Welcome! I'm Natalie Ngai. I am a Visiting Assistant Professor of Communication at Boston College and an incoming Assistant Professor of Media Studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. I hold a Ph.D. in Communication and Media from the University of Michigan and an MPhil in Multi-disciplinary Gender Studies from the University of Cambridge. My research interests broadly include digital studies, critical media studies, affects and emotions, entertainment journalism, and gender, race, and ethnic studies.
My research has won the 2024 Popular Culture Association (PCA) Kathy Merlock Jackson Dissertation Award, 2022 British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies (BAFTSS) Best Essay by a Doctoral Student Award, the 2022 Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS) Fan and Audiences Studies Graduate Student Paper Award (co-authored with my cat Bean), the 2022 Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) Entertainment Studies Interest Group Top Student Paper Award and Anne Cooper-Chen Research Award, Honorable Mention for the 2024 Timothy Shary Award for Best Essay in Children’s and Youth Media Studies at the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS), and the 2022 University of Michigan Department of Communication and Media Graduate Student Diversity Research Award.
Welcome! I'm Natalie Ngai. I am a Visiting Assistant Professor of Communication at Boston College and an incoming Assistant Professor of Media Studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. I hold a Ph.D. in Communication and Media from the University of Michigan and an MPhil in Multi-disciplinary Gender Studies from the University of Cambridge. My research interests broadly include digital studies, critical media studies, affects and emotions, entertainment journalism, and gender, race, and ethnic studies.
My research has won the 2024 Popular Culture Association (PCA) Kathy Merlock Jackson Dissertation Award, 2022 British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies (BAFTSS) Best Essay by a Doctoral Student Award, the 2022 Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS) Fan and Audiences Studies Graduate Student Paper Award (co-authored with my cat Bean), the 2022 Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) Entertainment Studies Interest Group Top Student Paper Award and Anne Cooper-Chen Research Award, Honorable Mention for the 2024 Timothy Shary Award for Best Essay in Children’s and Youth Media Studies at the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS), and the 2022 University of Michigan Department of Communication and Media Graduate Student Diversity Research Award.
I am working on a book manuscript that argues cuteness in the media carries long-neglected yet enormous economic value and symbolic power during global financial crises and economic recessions. I have published original research in the anthology Media Works, Mother and Motherhood and several academic journals, including Media, Culture & Society, Feminist Media Studies, Celebrity Studies, and International Journal of Communication. If you are interested in learning about my work and/or me, feel free to follow me on Twitter @nataliengai6 or get in touch at natalie.ngai@bc.edu.
I am working on a book manuscript that argues cuteness in the media carries long-neglected yet enormous economic value and symbolic power during global financial crises and economic recessions. I have published original research in the anthology Media Works, Mother and Motherhood and several academic journals, including Media, Culture & Society, Feminist Media Studies, Celebrity Studies, and International Journal of Communication. If you are interested in learning about my work and/or me, feel free to follow me on Twitter @nataliengai6 or get in touch at natalie.ngai@bc.edu.