about vivian I am a doctoral student in the Department of Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin, joining the department in fall 2010. My research explores the transnational politics of memory and other forms of affect in connection with race and gender, often including a look at popular culture. I am interested in ethnography and other qualitative methodologies, content and discourse analysis, and historical methodologies. My work is also influenced by feminist theory, critical race theory, colonial and diaspora studies, literary theory, and Marxist theory.

Current projects: This summer, I conducted fieldwork in Japan examining the politics of spatial representation in Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Tokyo. Another project locates the public apology as a media discourse surveilling public conversations of race, history, and reparative justice. This fall, I began working with the Connected Learning Research Network, an ethnographic study of Austin youth and their participation in digital, social, and mobile media environments, funded by the MacArthur Foundation.

Prior to UT, I earned my bachelor of arts in literary theory and gender studies at New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study (2006) and later completed a graduate certificate program at their Center for Global Affairs (2010). From 2008-2010, I worked for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in maternal-child health programming and research. My background also includes experience in advertising and web design. In 2009, I launched a grassroots fundraising project, Book Drive Social, benefitting low-income, public schools in Brooklyn.

Email me: vivian.shaw AT gmail    >>Download my curriculum vitae.
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