The Chicago School of Media Theory > Members > Kirsten Rokke




Kirsten Rokke

email: krokke@uchicago.edu
homepage: http://home.uchicago.edu/~krokke/

Kirsten Rokke is a fourth year undergraduate in the Art History department. She is interested the interactions between different cultures or subcultures and the way that notions of authenticity persist in keeping them distinct. The primary case study she has been considering is hip-hop, particularly for the broad spectrum of influences it draws on, the political role that it assumes, its complicated relationship with race, the way that it uses technology, and its highly localized and global structure. She also just really loves the music.

While listening to hip-hop, her favorite activity is cooking, so it seems natural to extend this consideration of authenticity and cultural blending to the culinary arena. She is interested in the role that food plays in cultural tourism and the way that certain types of food are understood to communicate something about the essence of the culture with which they are associated. She also just really loves to eat.

Addressing these issues through media studies allows for a more interdisciplinary approach that seems necessary for the complexity of the issue at stake. She is particularly interested in Raymond Williams’s version of media theory.


Works

Chicago School Media Theory: Reading List

Media Theory Keywords Glossary: alterity

Performing Media: "On fortune cookies (title forthcoming...)"

Theories of Media Annotation: Vijay Prashad's Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting: Afro-Asian Connections and the Myth of Cultural Purity

Theories of Media Prospectus: "Meaning Through Hip-Hop Remediation: In Defense of Social Practices"