Summary:
I am Professor and Chair of Critical Studies at California College of the Arts. I study how people use media to express technical identities, share aspects of the self, and accomplish civic engagement.
I was a CASTAC Co-Chair (2020-2022) and I co-founded and served as the inaugural Editor (2012-2014) of Platypus: The CASTAC Blog, which is the official blog of the Committee for the Anthropology of Science, Technology, and Computing, a division of the American Anthropological Association.
Contact Information:
Email: plange@cca.edu
Twitter / X:
@pglange
Mailing Address:
California College of the Arts
1111 Eighth Street
San Francisco, CA 94107-2247
Thanks for Watching Receives Award!
Thanks for Watching wins the
Franklyn S. Haiman Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Freedom of Expression.
Find Introduction, Chapter Summaries, and a Study Guide here!
New Edited Volume! See the Summary Description on the CaMP Blog Post!
Find updates and reviews
for Kids on YouTube
on the Facebook Page!
Research Interests:
Anthropological, visual, and linguistic studies of digital media; technical identity; digital literacies; online interaction; civic engagement through video.
Current Research Project:
Latinas Working in Science and Technology
Past Research Projects:
Video Rants as Civic Engagement
YouTube
Video Bloggers
Digital Youth and Informal Learning
Online Text Gaming (MUDs, MUSHes)
Computer Use in Celebration, Florida
Virtual Reality Equipment Study at CyberMind Entertainment Facility (San Francisco)
Blog (Co-Founder)
Platypus: The CASTAC Blog (Science & Technology Studies)
Video Blogs:
AnthroVlog
AnthroVlog on YouTube
Education
Ph.D. Anthropology
M.A. Anthropology
University of Michigan
A.M. International Policy Studies
A.B. History
Stanford University
I am Professor and Chair of Critical Studies at California College of the Arts. I study how people use media to express technical identities, share aspects of the self, and accomplish civic engagement.
I was a CASTAC Co-Chair (2020-2022) and I co-founded and served as the inaugural Editor (2012-2014) of Platypus: The CASTAC Blog, which is the official blog of the Committee for the Anthropology of Science, Technology, and Computing, a division of the American Anthropological Association.
Contact Information:
Email: plange@cca.edu
Twitter / X:
@pglange
Mailing Address:
California College of the Arts
1111 Eighth Street
San Francisco, CA 94107-2247
Thanks for Watching Receives Award!
Thanks for Watching wins the
Franklyn S. Haiman Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Freedom of Expression.
Find Introduction, Chapter Summaries, and a Study Guide here!
New Edited Volume! See the Summary Description on the CaMP Blog Post!
Find updates and reviews
for Kids on YouTube
on the Facebook Page!
Research Interests:
Anthropological, visual, and linguistic studies of digital media; technical identity; digital literacies; online interaction; civic engagement through video.
Current Research Project:
Latinas Working in Science and Technology
Past Research Projects:
Video Rants as Civic Engagement
YouTube
Video Bloggers
Digital Youth and Informal Learning
Online Text Gaming (MUDs, MUSHes)
Computer Use in Celebration, Florida
Virtual Reality Equipment Study at CyberMind Entertainment Facility (San Francisco)
Blog (Co-Founder)
Platypus: The CASTAC Blog (Science & Technology Studies)
Video Blogs:
AnthroVlog
AnthroVlog on YouTube
Education
Ph.D. Anthropology
M.A. Anthropology
University of Michigan
A.M. International Policy Studies
A.B. History
Stanford University
Latinas and Allies Working in Science and Technology
My project explores the dynamics of working in technological fields among Latinas (and Latine/Latinx groups). The project centers around two main themes: work contributions and relationship to one's ethnic and gender identity. The project wishes to understand opportunities and challenges that Latinas have had in conducting work in these fields.
If obstacles have been encountered, what types of challenges were faced, and to what extent did they result from or interact with Latina (or Latine/Latinx) identities? How have people overcome these challenges? What are the techniques and strategies that they used?
