faculty

Akira Lippit

Professor of Comparative Literature, East Asian Languages and Cultures and Cinema Television

Contact Information
E-mail: lippit@usc.edu
Phone: (213) 740-8508
Office: THH 376

LINKS
Curriculum Vitae
Course Information
Atomic Light (Shadow Optics)
Electric Animal: Toward a Rhetoric of Wildlife
 

Education

  • B.A. English and Film Studies, Univeristy of California, Berkeley, 1986
  • M.A. English, University of California, Berkeley, 1987
  • Ph.D. Humanities Center, Johns Hopkins University, 1993

Academic Appointment, Affiliation, and Employment History

Tenure Track Appointments
  • Professor, Department of Comparative Literature and East Asian Languages and Cultures, and Division of Critical Studies, School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California, 07/15/2005-  
  • Professor and Chair, Department of Film and Media Studies, University of California, Irvine, 09/01/2004-05/31/2005  
  • Associate Professor, Department of Film and Media Studies, University of California, Irvine, 09/01/2000-08/31/2004  
  • Associate Professor, Department of Cinema, San Francisco State University, 09/01/1999-08/31/2000  
  • Assistant Professor, Department of Cinema, San Francisco State University, 09/01/1995-08/31/1999  
  • Assistant Professor, Program in Film Studies, Department of English, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, 09/01/1993-08/31/1995  
Non-Tenure Track Appointments
  • Acting Director, Critical Theory Institute, University of California, Irvine, 2004-2005   
Visiting and Temporary Appointments
  • Visiting Researcher, Department of Representation and Culture, University of Tokyo, 2007-2008   

Description of Research

Summary Statement of Research Interests

Akira Mizuta Lippit's teaching and research focus on four primary areas: the history and theory of cinema, world literature and critical theory, Japanese film and culture, and visual cultural studies. Lippit's published work reflects these areas and includes two books, Atomic Light (Shadow Optics) (2005) and Electric Animal: Toward a Rhetoric of Wildlife (2000). In addition to his two completed books, Lippit is presently finishing a book-length study on contemporary experimental film and video, and has begun research for a book on contemporary Japanese cinema, which looks at the relationship of late-twentieth and early twenty-first century Japanese culture to the concept of the world.

Research Specialties
History and theory of cinema, Japanese film and culture, experimental film and video, critical and literary theory, visual culture

Funded Research

Contracts and Grants Awarded
  • At The Center Of The Outside: Contemporary Japanese Cinema In The World (Department of Education), Speer, Kathleen, Lippit, Akira Mizuta, $88,560, 06/01/2007-11/01/2008  
  • At The Center Of The Outside: Contemporary Japanese Cinema In The World (Award declined) (The Japan Foundation), Akira Mizuta Lippit, $65,000, 2006-2007   
  • The Atomic Phenomenon in Postwar Japanese Cinema, 1945-1995 (The Japan Foundation), Akira Mizuta Lippit, $65,000, 1997-1998   

Affiliations with Research Centers, Labs, and Other Institutions

  • Department of Literature and Theater, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan, Visiting Researcher, 1997-08
  • The Department of Culture and Representation, The University of Tokyo, Komaba, Japan, Visiting Researcher, 2007-08

