Stephanie DeBoer
Associate Professor
Contact Information
Research and Creative Interests
- screen technologies & cultures
- video & media arts
- media geographies & infrastructures
- media production/co-production
- global media studies
- Inter-Asian screen media
- Japanese and Chinese screen media
- digital humanities & creative practice
Biography
My current scholarly, curatorial, and collaborative work examines the material, cultural, technological, and spatial formations of media screens – in their dynamics as media infrastructure and environment; their entwinements with transnational, regional, and urban media geographies and ecologies; and their expressions through video and media art. It is informed by my longstanding concern for matters of place/space, location, and scale as they are co-produced among transnational, regional, and urban screen media cultures. My work draws from critical screen, cinema, and media studies; cultural geography studies; urban and infrastructure studies; global, transnational, and regional studies; inter-Asian cultural studies; as well as digital humanities and creative practice.
In addition to teaching and working in my home unit of Cinema and Media Studies in The Media School, I also teach in the Department of International Studies, School of Global and International Studies. I am also affiliated with the Department of Geography, East Asian Languages and Cultures, and the Cultural Studies Program.
Recent Professional Experience
- 2008-present. Associate Professor, Cinema and Media Studies. The Media School, Indiana University (2008-2014, Assistant Professor, Communication & Culture; Media School est. in 2014)
- 2008-present. Adjunct and Affiliated Faculty, Department of Geography, Cultural Studies Program, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, Department of International Studies, Indiana University
- 6-12/2024. Interim Director, Cinema and Media Studies, The Media School, Indiana University
- 2023-2024. Visiting Professor, Programme of Cultural Studies, Department of Cultural and Religious Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
- 2019-2022. Director of Graduate Studies, The Media School, Indiana University
Courses Recently Taught
Undergraduate (IU)
- C247: Screen Cultures
- C219: Media in the Global Context
- F392: From Video Screens to Video Art
- F413/I305: Media Screens and Global Frames
- F413/I305: Global Media Infrastructures/Critical Media Infrastructures
- MSCH-P335: Production as Criticism (People of IU: Curating Public Screens)
- X478: Uncovering the Media City: Public Screen Cultures and Urban China (Field Experience in Media)
- IFS (Intensive Freshmen Seminar): Global Media at Home and in the World
Graduate (IU)
- MSCH-C503: Media Theories
- MSCH-F793: Screen Technologies and Cultures
- MSCH-F596: Trans/national Film and Media: Core Concepts
- MSCH-F652: Space, Place, and Media in a Global Context
- MSCH-F792: Space, Place, and Media: Approaches in Media and Geography
- MSCH-M500: Epistemologies of Media
- MSCH-M600: Media Arts & Sciences Colloquium
At the Chinese University of Hong Kong (2023-2024)
- Screen Technologies and Cultures (PhD/MPhil seminar)
- Cultural Studies in Film and Video (MA course)
- Critical Media Infrastructures (MA course)
Publication Highlights
Infrastructures on the Edge: On the Material, Poetic, and Political Valences of Screens in Urban Space [book manuscript under development]
Coproducing Asia: Locating Japanese-Chinese Regional Film and Media. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2014.
“Urban LED Screens, Media Facades, and the Infrastructural Politics and Poetics of Digital Light,” Oxford Companion to Chinese Digital Media, Eds. Carlos Rojas, Jinying Li, Yomi Braester. Oxford UP. [Forthcoming]
“On Campus Screen Ecologies: Entry Points for Inhabiting Campus Spaces and Archives,” The Documentary Moment, Eds. Josh Malitsky and Patrik Sjoberg. Bloomington: Indiana UP. [Forthcoming]
“Urban Screens: Balancing Act Between Artistic and Commercial Application,” Association for for Computing (ACM), with Kristy H.A. Kang and Elke Reinbuber. July 14, 2024.
“Technologies of Co-production, Japan-in-Asia, and the Cold War Production of Regional Place,” The Japanese Cinema Book. Eds. Alastair Phillips, Hideaki Fujiki. London: BFI, 2020. 505-517.
“On Adjacency: Infrastructural Tactics for Urban Screens in Transit (Shanghai version),” Leonardo (special issue on urban interfaces edited by Nanna Verhoeff, Sigrid Merx, and Michiel de Lange) 22.4 (March 15, 2019). https://www.leoalmanac.org/urban-interfaces/
“New Media / New Asia: From Dominant to Residual Geographies of Emergent Video, Screen, and Media Arts.” The Palgrave Handbook of Asian Cinema. Eds. Gina Marchetti, Tan See Kam. Aaron Magnan-Park. London: Palgrave, 2018. 129-148.
