I’m Lori Morimoto, and I research and write about transcultural fandoms, convergence culture/transfandom, Hollywood marketing overseas, and East Asian regional popular culture.

I began writing critically about media in middle school, when I ripped Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom a new one (in my diary) for being so hopelessly colonialist, then followed it up in high school with an essay on science fiction reflections of social issues; if novelists feel compelled to write the stories they tell, I guess I’ve always felt compelled to write critical analysis of the media I love. I did my BA in English literature, finishing with a senior thesis called, Beyond the Pale: An Analysis of Pride in Frankenstein, Doctor Faust, and The Picture of Dorian Gray, that seems to have solidified my love of the title colon. Then, after a second year in Japan (the first was when I was in college) and lacking direction, I did an MA in Japanese Literature, where my thesis was entitled Akutagawa Ryûnosuke: Lectures on Poe and Their Applications. After another five-year stretch in Japan and a year working for a Japanese daily newspaper in Washington DC, I went BACK to grad school and did an MA and, ultimately, PhD in Communication and Culture. My thesis, Some of Us Are Looking at the Stars: Japanese Women, Hong Kong Film, and Transcultural Fandom, had an unnecessarily long title, but I had to get it all in there. I’m currently wrangling the dissertation into a book (with a different title).

I’ve written on both online and analog fandoms in the books Seeing Fans: Representations of Fandom in Media and Popular Culture, The Companion to Media Fandom and Fan Studies, The Routledge Companion to Media Fandom, and Transatlantic Television Drama. I’ve also published in Participations: Journal of Audience and Reception Studies, Transformative Works and Cultures, [in]Transition: Journal of Videographic Film and Moving Image Studies, Asian Cinema, and the East Asian Journal of Popular Culture.

My upcoming publications include a chapter on the television series Hannibal as transformative work, as well as an article on transcultural Yuri!!! on Ice fandom for Mechademia: Second Arc.

In addition to writing and researching, I offer consultation services for graduate students seeking help with journal publication and/or conference proposals and presentations, both individually and in groups. Please see the Graduate Student Services page for more information.