Conferences and Other Presentations

Conference Presentations
  • "At the Center of the Outside: Japanese Cinema Nowhere", Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Talk/Oral Presentation, Refereed , Chicago, IL, Society for Cinema and Media Studies, 2006-2007   
  • "Introduction and discussion of Kore-eda Hirokazu’s Nobody Knows (2004)", NA, Introduction and discussion , , Los Angeles, CA, Directors Guild of America, Invited, 2006-2007   
Other Presentations
  • ""Spectral Life: Derrida, Autobiography, Experimental Film"", Invited lecture, The Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, 2008-2009   
  • ""The Parable of Animals: Animated Language" ", Invited seminar, The Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, 2008-2009   
  • ""The Image of Japan: Cinema and Identification in a Time War"", Invited lecture, Department of English, Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea, 2007-2008   
  • ""The Parable of Animals: Animated Language"", Invited lecture, The Institute of Media Arts, Yonsei University , Seoul, South Korea, 2007-2008   
  • "Becoming-Japanese, Becoming-Imperceptible: Cinema and Identification in a Time of War", Invited lecture, Department of Modern Culture and Media, Brown University, Providence, RI, 2007-2008   
  • "In Japanese: "David Lynch, eigaron, han-seishinbunseki ("David Lynch, film theory, anti-psychoanalysis")", Invited lecture, College of Image Arts and Sciences, Ristumeikan, Kyoto, Japan, 2007-2008   
  • "In Japanese: "Gaikoku kara mita nihoneiga" (Japanese cinema seen from abroad)", Invited lecture, Josai International University, Tokyo, Japan, 2007-2008   
  • "In Japanese: Roundtable on D’ailleurs, Derrida and Tourner les mots,", Invited roundtable presentation, L’Institut franco-japonais de Tokyo et Yokohama, Tokyo, Japan, 2007-2008   
  • "In Japanese: Symposium, "Kyôchô suru humanity, yudô suru hyôshô" (An expanding humanity, swaying representation)", Invited symposium presentation, Department of Culture and Representation, Tokyo University, Komaba, Tokyo, Japan, 2007-2008   
  • "The Other Materialities of Film, with Tom Cohen", Public seminar, University of Tokyo Center for Philosophy, Tokyo, Japan, 2007-2008   
  • "At the Center of the Outside: Japanese Cinema Nowhere", Invited lecture, Mama: Multimedia Institute, Zagreb, Croatia, 2006-2007   
  • "At the Center of the Outside: Japanese Cinema Nowhere", Invited lecture, Pasadena Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA, 2006-2007   
  • "Spectral Life and the Image of Biography", Invited lecture, "‘Who?’ or ‘What’—Jacques Derrida" , University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 2006-2007   
  • "The Extraordinary Cinema of Matthias Müller", Invited lecture, "Matthias Müller: Multimedia Poet" , Boston University, Boston, MA, 2006-2007   
  • "The Parable of Animals: Animated Language", Keynote lecture, "Tiere im Film - eine Menschheitsgeschichte" (Animals in Film: A History of Humankind), The University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany, 2006-2007   
  • "The Returns of Hiroshima: Between Languages, Literatures, and Incommensurate Phenomena", Invited lecture, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 2006-2007   
  • "The World Archive and Universal Research", Invited lecture, "What Is Research in the Visual Arts?: Obsession, Archive, Encounter", The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA, 2006-2007   
  • "Universality and Ultra-Universality in Forty Years of Ultraman", Invited presentation, "Fortieth Anniversary of the Ultraman Series" , The University of Tokyo, Komaba and The University of Southern California, Tokyo, Japan and Los Angeles, CA, 2006-2007   

Publications

Book
  • Lippit, A. M. (2005). Atomic Light (Shadow Optics). Minneapolis, MN: Atomic Light (Shadow Optics)/University of Minnesota Press.
  • Lippit, A. M. (2000). Electric Animal: Toward a Rhetoric of Wildlife. Minneapolis, MN: Electric Animal: Toward a Rhetoric of Wildlife/University of Minnesota Press.
Book Chapter
  • Lippit, A. M. (2008). "Digesture: Gesture and Inscription in Experimental Cinema," in Migrations of Gesture. pp. 113-131. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
  • Lippit, A. M. (2008). "The World Archive and Universal Research," in What Is Research in the Visual Arts? Obsession, Archive, Encounter. pp. 183-95. Williamstown, Massachusetts: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute.
  • Lippit, A. M. (2008). In German translation: "Der Tod eines Tieres," in Ich das Tier: Tiere als Persönlichkeiten in der Kulturgeschichte. pp. 47-64. Berlin: Reimer.
  • Lippit, A. M. (2007). "Ultra-Universality". pp. 55-63. Berlin: Glamour.
  • Lippit, A. M. (2007). "The Only Other Apparatus of Film (A Few Fantasies About Différance, Démontage, and Revision in Experimental Film and Video)," in Derrida, Deleuze, Psychoanalysis. pp. 171-91. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.
  • Lippit, A. M. (2007). In Croatian translation: "U središtu izvanjskog: japanska kinematografija nigdge" (In the Center of the Outside: Japanese Cinema Nowhere), in Vizualni Kolegij: Zbornik/Reader. pp. 184-207. Zagreb: Multimedijalni institute.
  • Lippit, A. M. (2006). "One Two Three: The Psychic Economy of Multiplicity," in Accelerating Possession: Global Futures of Property and Personhood. pp. 174-188. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.
Journal Article
  • Lippit, A. M. (2008). In Japanese, Roundtable: "Posutohumanizumu no yohaku ni: ridandanshî, habitosu, gûhatsusei" (On the Margins of Posthumanism: Redundancy, Habitus, Contingency). Hyosho: Journal of the Association for Studies of Culture and Representation. (2), pp. 53-79.
  • Lippit, A. M. (2008). "At the Center of the Outside: Japanese Cinema Nowhere". Situations. Vol. 2 (Fall 2008), pp. 1-19.
  • Lippit, A. M. (2008). "Aftereffects of the End of World ("I Love NY")". Differences. Vol. 19 (2), pp. 127-45.
  • Lippit, A. M. (2007). In Japanese: "Heisoku suru jinbungaku wo koete—ima geijitsu wo tou" (Overcoming an obstructive humanities—questioning art now). Hyosho/University of Tokyo. Vol. 1 (2007), pp. 34-69.
  • Lippit, A. M. (2005). "Oectopus". Octopus. Vol. One, pp. 9-13.
  • Lippit, A. M. (2005). "The Derrida that I Love". Grey Room. Vol. 20, pp. 84-9.

