Henry Jenkins Ann Fetter Friedlaender Professor of Humanities Director, Comparative Media Studies Program, MIT Henry Jenkins, director of the Comparative Media Studies Program at MIT, has spent his career studying media and the way people incorporate it into their lives. He has published articles on a diverse range of topics relating to popular culture, including work on Star Trek, WWF Wrestling, Nintendo games, and Dr. Seuss. He testified in 1999 before the U.S. Senate during the hearings on media violence that followed the Littleton, Colorado shootings, and served as co-chair of Pop!Tech, the 1999 Camden Technology Conference. Jenkins has published six books and more than fifty essays on popular culture. His books include From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games (co-editor with Justine Cassell,1998), The Children's Cultural Reader (editor,1998), Science Fiction Audiences: Doctor Who, Star Trek and Their Followers (with John Tullock, 1995), Classical Hollywood Comedy (co-editor with Kristine Brunovska Karnick, 1994), Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture (1992), What Made Pistachio Nuts?: Early Sound Comedy and the Vaudeville Aesthetic (1992), and the forthcoming The Politics and Pleasures of Popular Culture. Jenkins holds a PhD in communication arts from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and a master's degree in communication studies from the University of Iowa. Back to the Full Schedule.