Academic Pioneer Natalie Ngai Joins CFA Communication Studies Faculty

Awarded scholar and academic pioneer, Natalie Ngai, is one of the newest additions to LMU's communication studies department.

Until recently, Ngai worked as a professor at Boston College. Transitioning to the West Coast felt natural for her. Her academic pursuits center around media aesthetics and affects through the lens of gender and race theory. "My love of Southern California connects to my specific studies of popular culture, and the idea of cuteness," explains Ngai. "I investigate how social power intersects with pleasure - affects, feeling cute, happy, joyful, or even angry - in media cultures. The social energy and dynamics within Hollywood offer an ideal place for me to do this work."

Ngai, who initially faced backlash for her interest in the subject matter, is currently working on a book about cuteness in media. "I chose to study cuteness even though it is not something people usually think of as something that can be studied or thought about deeply," she says. Despite people's preconceived notions cuteness has important implications in everyday life. "I've learned from my daily interactions with people, and my own consumption of media, that many people seek out cuteness in the media to help them get through their day," Ngai articulates.

Following her instincts has proven to be successful. Ngai's work has been the constant recipient of accolades throughout her career. She has received myriad awards for everything from her student papers and doctoral essays to her dissertation. She most recently won the 2024 Popular Culture Association Kathy Merlock Jackson Dissertation Award, and the 2024 Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Cultural & Critical Studies Division Dissertation Award.

Despite her significant successes outside of being an educator, Ngai remains grounded and personal to her students. "I like it when my students care to understand me as a human being, not just about their grades," she specifies. "I really love the students' energy at LMU. They are very outgoing, and eager to share their thoughts and questions" Ngai adds. She is currently teaching media studies (CMST 2500), a course that focuses on the history of mass media, cultural theories, and new developments of digital media.

As she does with her scholarship, Ngai integrates gender and race theories into her teaching. "In my class we talk about the theory of the male gaze, or how the mainstream media always reinforces us to see things through the heterosexual male lens." She explains that her goal is to get her students to see what it would be like to get outside that lens. "It's not as common for us to see men as we see women - as sexy and beautiful," she elaborates. This idea is crucial to Ngai's interests as an educator and a scholar.

Next semester, Ngai will be teaching "Media Studies" (CMST 2500) and the capstone course "Media Studies Capstone" (CMST 4500). "As I continue my educational career here at LMU, I want to help my students think outside of the box and challenge their ideas of what people have taught them," Ngai concludes.