Service to the Profession

Conferences Organized
  • Programming Chair, Society for Cinema and Media Studies Annual Meeting, Tokyo, Japan, Organizing planning, host, and programming committees; interacting with host site; establishing hotel and travel protocols, and working with Japanese travel companies; contacting Japanese scholars and filmmakers to solicit participation., 2007-2008   
Editorships and Editorial Boards
  • Co-editor, with James Leo Cahill, Discourse (28.2 & 3), "Transvauation", 2008-2009   
  • Co-editor, with James Leo Cahill, Discourse (28.1), "Scenes Elsewhere", 2007-2008   
  • General Editor (since 2005); Editorial Board (since 1999), Discourse: Journal for Theoretical Studies in Media and Culture, 2007-2008   
  • Editorial Board (since 2000), Film Quarterly, 2007-2008   
  • Advisory Board (since 2005), Journal of Visual Culture, 2007-2008   
  • Editorial Board (since 2005), Postmodern Culture, 2007-2008   
  • Advisory Board (since 2007), TransAsia: Screen Cultures, book series, University Press of Hong Kong, 2007-2008   
Professional Offices
  • Board of Directors (2005-08), Society for Cinema and Media Studies, 2007-2008   
Professional Memberships
  • Modern Language Association (MLA), 2007-2008   
  • Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS), 2007-2008   
Reviewer for Publication
  • Cultural Critique, University of Minnesota Press, Article Review, 2008-2009   
  • East Asian Cinema, University of Illinois Press, Book manuscript, 2008-2009   
  • Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies, Duke University Press, Article review, 2007-2008   
  • Film and literature, Columbia University Press, Book manuscript, 2007-2008   
  • Postmodern Culture, The Johns Hopkins University Press, Article review, 2007-2008   
  • Translation, German philosophy, University of Minnesota Press, Book manuscript, 2007-2008   
  • Translation, Japanese critcism, University of Minnesota Press, Book manuscript, 2007-2008   
  • ECHO, Article review, 2006-2007   
  • Journal of Visual Culture, Sage, Article review 1, 2006-2007   
  • Journal of Visual Culture, Sage, Article review 2, 2006-2007   
  • New book series, University of Minnesota Press, Proposal for new series, 2006-2007   
  • Postmodern Culture, Article review, 2006-2007   
Media, Alumni, and Community Relations
  • Interviewed for an article on film schools in the United States, Japan Economic Times (Nihon Keizai Shimbun), 2007-2008   
  • Radio Interview, "Electric Animal: Interview with Akira Lippit" on "Animal Voices," CIUT 89.5 FM, Toronto, Canada, 12 February 2008, 2007-2008   
  • Interviewed for an article on Clint Eastwood's "Letters From Iwo Jima," USA Today, 2006-2007   
  • Interviewed for an article on representations of Godzilla, Hiroshima, and the Holocaust, The Jewish Journal, 2006-2007   
  • Juror and commentator, "Picture Battle," Japanese-language TV program, United Television Broadcasting Systems (Channel 18, Los Angeles), 2006-2007   
Other Service to the Profession
  • Fulbright Commission, Interviewer, Tokyo, Japan, 2007-2008   
  • Programming committee, Society for Cinema and Media Studies, annual conference, 2007-2008   
  • Programming committee, Society for Cinema and Media Studies, annual conference, 2005-2006   
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