Zizi Li, Ph.D.

My writing, research, and teaching focus on issues of materiality, work, and identity formation in media cultures.

Current position

Lecturer, Department of Cinematic Arts, California State University Long Beach

education

PhD, Department of Film, TV and Digital Media, UCLA

MA, Department of Film, TV and Digital Media, UCLA

BA, Cinema and Media Studies & Political Science, Carleton College

Contact

Zizi.Li@csulb

Works-In-Progress

• Book Manuscript: The Influencer Ecosystem

• Research Projects:

  • Portable TV in the Age of Social Media Attention Economy: The Rise of Ultrashort Vertical Dramas and Streaming Apps

  • Mediating Creative and Factory Work in Global China: From Artist Cinema to Social Media Production

Articles and Essays

2024

Standing in as a Famed, Diverse Virtual Influencer: Proxy Labor and Identity Construction in Computer-Generated Influencer Production, Velvet Light Trap.

Spectacle and Specter: Handling Boxes In-Between Digital Content Creation, E-Commerce Advertising, and Last-Mile Delivery, Mediapolis.

Media In-Between: Introduction, Mediapolis. (co-authored with Slaveya Minkova)

2023

Digital Domestic (Im)material Labor: Managing Waste and Self while Producing Closet Decluttering Videos, Television and New Media.

Shudu and Her ‘Muses’: Stand-in Labor in Virtual Influencer Production, Flow.

Imma with Her Im/material Boxes, Flow.

2022

Indigenous (Re)mapping of LA: On Diné Mediamaker Pamela J. Peters, Wide Screen.

Women Directors on the Edge of Hollywood: Agnès Varda/Shirley Clarke in and beyond Lions Love (1969), in The Sustainable Legacy of Agnès Varda.

UCLA電影與電視資料館館長May Hong HaDuong訪談/An Interview with Director of UCLA Film & TV Archive May Hong HaDuong, Film Appreciation [Fa 電影欣賞]. (co-authored with Kun Xian Shen and Klavier Wong)

2019

7 Things You Should Know About Miquela @lilmiquela, Hyperrhiz.