“On the Way: A Screens Collective Project on the Infrastructural Affects of Waiting in Urban Transit,” MAB ’18: Proceedings of the 14th Architecture Biennale Conference, Association for Computing (ACM), with Petra Johnson. November 13, 2018. 152-157.
“Uncovering the Media City: Public Screens and Urban China,” Mediapolis: A Journal of Cities and Cultures 2:3 (June 20) 2018.
- http://www.mediapolisjournal.com/2018/06/uncovering-the-media-city-public-screens-and-urban-china/
“Working Through China: Scaled Convergence and the Contingencies of East Asian Film Co-production.” Screen, 56.2 (Summer) 2015.
“Locating the Global in the Asias of Cinema and Media,” Verge: Studies in Global Asias 1:1 2014.
“Film and Media Locations: Toward a Dynamic and Scaled Sense of Global Place,” Framing the Global: Entrypoints for Research. Ed. Hilary Kahn. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press), 2014.
“Co-Producing Cross-Border Action: Technologies of Contact, Masculinity and the Asia-Pacific Border.” Culture, Theory & Critique, 5.1 (April) 2011.
“Framing Tokyo Media Capital and Asian Co-production,” East Asian Cinemas: Regional Flows and Global Transformations. Ed. Vivian Lee. London: Palgrave P, 2011.
“Japanese Film, Co-productions and Regional Desires in the 1960s.” Japanese Film Lives: Audiences, Producers (Vol. 3). Eds. Kurosawa Akira, Yomota Inuhiko, Yoshimi Shunya, Li Fengyu. Tokyo: Iwanami P, 2010. [published in Japanese]
“Scaling the TV Station: Fuji Television, Digital Development and Fictions of Global Tokyo.” Television, Japan, Globalization. Ed. Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto et. al. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 2010.
“Tokyo, Television, and the Urban Imaginary.” Tokyo Studies. Ed Yoshimi Shunya, Wakabayashi Mikio. Tokyo: Kinokuniya P, 2005. [published in Japanese]
“Sayon no Kane/Sayon’s Bell.” Ed. Justin Boyer. 24 Frames: The Cinema of Japan and Korea. London: Wallflower P, 2004.
Edited Publications
In process: Co-editor with Kristy H.A. Kang, NTU Singapore: “Emergent Visions: Situated Practices and Adjaencies of Urban Screens, Media Facades and Media Architecture.” Special issue of Cultural Studies, including both scholarly text and digital/online curated contributions.
Curator and co-editor of collection of 12 essays for “Student Voices,” Mediapolis: A Journal of Cities and Culture. Essays from students of X478: Uncovering the Media City: Public Screen Cultures and Urban China, with field visits to Hong Kong and Shanghai. Extensive review process for each essay with the journal. June, 2018.
Symposia Organized
“Emergent Visions: Approaches on the Diverse Situations, Spaces, and Strategies for Urban Screens.” Three-hour symposium chaired and co-organized by Stephanie DeBoer and Kristy H.A. Kang. Media Architecture Biennale, Toronto, Canada, June 12, 2023.
“Emergent Visions: Adjacency and Urban Screens.” Symposium co-organized by Kristy H.A. Kang (Nanyang Technological University), Stephanie DeBoer (Indiana University), and Anne Balsamo (UT Dallas). Hosted by the School of Art, Design & Media, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, March 30-April 1, 2018. http://www.emergentvisions.net
Workshops and Public Roundtables Organized
“Designing Urban Screens: Workshop on Screen Media Infrastructures.” Three-day workshop for the MA in Intercultural Studies, Department of Cultural and Religious Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. With support from Tsz Kwan Ng/yucolab Hong Kong, MetaObjects, M+ Museum of Visual Culture, JM Network, Teddy Lo Studios. March 16, March 23, April 6, 2024.
“Emergent Visions Provocations: Situated Dialogues on Urban Screens and Public Media Art. Provocation #2: Times Square Dialogue.” Roundtable discussion curated by me and Kristy H.A. Kang, with Jennifer West (U.S. based media artist) and Nancy Baker Cahill (U.S. based media artist) in conversation with Holly Willis (U.S. based critic and scholar). Virtual. April 23, 2023.
