Thomas Looser

Associate Professor

Tom Looser (B.A. in Anthropology, U.C.S.C.; M.A. and PhD in Anthropology, University of Chicago) is Associate Professor of East Asian Studies at NYU. His areas of research include Cultural Anthropology and Japanese studies; art, architecture and urban form; new media studies and animation; and critical theory. A senior editor for the journal Mechademia, an editor for Digital Asia, and on the editorial advisory board of ADVA, he is the author of Visioning Eternity: Aesthetics, Politics, and History in the Early Modern Noh Theater, and has published articles in a variety of venues including Boundary 2, Japan Forum, Mechademia, Shingenjitsu, Journal of Pacific Asia, and Cultural Anthropology.

Areas of Research/Interest

Cultural Anthropology
Japanese Studies
Critial Theory
New Media and Animation
Art, Architecture and Urban Form

Education

Ph.D. 1999, Anthropology, University of Chicago

Books

Selected Articles

  • “Superflat Worlds.”
    2017 (forthcoming)
    Chapter in volume titled Introduction to Japanese Popular Culture, Routledge.
  • “Private Cities.”
    2017 (forthcoming)
    Chapter in volume on Anthropology of the City, Seth Low ed., Routledge
  • Introduction and “Real Imaginary Diasporas.”
    Vol. 1 No. 3, March, 2017
    In Asian Diasporic Visual Cultures Journal, Special Issue on Islands and Islanding; Issue co-editor
  • “Media, Mediation and Crisis: the Case for Media Studies as (Post-Cultural) Anthropology”
    Duke U. Press. 2017
    Book chapter (History of Japanese Media Studies)