Kishonna Gray facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Kishonna Gray
|
|
|---|---|
Lecturing at the Berkman Klein Center in 2017
|
|
| Born |
United States
|
| Education | Arizona State University School of Social Transformation, PhD |
| Known for | Black experiences online, gaming, intersectional tech, #citeherwork |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Communication Gender Women's studies African American studies |
| Institutions | University of Illinois at Chicago, Arizona State University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, Eastern Kentucky University |
| Thesis | Deviant Bodies Resisting Online: Examining the Intersecting Realities of Women of Color in Xbox Live (2011) |
| Doctoral advisor | Lisa M. Anderson |
Kishonna L. Gray is an American researcher who studies how people communicate and how gender affects our lives. She works at the University of Michigan School of Information. Dr. Gray is famous for her work on technology, video games, race, and gender.
She is an expert in Women's Studies and Communication Studies. She has written many articles for big newspapers like the New York Times. Dr. Gray has also taught at important universities like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She has also been a visiting scholar at Harvard University and Microsoft Research.
Contents
Education and Career
Kishonna L. Gray earned her first degree in Criminal Justice in 2005. She then received her master's degree in Justice Studies in 2007. Both degrees were from Eastern Kentucky University. She later earned her PhD in Justice Studies from Arizona State University in 2011.
After finishing her studies, Dr. Gray began teaching. She joined the faculty at Eastern Kentucky University in 2011. Later, she taught at Arizona State University starting in 2017. In 2018, she took a position at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She also worked at the University of Kentucky.
What Dr. Gray Researches
Dr. Gray is well-known for her work on gender, race, and video games. She is especially known for studying racism in video games. She also looks at how different parts of a person's identity, like race and gender, connect with technology. This idea is called intersectionality.
She has written several books about her research:
- Race, Gender, & Deviance in Xbox Live: Theoretical Perspectives from the Virtual Margins
- Intersectional Tech: Black users in digital gaming
- Black Cyberfeminism or How Intersectionality Went Viral (this book is still being worked on)
In her research, Dr. Gray looks at how white male dominance affects Black identities. She pays close attention to racial issues in online video games. A main part of her work focuses on how Black women, who often face challenges because of their race and gender, experience online spaces.
The #citeherwork Hashtag
Dr. Gray also created the hashtag #citeherwork in 2015. She started this to bring attention to how women's work is often not cited enough in academic papers. This hashtag encourages people to give credit to women's research.
Why Her Work Matters
Dr. Gray's research has been featured many times in the New York Times and other publications. She is a leading researcher in intersectional feminism. This means she studies how different forms of unfairness, like racism and sexism, connect. Her findings help other experts find ways to fix unfairness in video games.
Her work has also influenced online activism. The Encyclopedia of Diversity and Social Justice has mentioned her ideas. It explains how minority groups can sometimes make majority groups feel threatened. A professor named Wendy Belcher even created a test called the "Gray Test" to analyze how people choose their sources, naming it after Kishonna Gray.
Dr. Gray shows how what happens online can connect to real life. She explains how racism and unfairness in gaming can also be seen in the real world.
David G. Schwartz, writing for the American Library Association, said that Dr. Gray's book, Intersectional Tech: Black users in digital gaming, helps us understand unfairness in new technologies. He suggests the book for scholars and game designers. He also believes it can help people who feel left out or treated unfairly. Christopher A. Paul, in Critical Studies in Media Communication, adds that her research helps us understand how the virtual worlds we create in gaming affect our real societies.
Her work also helps guide how video games are designed. For example, she co-wrote an article called "How to Design Games that Promote Racial Equity." This article helps game designers create games that are fair to everyone.
Selected Books and Articles
- Gray, K. L. (2012). "Intersecting oppressions and online communities: Examining the experiences of women of color in Xbox Live". Information, Communication & Society, 15(3), 411-428.
- Gray, K. L. (2012). "Deviant bodies, stigmatized identities, and racist acts: Examining the experiences of African-American gamers in Xbox Live". New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia, 18(4), 261-276.
- Gray, K. L., & Leonard, D. J. (Eds.). (2018). Woke gaming: Digital challenges to oppression and social injustice. University of Washington Press.
- Gray, K. L. (2020). "Black Gamers' Resistance". Race and Media: Critical Approaches, 241.
- Gray, K. L. (2020). Intersectional Tech: Black users in digital gaming. LSU Press.
