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Kishonna Gray

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Kishonna Gray
Born
United States
NationalityAmerican
CitizenshipUnited States
EducationArizona State University School of Social Transformation , PhD
Known forBlack experiences online, gaming, intersectional tech, #citeherwork
Scientific career
FieldsCommunication
Gender
Women's studies
African American studies
InstitutionsUniversity of Illinois at Chicago, Arizona State University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, Eastern Kentucky University
ThesisDeviant Bodies Resisting Online: Examining the Intersecting Realities of Women of Color in Xbox Live (2011)
Doctoral advisorLisa M. Anderson
Websitehttp://www.kishonnagray.com/

Kishonna L. Gray is an American communication and gender studies researcher based at the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences.[1] Gray is best known for her research on technology, gaming, race, and gender. As an expert in Women's and Communication Studies, she has written several articles for publications such as the New York Times.[2] In the academic year 2016–2017, she was a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Martin Luther King, Jr. Visiting Professors and Scholars Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, hosted by the Department of Women's and Gender Studies and the MIT Comparative Media Studies/Writing Program.[3] She has also been a faculty visitor at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University and at Microsoft Research.

Education

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Kishonna L. Gray received her B.S. in Criminal Justice in 2005 and M.S. in Justice Studies in 2007 at Eastern Kentucky University. She received her PhD in Justice Studies from Arizona State University in 2011. She joined the Eastern Kentucky University faculty in 2011, the Arizona State University faculty in 2017, and her position at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2018. She also accepted a position at the University of Kentucky.[4]

Research

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Gray is known for her work in the areas of gender, race, and game studies. She is best known for her research on racism in video games and on intersectionality in technology.[5] She has published multiple books: Race, Gender, & Deviance in Xbox Live: Theoretical Perspectives from the Virtual Margins; Intersectional Tech: Black users in digital gaming, and Black Cyberfeminism or How Intersectionality Went Viral (under contract). In her research, she analyzes the relationship between white hegemonic masculinity and Black identities.[6] Gray focuses on racial dynamics specifically in streaming video games.[7] Therefore, the oppression of intersecting marginalized identities, specifically those of Black women are at the core of her research.[8] Gray is the creator of the #citeherwork hashtag, created in 2015 to call attention to gender disparities in academic citation practices.[9][10][11]

Impact

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Her work has been covered numerous times in the New York Times and in other publications.[12][13][14][15][16][17] Gray is a research leader in intersectional feminism and white misogyny.[18] Her findings are picked up by other scholars to find solutions for biases in video games.[19]

Her work has found its way into cyber-activism and has been cited by the Encyclopedia of Diversity and Social Justice.[20] The encyclopedia cites how minority identities evoke a perceived threat in majority identities.[20] Princeton Professor Wendy Belcher developed a test to analyze the choices of sources and named it "Gray Test" after Kishonna Gray.[21]

She answers the correlation between online and offline identities and the translation of racism and misogyny from a gamer world into the real world.[22]

David G. Schwartz, in the journal of the American Library Association CHOICE, identifies Gray's book, Intersectional tech: Black users in digital gaming as an interdisciplinary approach to understanding oppression in new technologies.[23] Schwartz recommends the book for scholars and game designers, as well as a work that can empower those who feel marginalized.[23] Christopher A. Paul in the journal Critical Studies in Media Communication adds that her research is helping us understand how the virtual (gaming) worlds we are creating affect real-world societies.[7]

Her work informs Game Design, with articles such as the Electronic Book Review's How to Design Games that Promote Racial Equity, cowritten with Lai-Tze Fan, and Aynur Kadir.[24]

Selected works

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  • Gray, K. L. (2012). Intersecting oppressions and online communities: Examining the experiences of women of color in Xbox Live. Information, Communication & Society, 15(3), 411-428.
  • Gray, K. L. (2012). Deviant bodies, stigmatized identities, and racist acts: Examining the experiences of African-American gamers in Xbox Live. New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia, 18(4), 261-276.
  • Gray, K. L., & Leonard, D. J. (Eds.). (2018). Woke gaming: Digital challenges to oppression and social injustice. University of Washington Press.
  • Gray, K. L. (2020). Black Gamers’ Resistance. Race and Media: Critical Approaches, 241.
  • Gray, K. L. (2020). Intersectional Tech: Black users in digital gaming. LSU Press.