“Emergent Visions Provocations: Situated Dialogues on Urban Screens and Public Media Art. Provocation #1: Hong Kong Dialogue.” Roundtable discussion curated by me and Kristy H.A. Kang, with Ellen Pau (HK based media artist), Silke Schmikle (HK based curator), and Chris Berry (UK based critic and scholar). Virtual. January 17, 2023.
- https://mediaschool.indiana.edu/news-events/news/item.html?n=deboer-to-facilitate-online-roundtable-on-urban-screens-media-art
“How Do We Wait with Screens in Transit.” Public roundtable discussion, The Screens Collective (Shaw Xu Zhifeng, Petra Johnson, Stephanie DeBoer). Supported by The Making Lab, directed by Dr. Hongtao ZHOU, Tongji University College of Design and Innovation. (organizer, chair, presenter) May 6, 2019.
“Recognizing Affects in the Now, Shaping Sustainable Urban Futures (Urban Screens version).” Public roundtable discussion, The Screens Collective (Petra Johnson, Stephanie DeBoer, Taqi Shaheen, Shaw Xu Zhifeng, Wu Jie), with Gina King of JCDecaux. Shanghai Project, Himalayas Museum, Shanghai, PRC (organizer, chair, presenter). January 5, 2017.
“Urban Screens as Sites for Public Discourse.” Public roundtable discussion of the Screens Collective (Petra Johnson, Stephanie DeBoer, Taqi Shaheen, Shaw Xu Zhifeng, Wu Jie). ReformerART Space, Shanghai, PRC (organizer, chair, presenter) November 12, 2016.
“Screens/Body/Attention: Interruptions for Urban Screens,” Public roundtable discussion, The Screens Collective (Petra Johnson, Stephanie DeBoer, Taqi Shaheen, Shaw Xu Zhifeng, Wu Jie). Chronus Art Center, Shanghai, PRC (organizer, chair, presenter) June 11, 2016
Creative and Collaborative Work
Juror, “Shining Shanghai” International Light Art/Projection Mapping Open Call. Shanghai International Light Festival, Shanghai, PRC. September, 2024.
Cover photo (taken and contributed by me) for The Routledge Companion to Media and the City, Ed. Erica Stein, Germaine R. Halegoula, Brendan Kredell. London: Routledge. 2023
“The People of IU: Moving Image Portraits and the Public Screen.” Co-conceived, directed, and produced with Susanne Schwibs. With the students of P335: Production as Criticism and support from IU’s Moving Image Archive and Advanced Visualization Lab, IU Bicentennial, and the Gayle Karch Cook Center for Public Arts and Humanities – Public Exhibition May 3-7, 2021. Also part of Bloomington Indiana’s May 2021 Gallery Walk:
- https://artsandhumanities.indiana.edu/cook-center/cook-center-arts/people-of-iu.html
- https://mediaschool.indiana.edu/news-events/news/item.html?n=iu-students-faculty-discuss-portraiture-project-the-people-of-iu
- https://news.iu.edu/it/live/news/31608-undergraduate-students-collaborate-with-avl-to
“Capture(d): An Exercise in Undoing Affective Engineering.” Public Media Arts Project. Received “Honorable Mention” for the 2019-2020 Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (Shenzhen) Main Venue Section 1 – “Eyes of the City,” Shenzhen, PRC. The Screens Collective (Shaw Xu Zhifeng, Petra Johnson, and Stephanie DeBoer)
“The People of IU: Moving Image Portraits and the Public Screen.” Co-conceived, directed, and produced with Susanne Schwibs. With the students of P335: Production as Criticism (Fall 2019) and support from IU’s Moving Image Archive and Advanced Visualization Lab, IU Bicentennial, and The Media School. Exhibited on IU Bloomington campus public screens, November 15-December 10, 2019
“On Waiting with Screens in Transit.” Exhibition of video, text, and fabric screen, Tongji University College of Design and Innovation, Shanghai, May 6-24, 2019. The Screens Collective (Shaw Xu Zhifeng, Petra Johnson, and Stephanie DeBoer), with support of The Making Lab, directed by Dr. Zhou Hongtao, Tongji University College of Design and Innovation.
“Screen Ecology Project.” With the students of Screen Cultures (F204) and support from the IU Wells Library, Moving Image Archive, and Institute for Digital Arts & Humanities. Exhibition, Wells Library Screens, April 1-30, 2019.
