Mimi Ito is a cultural anthropologist and recognized expert in the field of digital media and learning, focusing on children and youth's changing relationships to media and communications.

Ito is a Professor in Residence at the Department of Anthropology and the Department of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine, and serves as Research Director of the Digital Media and Learning Research Hub in the system-wide University of California Humanities Research Institute.

She recently completed the Digital Youth Project, a landmark study supported by the MacArthur Foundation of the ways youth use new media. In September 2010, she was appointed as the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Chair in Digital Media and Learning at UC Irvine.

She holds Ph.D. degrees in Education and Anthropology from Stanford University. Her publications include "Engineering Play: A Cultural History of Children's Software,” and the co-authored book, "Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out: Kids Living and Learning with New Media,” as well as a co-edited book, "Personal Portable Pedestrian: Mobile Phones in Japanese Life.”

She is on Twitter as @mizuko, on Facebook, and her personal blog is: http://www.itofisher.com/mito

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