Thomas, Douglas 1966-

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THOMAS, Douglas 1966-

PERSONAL: Born 1966. Education: University of Minnesota, Ph.D., 1992.

ADDRESSES: Offıce—Annenberg Center for Communication, 3502 Watt Way, University of Southern California, 734 West Adams Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90089.

CAREER: Author and educator. University of Southern California, Annenberg School for Communication, associate professor. Thinking through Technology project, director; Metamorphosis Project, coinvestigator; National Communication Association, Critical and Cultural Studies division, founding member and chair, 1998; University of Washington, advisory board member, Research Center for Cyberculture Studies.

AWARDS, HONORS: New Investigator award, National Communication Association Rhetorical and Communication Theory Division, 1999.

WRITINGS:

Reading Nietzsche Rhetorically, Guilford Press (New York, NY), 1998.

(Editor, with Brian D. Loader) Cybercrime: Law Enforcement, Security, and Surveillance in the Information Age, Routledge (New York, NY), 2000.

Hacker Culture, University of Minnesota Press (Minneapolis, MN), 2002.

Editor, with Marita Sturken and Sandra Ball-Rokeach, of Re-Inventing Technology: Cultural Narratives of Technological Change. Contributor to Online Journalism Review and Wired News; commentary has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, New Scientist, Chronicle of Higher Education, Los Angeles news programs, CNN, and numerous local and national radio programs. Editorial board member, Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, Information, Communication, and Society, Womens Studies in Communication, and Quarterly Journal of Speech and Critical Studies in Media Communication.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Technology and New Media: An Introduction, for New York University Press; and Viral Style: Information, Subculture, and the Politics of Infection.

SIDELIGHTS: As associate professor at the Annenberg Center for Communication of the University of California, Douglas Thomas specializes in critical theory and cultural studies of technology. While Reading Nietzsche Rhetorically examines the role of representation in Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy, Hacker Culture, examines the contextual role of computer hacking with regard to politics, society, and culture. Part one of the book traces the evolution of both hacker and hacker culture. Part two examines hacker representation in mainstream and hacker-culture media, discussing publications such as 2600: The Hacker Quarterly, and Phrack, the publication he believes has its finger on the pulse of hacker culture. In part three, Thomas discusses the legal aspects of hacking, focusing particularly on the cases of Kevin Mitnick and Chris Lamprecht, both prosecuted for computer crime.

Reviewing Hacker Culture in Library Journal, Joe Accardi wrote: "Thomas effectively argues that the popular image of hacker reflects more the public's anxieties about technology than the reality of hacking." A critic for Publishers Weekly stated: "He attempts to set things right, steering a middle course between the alarmists, who perceive hackers as suburban terrorists of the new century, and the apologists, who want to see them as brave revolutionaries against a corporate/government assault on personal liberties."

The collection of essays from seventeen international experts, collected in Cybercrime: Law Enforcement, Security, and Surveillance in the Information Age, investigates the use by criminals of global communication networks and what countermeasures may be applicable. Authors include Russian psychologists, a former assistant director of the FBI, academic experts, and securities studies from around the globe. David Barrett wrote in Journal of Social Policy: "To understand cybercrime as a significantly new phenomenon with potentially profound consequences the editors argue it is necessary to recognize it as a constituent aspect of the wider political, social and economic restructuring currently affecting countries worldwide."

In a brief biography on the University of Southern California's Web site, Thomas described his upcoming book, Technology and a New Media: An Introduction, as "a survey of recent approaches to technology and a new media an their impacts on society." A second book in the making, Viral Style: Information Subculture, and the Politics of Infection, "examines the underground production of computer viruses as well as cultural representations of and responses to them."