Producer, Organizer, Artistic Consultant, China Remixed: Public Video Art Exhibition. With Arthur Liou and curator Isaac Leung, Director of Videotage, Hong Kong. Exhibition held on public screens on IU campus: 2/1-3/10 Feb. 1-March 10, 2017.
Translations
Six published interviews with director Zhang Yimou translated from Chinese into English in: Zhang Yimou: Interviews. Ed. Frances Gateward, Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 2001. 3-14, 23-29, 50-56, 67-70, 74-98, 119-126, 133-146, 147-150.
Interviews Published On My Work
Allison & Nancy, “Professor Feature: Research, Curate, Representation: Interview with Prof. Stephanie DeBoer,” MAICS Connect: 2023-2024, 1, 4-6. 2024.
Stephanie DeBoer and Susanne Schwibs, with Emily Garver and Ty Vinson, “Artists Talk: The People of IU,” IU Arts and Humanities Council IU Arts and Humanities Council, May 6, 2021.
Francesca Tarocco, “New Media Hell: Interview with Stephanie DeBoer, Ingrid Fischer-Schreiber, Lu Yang,” Flash Art Issue 307. 2016.
- https://flash—art.com/article/new-media-hell/
Invited Talks and Seminars
Invited concluding Respondent to the two-day workshop, “Dialectics of Control: An Inter-Asian Perspective,” organized by Shoan Yin Cheung, Elmo Gonzaga, Yongwoo Lee, Laikwan Pang, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (6/23-6/24, 2024)
Invited Respondent to “Mediatized Cities” section of the symposium “Urban Issues Revisited: History, Ecology, Media,” organized by Hideaki Fujiki and Tristan Grunrow, Nagoya University, Japan (1/27-1/28, 2024).
Keynote talk. “Elemental LED from Drones to Kites: Scaling Practices for Nocturnal Skies.” “Local Cultures – Global Spaces: Communities, People and Place (Revisiting Place – Current Global Conditions and Human-Spatial Relations),” The Chinese University of Hong Kong (virtual) (12/6, 2023).
Invited talk. “Macro/Micro Poetics and Politics: Toward a Genealogy of Spatially Scaled Practices for Urban Screens,” Centre for Cultural Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong (11/29, 2023)
Invited Talk. “Urban Screens, Media Facades, and the Infrastructural Politics and Poetics of Digital Light,” Centre for Cultural Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong (1/10, 2023)
Invited talk. “Scaling Infrastructure: On the Politics, Poetics, and Performance of Screens in Urban Space,” Asia Research Institute/Department of Communications and New Media, National University Singapore (4/5, 2022)
Invited talk. “Sight and Site: Media Art, Urban Screens, and the Politics, Poetics, and Performance of Scale in the Screened City,” University of Pittsburgh (2/10, 2020).
Invited talk. “On Infrastructure: And the Material, Political, and Poetic Valences of Urban Screens in Transit,” Urban Media Art Academy, Beijing, PRC (11/8, 2018)
Invited talk. “On Adjacency: Infrastructural Tactics for Urban Screens (Shanghai Version),” St. Olaf College (faculty research talk) (9/28, 2017)
Invited talk. “Uncovering the Media City: Public Screen Cultures and Urban China,” St. Olaf College (to Asian studies and film studies undergraduate students) (9/28, 2017)
Invited talk. “Locating Urban Screens: On Relational Screen/Art/Urban Infrastructures (Shanghai version),” Center for Chinese Studies, UCLA (12/5, 2016)
Invited talk, with Petra Johnson. “Shadow and Translation,” Public Joint Talk on the Event of the Art Exhibition “Shadow and Translation,” with Petra Johnson, M21: Shanghai 21st Century Art Museum, Shanghai, PRC (7/14, 2016)
Invited talk. “New Media / New Asia: Dominant and Residual Geographies of Emerging Media Arts.” Invited speaker. Department of Comparative Literature, Hong Kong University (11/17/2015)
Keynote talk. “Media – Art – Architectural Complexes: On Site and Scale for Global Screens.” Invited keynote speaker. New Terrain: 8th Annual Landscape, Space, and Place Graduate Student Conference, Indiana University (2/27/2014)
Invited talk. “Working Through China: Place, Scale, and Japan’s New Asian Film Co-production.” Invited speaker. East Asian Studies, Department of Communication, Wittenberg University (11/14, 2012)
Invited talk. “Working Through China: Place, Scale, and Japan’s New Asian Film Co-production.” Invited speaker. Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Harvard University (10/26, 2012)