About

Lisa Parks is a Distinguished Professor of Film and Media Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) and was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2018. She is a media scholar whose research centers on satellite technologies and global media cultures, critically examining media infrastructures, environmental media, as well as the intersections of media with militarization and surveillance. Her work explores the complex relationships between media systems and their broader social, political, and environmental contexts, contributing significant insights into how media technologies shape and are shaped by global dynamics.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Sociology
• Political Science
• Epistemology
• Medicine
• Social Science
• Artificial Intelligence
• Internal medicine
• Media studies
• Psychology
• Materials science
• Virology
• Immunology
• Pediatrics
• Cognitive science
• Pathology
• Law
• Environmental ethics
• Public relations
• Gastroenterology
• Geography

Selected publications

• 6 Domestic Solar Media in Rural Tanzania: Toward an Energy– Media Matrix

  2026-03-20

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Domestic Solar Media in Rural Tanzania

  2026-03-06

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  An exploration of Tanzanians’ use of solar panels to energize media technologies in rural villages in Eastern Tanzania, on the outskirts of Dar es Salaam, via interviews conducted in sixteen homes in the villages of Mbezi-Singida, Chanika, and Mwasonga in 2019 as part of the Social it Solutions workshop with the Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology, describes how rural Tanzanians talk about and use solar panels in efforts to energize media technologies such as lightbulbs, radios, mobile phones, stereo systems, and television sets. Analysis of interview data reveals that the Julius Nyerere–era principle of ujamaa—especially its relation to familyhood, rural village life, and self-reliance—implicitly persists in the ways rural Tanzanians energize and organize media technologies. Tanzanian media ruralities are characterized by energy-conscious, self-reliant, sociotechnical practices at the village level.

  PublisherDOI

• Domestic Solar Media in Rural Tanzania:

  2026-03-06

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• The nuances of network sovereignty: A collaborative study of the Internet and ICTs in the Blackfeet community in Montana

  New Media & Society · 2023-10-11

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Building on research on network sovereignty in American Indian communities, this study explores how the Internet and information and communication technologies (ICTs) are imagined and used by members of the Blackfeet community in Montana. Using qualitative mixed methods, including interviews with 38 Blackfeet community members, the study provides a brief overview of the Siyeh Corporation’s Internet services in Blackfeet territory and presents a thematic analysis of interview data focused on three issues: the Internet as a daily lifeline; peoples’ ideals and standards of sovereignty; and tensions around network sovereignty. The article explores how Blackfeet community members assess their tribe’s moves to assert network sovereignty, presenting a range of opinions regarding tribally owned and operated Internet services. Building from interview data, the article suggests that practices and perceptions of local tribal governance are vital to mounting and sustaining meaningful network sovereignty initiatives.

  PublisherDOI

• Changing Severity and Epidemiology of Adults Hospitalized With Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the United States After Introduction of COVID-19 Vaccines, March 2021–August 2022

  Clinical Infectious Diseases · 2023 · 31 citations

  • Medicine
  • Internal medicine
  • Pediatrics

  INTRODUCTION: Understanding the changing epidemiology of adults hospitalized with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) informs research priorities and public health policies. METHODS: Among adults (≥18 years) hospitalized with laboratory-confirmed, acute COVID-19 between 11 March 2021, and 31 August 2022 at 21 hospitals in 18 states, those hospitalized during the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Omicron-predominant period (BA.1, BA.2, BA.4/BA.5) were compared to those from earlier Alpha- and Delta-predominant periods. Demographic characteristics, biomarkers within 24 hours of admission, and outcomes, including oxygen support and death, were assessed. RESULTS: Among 9825 patients, median (interquartile range [IQR]) age was 60 years (47-72), 47% were women, and 21% non-Hispanic Black. From the Alpha-predominant period (Mar-Jul 2021; N = 1312) to the Omicron BA.4/BA.5 sublineage-predominant period (Jun-Aug 2022; N = 1307): the percentage of patients who had ≥4 categories of underlying medical conditions increased from 11% to 21%; those vaccinated with at least a primary COVID-19 vaccine series increased from 7% to 67%; those ≥75 years old increased from 11% to 33%; those who did not receive any supplemental oxygen increased from 18% to 42%. Median (IQR) highest C-reactive protein and D-dimer concentration decreased from 42.0 mg/L (9.9-122.0) to 11.5 mg/L (2.7-42.8) and 3.1 mcg/mL (0.8-640.0) to 1.0 mcg/mL (0.5-2.2), respectively. In-hospital death peaked at 12% in the Delta-predominant period and declined to 4% during the BA.4/BA.5-predominant period. CONCLUSIONS: Compared to adults hospitalized during early COVID-19 variant periods, those hospitalized during Omicron-variant COVID-19 were older, had multiple co-morbidities, were more likely to be vaccinated, and less likely to experience severe respiratory disease, systemic inflammation, coagulopathy, and death.

