Michael Zimmer

LeBoff Doctoral Fellowship in Media Ecology

Michael Zimmer is one of the emerging scholars in a branch of media ecology: the study of technology and culture. Michael’s interests concentrate on exploring how technology has become deeply embedded into our daily lives, propagated by various cultural myths and sociological ideologies.

Prior to earning a masters degree from the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development’s Program in Media Ecology, the Notre Dame graduate spent seven years working professionally as a marketing and product manager for an electronic processing company. His work exposed him to the behind-the-scenes activities involved in creating and burnishing images in the American marketplace.

“My career in marketing,” he says, “compelled me to explore more deeply how we experience the media and how human perception, thought, behavior, and values are shaped by the media and technological environment in which we live.”

As a LeBoff Fellow in Media Ecology, Michael hopes to expand upon the foundational studies in this field by exploring the technological environments that exist in America today. Specifically, his research includes the historical study of technological systems, understanding the sense of technology’s power as an “agent of change” in our culture, and the examination of “failed” technologies as a source of insight toward understanding the complicated technological environment in which we live.

Learn more about our Department of Culture and Communication.

Written by Ed Goodgold.