Lori Lopez

Lori Kido Lopez
Born	Lori Kido Lopez
Nationality	American
Occupation	Academic, author, media scholar
Title	Associate Dean for the Social Sciences, College of Letters & Science; Professor of Communication Arts; Director, Asian American Studies Program
Employer	University of Wisconsin–Madison
Known for	Research on Asian American media representation; Asian American Media Activism: Fighting for Cultural Citizenship

Lori Kido Lopez is an American media scholar, author, and professor of Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she also serves as the director of the Asian American Studies Program and, since 2024, as Associate Dean for the Social Sciences in the College of Letters & Science. Her research focuses on the representation of Asian Americans in contemporary media and the ways in which racial minority communities use media platforms and activism to pursue social justice and cultural citizenship. Lopez is the author of Asian American Media Activism: Fighting for Cultural Citizenship, published in 2016 by New York University Press, and a co-editor of The Routledge Companion to Asian American Media. Through her scholarly publications, teaching, and institutional leadership, Lopez has contributed to the academic study of race, media, and cultural politics in the United States, with particular attention to the intersections of media production, audience engagement, and community organizing within Asian American and other marginalized communities.

Career

Academic Appointment at the University of Wisconsin–Madison

Lori Kido Lopez joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin–Madison as a professor in the Department of Communication Arts, where her work is situated within the field of Media and Cultural Studies. In addition to her primary appointment, she holds an affiliate faculty position in the Department of Women's Studies and serves as director of the Asian American Studies Program at the university. Her teaching and research at Wisconsin–Madison have centered on the relationship between media, race, and social justice, with a particular emphasis on how Asian American communities engage with and challenge mainstream media narratives.

In July 2024, Lopez was named Associate Dean for the Social Sciences in the College of Letters & Science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. This administrative appointment expanded her leadership role within the institution, placing her in a position to oversee and support the social science disciplines across the college. At the time of her appointment, she was already recognized within the university for her contributions as a professor of communication arts and as director of the Asian American Studies program.

Lopez has also been involved in organizing academic events and conferences related to race and media studies. She was associated with a 2014 conference on race and media held at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, reflecting her ongoing commitment to fostering scholarly dialogue on issues of racial representation in media.

Additionally, Lopez has been listed among the researchers affiliated with the Hmong Studies program at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, indicating that her scholarly interests extend to the study of specific Asian American ethnic communities and their media practices.

Research Focus

Lopez's research is centered on the ways in which Asian Americans and other racial minorities engage with media as a tool for social change, cultural representation, and political participation. Her work examines the intersection of media activism, cultural citizenship, and racial identity, exploring how communities that have been historically marginalized within mainstream American media use alternative media production, audience advocacy, and organized campaigns to challenge stereotypical portrayals and demand greater inclusion.

A significant strand of her research considers the role of media advocacy organizations in shaping public discourse about race and representation. This includes the work of groups such as the Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA), which has historically monitored and responded to depictions of Asian Americans in film, television, and other media. Lopez's scholarship analyzes how such organizations operate, the strategies they employ, and the effects their activism has had on the media landscape.

Her research also extends to considerations of gender and intersectionality within media activism, consistent with her affiliate faculty role in the Department of Women's Studies. She has examined how gender, race, and class intersect in the media experiences of Asian American women and other multiply marginalized groups. Her affiliation with community organizations such as Freedom Inc., a Madison-based organization working at the intersection of racial justice and gender-based violence, reflects the applied and community-engaged dimensions of her scholarship.

Publications

Asian American Media Activism: Fighting for Cultural Citizenship

Lopez's most prominent publication is Asian American Media Activism: Fighting for Cultural Citizenship, published in 2016 by New York University Press. The book examines the history and contemporary practice of Asian American media activism, tracing how Asian American communities have organized to challenge racist and stereotypical portrayals in mainstream American media. Central to the book's argument is the concept of "cultural citizenship"—the idea that meaningful participation in a society's cultural life, including media representation, is an essential component of belonging and full civic membership. Lopez analyzes a range of activist strategies, from letter-writing campaigns and boycotts to the creation of independent media, situating these efforts within broader social movements for racial justice.