If they have not faced challenges, what conditions created opportunities or facilitated contributions to science and technology fields and knowledge production? How have participants been recognized as Latinas (or Latine/Latinx), and how have their perspectives been acknowledged as important contributions?
If you are interested in being interviewed for the project, drop me a line! Or if you know someone working in science and technology fields who would be great to talk to, let me know!
Patricia Gonzalez Lange
If obstacles have been encountered, what types of challenges were faced, and to what extent did they result from or interact with Latina (or Latine/Latinx) identities? How have people overcome these challenges? What are the techniques and strategies that they used?
If they have not faced challenges, what conditions created opportunities or facilitated contributions to science and technology fields and knowledge production? How have participants been recognized as Latinas (or Latine/Latinx), and how have their perspectives been acknowledged as important contributions?
If you are interested in being interviewed for the project, drop me a line! Or if you know someone working in science and technology fields who would be great to talk to, let me know!
Patricia Gonzalez Lange
News and Upcoming Events
Thanks for Watching has received the Franklyn S. Haiman Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Freedom of Expression! The award is bestowed by the National Communication Association. For more information check out the official announcement. It may be ordered from Amazon.com. The book's introduction, a list of chapter summaries, a study guide, and a pdf version of the book are also located on the University Press of Colorado's website.
November 2022
The panel I organized, "Infrastructures as Social Landscapes: Shaping Interactivity and Worldviews in Digital Environments" was presented at the annual American Anthropological Association meeting, on Thursday, November 10 at 2:00 pm. I also presented my paper, "Media Migration and its Limits: Lessons from the Emergence of the Pseudo Umwelt."
June 2020
I am very happy to announce the worldwide release of my film Hey Watch This! Sharing the Self Through Media. Emerging from a case study of early YouTubers, the film broadly engages with enduring and philosophical questions about what it means to express one’s personality and engage in sociality through our ever expanding mediascape. For more information see the film’s website.
February 21, 2020 - Blog Posts and Podcasts on my book Thanks for Watching!
At the LASER series, I presented at talk at the University of San Francisco. My talks is entitled “Is Ranting Ever a Good Idea?” See this link for a video of my talk.
May 23, 2015
I will be presenting my paper, "Video Rants: Anatomy of a Genre," at the International Communication Association Conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
October 22, 2014 - New Paper!
“Commenting on YouTube Rants: Perceptions of Inappropriateness or Civic Engagement?” Journal of Pragmatics, 73: 53-65. The article is part of a special issue on The Pragmatics of Textual Participation in Social Media.
March 17, 2014
Henry Jenkins has published an interview with me on his blog. I discuss my new book, Kids on YouTube: Technical Identities and Digital Literacies. For more information see:
Part I: Categorizing digital media
Part II: Exploring what kids learn
Part III: Discussing risk and self-promotion
Part IV: Analyzing being self taught
May 14-June 8, 2012
My paper was selected for the Virtual Conference at the International Communication Association meeting. Can't come to Phoenix? Check out the online conference papers, including mine entitled, "Rhetoricizing Visual Literacies." This paper received a "Top 6 Paper" award from the Language and Social Interaction Division of ICA.
November 2022
The panel I organized, "Infrastructures as Social Landscapes: Shaping Interactivity and Worldviews in Digital Environments" was presented at the annual American Anthropological Association meeting, on Thursday, November 10 at 2:00 pm. I also presented my paper, "Media Migration and its Limits: Lessons from the Emergence of the Pseudo Umwelt."
June 2020
I am very happy to announce the worldwide release of my film Hey Watch This! Sharing the Self Through Media. Emerging from a case study of early YouTubers, the film broadly engages with enduring and philosophical questions about what it means to express one’s personality and engage in sociality through our ever expanding mediascape. For more information see the film’s website.
February 21, 2020 - Blog Posts and Podcasts on my book Thanks for Watching!
- Listen in on the podcast in which Howard Rheingold and Patricia G. Lange discuss prospects for online community with Henry Jenkins and Colin Maclay.
- We are now in a “third wave” of internet access discourse. Beyond physical access and equitable production of content, we need to focus on platforms. See my blog post on Media@LSE.
