. Learn how the traditional practice of ethnography is being adapted to the study of online immersive environments and how virtual worlds shape identities, economies, communities and societies.

Guest Biographies

Tom Boellstorff

Tom Boellstorff is Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Irvine, and Editor-in-Chief of American Anthropologist, the flagship journal of the American Anthropological Association. He received his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 2000. His research projects have focused on questions of sexuality, globalization, nationalism, HIV/AIDS, and cybersociality.

Celia Pearce

Since 1983, Celia Pearce has worked as an interactive media and game designer, artist, researcher and teacher. She is the author of The Interactive Book: A Guide to the Interactive Revolution (Macmillan, 1997). She was instrumental in forming the Interactive Media program in the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts, as well as game studies initiatives at the University of California, Irvine. She is a co-founder of the Ludica women’s game collective. She currently holds an appointment of Assistant Professor in the School of Literature, Communication & Culture, at the Georgia Institute of Technology where she directs the Emergent Game Group in the Experimental Game Lab.