The book draws on case studies of specific campaigns and organizations, offering detailed accounts of how Asian American media activists have responded to particular instances of offensive or reductive media content. Lopez also considers the role of digital media and online platforms in facilitating new forms of media activism, noting how social media has enabled more rapid mobilization and broadened participation in advocacy efforts.

The Routledge Companion to Asian American Media

Lopez is a co-editor of The Routledge Companion to Asian American Media, published by Routledge. This edited volume brings together contributions from scholars working across a range of disciplines to provide a comprehensive overview of Asian American media studies. The collection addresses topics including film, television, digital media, music, and journalism, with attention to both historical and contemporary developments. By assembling diverse scholarly perspectives, the volume serves as a reference work for researchers, students, and educators in the field of Asian American media studies.

Scholarly Articles

Lopez has published peer-reviewed articles in a number of academic journals. Her work has appeared in the Journal of Asian American Studies, the International Journal of Communication, Communication and the Public, and the Cinema Journal (now JCMS: Journal of Cinema and Media Studies). She has also published in Asian Diasporic Visual Cultures and the Americas. Additional scholarly work has been published through Project MUSE.

These publications collectively address themes including Asian American media representation, the politics of racial imagery in popular culture, the dynamics of online activism, the role of community media in immigrant communities, and the relationship between media consumption and civic engagement among racial minority groups.

Recognition

Early Career Achievement Award

In 2017, Lopez received an Early Career Achievement Award, recognizing her contributions to the field of communication arts and media studies at a relatively early stage of her academic career. The award acknowledged the significance of her research on Asian American media activism and representation, as well as her contributions to teaching and institutional service at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Appointment as Associate Dean

Lopez's appointment in 2024 as Associate Dean for the Social Sciences in the College of Letters & Science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison represented a significant recognition of her institutional leadership and scholarly standing. The role placed her among the senior academic administrators within one of the largest colleges at the university, reflecting the esteem in which her work and leadership are held by her colleagues and the university administration.

Authority Records and Bibliographic Recognition

Lopez's work has been cataloged in several international bibliographic authority files, including the Virtual International Authority File (VIAF), the German National Library (DNB), the French bibliographic reference system IdRef, and the Japanese National Institute of Informatics (CiNii). These records indicate that her publications have been acquired and cataloged by major research libraries internationally, reflecting the global reach of her scholarship in the fields of media studies and Asian American studies.

Legacy

Lori Kido Lopez's scholarly work has contributed to the development of Asian American media studies as an academic field, providing frameworks for understanding how racial minority communities engage with mainstream media and use media activism as a vehicle for social change. Her book Asian American Media Activism: Fighting for Cultural Citizenship offered one of the first comprehensive academic treatments of the organized efforts by Asian American communities to challenge media stereotypes and advocate for more accurate and diverse representation. By introducing the concept of cultural citizenship into the analysis of media activism, Lopez provided a theoretical lens that connects struggles over representation to broader questions of belonging, inclusion, and democratic participation.

As director of the Asian American Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Lopez has played an institutional role in supporting the growth of Asian American studies as a field of teaching and research. Her appointment as Associate Dean for the Social Sciences further extended her influence over the direction of social science research and education at the university.

Through her co-editorship of The Routledge Companion to Asian American Media, Lopez has helped to consolidate and define the field of Asian American media studies, bringing together diverse scholarly perspectives into a single reference volume that serves as a resource for researchers and educators. Her peer-reviewed publications across multiple journals have addressed a range of topics within the broader field of race and media studies, contributing to ongoing scholarly conversations about representation, activism, and cultural production.

Lopez's work also reflects a commitment to community-engaged scholarship, as evidenced by her connections with organizations such as the Media Action Network for Asian Americans and Freedom Inc. This orientation toward combining academic research with practical advocacy and community work places her within a tradition of scholar-activists who seek to use their research to inform and support social justice movements.