- Why do YouTubers avoid negative reciprocities? The second of my two blog posts on Material World provides an analysis.
- Is reciprocity disappearing online? The first of my two blog posts on Material World has the answer.
- Check out my new EPIC blog post on how to rethink design of systems for socially driven video sharing!
- Fun Halloween post on Posthumanity on YouTube. It is posted on the science and technology studies site called The Platypus Blog.
At the LASER series, I presented at talk at the University of San Francisco. My talks is entitled “Is Ranting Ever a Good Idea?” See this link for a video of my talk.
May 23, 2015
I will be presenting my paper, "Video Rants: Anatomy of a Genre," at the International Communication Association Conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
October 22, 2014 - New Paper!
“Commenting on YouTube Rants: Perceptions of Inappropriateness or Civic Engagement?” Journal of Pragmatics, 73: 53-65. The article is part of a special issue on The Pragmatics of Textual Participation in Social Media.
March 17, 2014
Henry Jenkins has published an interview with me on his blog. I discuss my new book, Kids on YouTube: Technical Identities and Digital Literacies. For more information see:
Part I: Categorizing digital media
Part II: Exploring what kids learn
Part III: Discussing risk and self-promotion
Part IV: Analyzing being self taught
May 14-June 8, 2012
My paper was selected for the Virtual Conference at the International Communication Association meeting. Can't come to Phoenix? Check out the online conference papers, including mine entitled, "Rhetoricizing Visual Literacies." This paper received a "Top 6 Paper" award from the Language and Social Interaction Division of ICA.
Recent Publications (Selected)
For full list of books and articles see the Publications tab
Books
Thanks for Watching: An Anthropological Study of Video Sharing on YouTube. Louisville, CO: University Press of Colorado, 2019.
Kids on YouTube: Technical Identities and Digital Literacies. Walnut Creek, CA: Routledge, 2014.
Hanging Out, Messing Around, Geeking Out: Kids Living and Learning with New Media. Mizuko Ito, Sonja Baumer, Matteo Bittanti, danah boyd, Rachel Cody, Becky Herr-Stephenson, Heather A. Horst, Patricia G. Lange, Dilan Mahendran, Katynka Martinez, C.J. Pascoe, Dan Perkel, Laura Robinson, Christo Sims, and Lisa Tripp. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2010.
Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project Mizuko Ito, Heather Horst, Matteo Bittanti, danah boyd, Becky Herr-Stephenson, Patricia G. Lange, C.J. Pascoe, and Laura Robinson. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2009.
Documentary
Hey Watch This! Sharing the Self Through Media (2020) Available on Vimeo.
Thanks for Watching Reviews
Daniel Miller, American Ethnologist 51(2), May 2024.
A.C. Rosati, Choice 57(9), May 2020.
Kids on YouTube Reviews
Kenzell Huggins, Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 30(3): 448-450, December 2020.
Jihyun Kim, New Media & Society 17(11): 1913-1915, December 2015.
Brent Luvaas, American Ethnologist 42(4): 792-793, November 2015.
Carolyn M. Cunningham, Biography 38(3): 457-460, Summer, 2015.
Nita Kligler-Vilenchik, International Journal of Communication 9: 2926-2929, 2015.
Emily B. Zimmerman, Teaching Sociology 43(3): 250-252, May 2015.
Articles and Book Chapters (Selected)
“Conceptualizing Communities of Truth on YouTube,” Explorations in Media Ecology, 20(21): 33-54. DOI: 10.1386/eme_00071_1, 2021.
"Media Migration," in The Routledge Companion to Media Anthropology, Elisabetta Costa, Patricia G. Lange, Nell Haynes, and Jolynna Sinanan, Eds., Pp. 89-102, 2022.
"Typing Your Way to Technical Identity: Interpreting Participatory Ideologies Online,” Pragmatics, 25(4): 553-572, 2015.
"Vlogging Toward Digital Literacy," Biography 38(2): 297-302, 2015.
