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Courses:
Gender & Technoculture-WMST 320; Gender and Globalization -WMST 205; Contested Sexualities-WMST 420; Feminist Theories-WMST480

Research Interests:
Cultural Studies, Digital Humanities, technology, visual culture, Queer Theory, Semiotics, cyberbullying

Biography:
Dr. Ketchum received her M.A. (with Distinction) and her Ph.D. in Cultural Studies at the University of California, Davis. Her research emphasis is on critical and theoretical analysis of technology and new media, specifically focusing on representations of race, gender, sexuality, class, and nation.  She is also a visual artist working within the intersection of critical theory, classical painting, film and new media. Dr. Ketchum has published and contributed to articles on technology and visual culture in the U.S., Germany, the U.K., and Italy. Her publication, "Facegen and the Technovisual Politics of Embodied Surfaces," which documents relationships among technologies of surveillance, facial recognition software, gender and racial profiling, appears in the spring 2010 volume of Women's Studies Quarterly.  Dr. Ketchum's most recent article, "New Media Requires New Paradigms: Understanding the Hyper-Mediated 21st Century School Yard" will be coming out in spring 2013.

Dr. Ketchum is currently developing a first-of-its-kind professional development course for K-12 educators entitled, “Understanding & Addressing Bullying.” To be offered beginning summer 2012 through CSU Fullerton’s College of Extended Ed., the course provides information about ways to assess school climate; the unique circumstances of LGBTQ students; the relationship between homophobia and misogyny; and the importance of understanding schools as social systems. It also offers information on state and federal anti-bullying laws, precedent-setting legal decisions, and success stories of schools that have re-set their campus cultures by addressing the underlying dynamics of school bullying.

Additionally, Dr. Ketchum and her students continue the development of visibleworld.net. This project means to apply technology in the interest of promoting social justice by using the highly visual medium of the Internet to connect people and ideas. The site is developed collaboratively among students in Dr. Ketchum’s Technoculture courses and the people and organizations represented.

In the classroom, Dr. Ketchum and her students explore the poetics and politics of technologies ranging from Twitter and Facebook to experimental video, Photoshop, web design, and online virtual worlds. Her computer lab courses challenge students to strategically intervene in the workings of technology and the Internet: taking issue with censorship; contesting the "digital divide;" critiquing new media’s visual language; and affirming the Net as a democratic space of intellectual and creative freedom.

In addition to her research and teaching, Dr. Ketchum serves on the Orange County Equality Coalition’s (OCEC) Executive Board of Directors and, the Chapman International Center for Feminist and LGBTQ Studies.