Kristopher L. Cannon

Ph.D.	Georgia State University, Atlanta, in progress. Moving Image Studies, Communication. Committee: Alessandra Raengo (Chair), Angelo Restivo, Ted Friedman, Jennifer Barker.
M.A.	Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, May 2007 Communication; LGBT Studies Certificate. Committee: Dr. Robert Alan Brookey, Dr. Kelly Happe, and Dr. Betty LaFrance.
B.A.	University of Utah, Salt Lake City, May 2005 Gender Studies. Advisor: Dr. Kathryn Bond Stockton.

Most Recent Publications

• Kristopher L. Cannon. (2010, Fall). "Cutting Race Otherwise: Imagining Michael Jackson." Spectator, 30.2, pp. 28-36.


• Kristopher L. Cannon, co-authored with Robert Alan Brookey (2009, June). "Sex Lives in Second Life." Critical Studies in Media Communication, 26.2, pp. 145-164.
  • Reprinted (forthcoming, December 2010) in Gail Dines and Jean M. Humez (Eds.), Gender, Race, and Class in Media: A Text-Reader, Third Edition, Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

Cyberspace has often been regarded as a place where gender and sexual identities can be reformed in liberatory ways. Unfortunately, there is a good deal of online sexual and gender play that objectifies women and marginalizes queer identities. Therefore, we argue for an alternative critical approach to the study of gender and sexuality in cyberspace, one that views the agency of interactive media from the perspective of docility. In this article, we critically examine gender and sex practices in the online virtual environment Second Life. We conclude that while sexual and gender norms may be resisted in cyberspace, these same norms can also be reproduced in ways that are retrograde.

Most Recent Conference Papers

• Kristopher L. Cannon (2009, Mar). “Cutting Race Otherwise: Michael Jackson and the Fantasy of Trans-Racial Visual Presence.” A paper presented at the National Council of Black Studies, Atlanta, GA.


• Kristopher L. Cannon (2008, Sept). “Enacting Categorical Resistance: Visual Queerness on MyGayestLook.com.” A paper presented at the Midwest Popular Culture Association conference, Cincinnati, OH.