"Commenting on YouTube Rants: Perceptions of Inappropriateness or Civic Engagement?” Journal of Pragmatics, 73: 53-65, 2014. The article is part of a special issue on The Pragmatics of Textual Participation in Social Media.
“Achieving Creative Integrity on YouTube: Reciprocities and Tensions," Enculturation 8, September 2010.
“Creative Production,” Lange, Patricia G. and Mizuko Ito, in Hanging Out, Messing Around, Geeking Out: Living and Learning with New Media (Ito et al.). Cambridge: MIT Press, 2010.
“Videos of Affinity on YouTube,” in The YouTube Reader, Patrick Vonderau and Pelle Snickars, Eds. Pp. 228-247. Swedish National Library Press, Distributed by Wallflower Press, 2009.
“Publicly Private and Privately Public: Social Networking on YouTube,” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1), 2007.
Books
Thanks for Watching: An Anthropological Study of Video Sharing on YouTube. Louisville, CO: University Press of Colorado, 2019.
Kids on YouTube: Technical Identities and Digital Literacies. Walnut Creek, CA: Routledge, 2014.
Hanging Out, Messing Around, Geeking Out: Kids Living and Learning with New Media. Mizuko Ito, Sonja Baumer, Matteo Bittanti, danah boyd, Rachel Cody, Becky Herr-Stephenson, Heather A. Horst, Patricia G. Lange, Dilan Mahendran, Katynka Martinez, C.J. Pascoe, Dan Perkel, Laura Robinson, Christo Sims, and Lisa Tripp. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2010.
Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project Mizuko Ito, Heather Horst, Matteo Bittanti, danah boyd, Becky Herr-Stephenson, Patricia G. Lange, C.J. Pascoe, and Laura Robinson. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2009.
Documentary
Hey Watch This! Sharing the Self Through Media (2020) Available on Vimeo.
Thanks for Watching Reviews
Daniel Miller, American Ethnologist 51(2), May 2024.
A.C. Rosati, Choice 57(9), May 2020.
Kids on YouTube Reviews
Kenzell Huggins, Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 30(3): 448-450, December 2020.
Jihyun Kim, New Media & Society 17(11): 1913-1915, December 2015.
Brent Luvaas, American Ethnologist 42(4): 792-793, November 2015.
Carolyn M. Cunningham, Biography 38(3): 457-460, Summer, 2015.
Nita Kligler-Vilenchik, International Journal of Communication 9: 2926-2929, 2015.
Emily B. Zimmerman, Teaching Sociology 43(3): 250-252, May 2015.
Articles and Book Chapters (Selected)
“Conceptualizing Communities of Truth on YouTube,” Explorations in Media Ecology, 20(21): 33-54. DOI: 10.1386/eme_00071_1, 2021.
"Media Migration," in The Routledge Companion to Media Anthropology, Elisabetta Costa, Patricia G. Lange, Nell Haynes, and Jolynna Sinanan, Eds., Pp. 89-102, 2022.
"Typing Your Way to Technical Identity: Interpreting Participatory Ideologies Online,” Pragmatics, 25(4): 553-572, 2015.
"Vlogging Toward Digital Literacy," Biography 38(2): 297-302, 2015.
"Commenting on YouTube Rants: Perceptions of Inappropriateness or Civic Engagement?” Journal of Pragmatics, 73: 53-65, 2014. The article is part of a special issue on The Pragmatics of Textual Participation in Social Media.
“Achieving Creative Integrity on YouTube: Reciprocities and Tensions," Enculturation 8, September 2010.
“Creative Production,” Lange, Patricia G. and Mizuko Ito, in Hanging Out, Messing Around, Geeking Out: Living and Learning with New Media (Ito et al.). Cambridge: MIT Press, 2010.
“Videos of Affinity on YouTube,” in The YouTube Reader, Patrick Vonderau and Pelle Snickars, Eds. Pp. 228-247. Swedish National Library Press, Distributed by Wallflower Press, 2009.
“Publicly Private and Privately Public: Social Networking on YouTube,” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1), 2007.