References

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  1. ^ "Kishonna L. Gray | Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies". wrd.as.uky.edu. Retrieved 2021-10-24.
  2. ^ Sarkeesian, Anita; Petit, Carolyn (2020-12-17). "These People Helped Shape Video Game Culture in 2020". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-09-23.
  3. ^ "MLK Visiting Professors and Scholars Program: Scholars: Kishonna Gray". Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved 2023-06-07.
  4. ^ "Kishonna Gray". Center for Critical Race and Digital Studies. 2018-05-24. Retrieved 2021-10-20.
  5. ^ Buyukozturk, Bertan (2016-07-01). "Race, Gender, and Deviance in Xbox Live: Theoretical Perspectives from the Virtual Margins". Sociology of Race and Ethnicity. 2 (3): 387–398. doi:10.1177/2332649216645529. ISSN 2332-6492. S2CID 148363848.
  6. ^ Christensen, Wendy M.; Daniels, Jessie; Gregory, Karen; Cottom, Tressie McMillan (2018). "Review of Digital Sociologies, DanielsJessie, GregoryKaren, CottomTressie McMillan". Contemporary Sociology. 47 (5): 568–570. doi:10.1177/0094306118792220g. ISSN 0094-3061. JSTOR 26585923. S2CID 220194950.
  7. ^ a b Paul, Christopher A. (2021-09-09). "Intersectional Tech: black users in digital gaming". Critical Studies in Media Communication. 38 (5): 426–428. doi:10.1080/15295036.2021.1975374. ISSN 1529-5036. S2CID 240075057.
  8. ^ Calhoun, Kendra (2021-02-17). "The digital lives of black women in Britain: by Francesca Sobande, Cham, Palgrave Macmillan, 2020, vii/149 pp., (paperback), ISBN 978-3-030-46678-7; (eBook) ISBN 978-3-030-46679-4". Feminist Media Studies. 21 (2): 334–335. doi:10.1080/14680777.2021.1875162. ISSN 1468-0777. S2CID 232125029.
  9. ^ "#CiteHerWork: Marginalizing Women in Academic and Journalistic Writing". Retrieved 18 June 2021.
  10. ^ Gray, Kishonna (2014). Race, gender, and deviance in Xbox live: Theoretical perspectives from the virtual margins. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-323-29649-6.
  11. ^ Gray, Kishonna (2020). Intersectional Tech: Black users in digital gaming. LSU Press.
  12. ^ McPhate, Mike (16 December 2015). "Women Who Play Games Shun 'Gamer' Label". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
  13. ^ Kung, Jess (31 August 2019). "Should Your Avatar's Skin Match Yours?". NPR. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
  14. ^ Browning, Kellen (19 July 2020). "More Resignations, but No Sign Yet of a Change in Gaming Culture". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
  15. ^ Johnson, Christen (12 June 2020). "Social media is one way to get involved in the anti-racist movement, but it can also cause anxiety. And the rules of engagement seem to differ for black and nonblack people". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
  16. ^ Schoenberg, Nara (10 August 2020). "In the wake of Englewood police shooting, a father of 5 goes viral on Twitter with a heartfelt video highlighting role activists played in defusing tensions between neighbors and police". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
  17. ^ Sarkeesian, Anita (17 December 2020). "These People Helped Shape Video Game Culture in 2020". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
  18. ^ Sarkeesian, Anita; Petit, Carolyn (2020-12-17). "These People Helped Shape Video Game Culture in 2020". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-10-24.
  19. ^ How the Obama presidency changed the political landscape. Larry J. Walker, F. Erik Brooks, Ramon B. Goings. Santa Barbara, California. 2017. ISBN 978-1-4408-5206-0. OCLC 972901405.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
  20. ^ a b Encyclopedia of diversity and social justice. Sherwood Thompson. Lanham. 2015. ISBN 978-1-4422-1606-8. OCLC 900277068.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
  21. ^ "Researching Gaming and Showing Why Citations Matter". WIHE. 2021-08-03. Retrieved 2021-10-10.
  22. ^ Shaw, Adrienne (2019-08-01). "Woke Gaming: Digital Challenges to Oppression and Social Injustice". International Journal of Communication (Online): 3865–3869.
  23. ^ a b Schwartz, D. G. (2021-03-01). "Gray, Kishonna. Intersectional tech: Black users in digital gaming". CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries. 58 (7): 693–695.
  24. ^ Grey, Kishonna (12 September 2021). "How to Design Games that Promote Racial Equity". Electronic Book Review. doi:10.7273/fkek-qa39.
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