  DOI

• Millennial Messiahs, Female Fixers, and Corporate Boards

  Film Quarterly · 2023-01-01

  article1st authorCorresponding

  This article explores how television dramas function as a cultural forum on the workplace power dynamics of US tech startups. Focusing on the limited series, Super Pumped and WeCrashed, which are about Uber and WeWork, the authors analyze how relations of race, class, and gender/sexuality emerge in these narrativized techworlds via several “figures,” including white male founders/CEOs or “millennial messiahs,” “female fixers” that range from executives to silent service providers, and the “corporate board.” These figures are important because they circulate across fictional and non-fictional contexts and become a means by which publics make sense of the power relations of tech startups. Even as these shows center on the trials and tribulations of egomaniacal, power-hungry CEOs, they raise crucial questions about corporate corruption, gender/racial discrimination, and labor exploitation in the tech workplace and challenge viewers to reckon with the unchecked power of the big US technology companies.

  PublisherDOI

• Human-centered designed communication tools for obesity prevention in early life

  Preventive Medicine Reports · 2023-07-22 · 6 citations

  articleOpen access

  Objective: How we communicate about obesity is critical as treatment paradigms shift upstream. We previously identified parental perceptions, concerns, beliefs, and communication preferences about early life obesity risk. We engaged parents of children 0 to 24 months of age and pediatricians from Indianapolis, Indiana, USA in the co-design of messages and tools that can be used to facilitate parent/provider conversations about early life obesity prevention. Methods: From April to June 2021, we conducted a series of co-design workshops with parents of children ages 0 to 24 months and pediatricians to identify their preferences for communicating obesity prevention in the setting of a pediatric well visit. Human-centered design techniques, including affinity diagraming and model building, were used to inform key elements of a communication model and communication strategy messages. These elements were combined and refined to create prototype tools that were subsequently refined using stakeholder feedback. Results: Parent participants included 11 mothers and 2 fathers: 8 white, 4 black, and 1 Asian; median age 33 years with 38% reporting annual household incomes less than $50,000. Pediatricians included 7 female and 6 male providers; 69% white. Through an iterative process of co-design, we created an exam room poster that addresses common misconceptions about infant feeding, sleep and exercise, and a behavior change plan to foster parent/provider collaboration focused on achieving children's healthy weight. Conclusions: Our hands-on, collaborative approach may ultimately improve uptake, acceptability and usability of early life obesity interventions by ensuring that parents remain at the center of prevention efforts.

  PublisherDOI

• The Contexts, Paradoxes, and Rewards of Multidisciplinary Teaching

  The Radical Teacher · 2023-12-08 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  In the Fall of 2021 we co-taught a graduate seminar that launched a year long Mellon Sawyer series. In this essay, we reflect on the contexts, paradoxes and processes that informed our multidisciplinary collaboration teaching a Sawyer Seminar on Race, Migration and White Supremacy in California. We believed that it was vital to being with the migration experiences of Native Americans from rural areas to urban California. We sought to position American Indian migration histories as foundational to cultural and historical understandings of migration to California. Our account of our pedagogical practices details the rewards and realities of collaborative teaching at a public research university. We identify the paradoxes and tensions that we encountered as we developed a syllabus that did not simply "add and stir" different methodologies, histories or fields, but instead, synthesized theoretical and pedagogical across film, art and media studies, history and sociology.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Communicating Risk for Obesity in Early Life: Engaging Parents Using Human-Centered Design Methodologies

  Frontiers in Pediatrics · 2022-06-28 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access

  Objective: Pediatricians are well positioned to discuss early life obesity risk, but optimal methods of communication should account for parent preferences. To help inform communication strategies focused on early life obesity prevention, we employed human-centered design methodologies to identify parental perceptions, concerns, beliefs, and communication preferences about early life obesity risk. Methods: We conducted a series of virtual human-centered design research sessions with 31 parents of infants <24 months old. Parents were recruited with a human intelligence task posted on Amazon's Mechanical Turk, via social media postings on Facebook and Reddit, and from local community organizations. Human-centered design techniques included individual short-answer activities derived from personas and empathy maps as well as group discussion. Results: Parents welcomed a conversation about infant weight and obesity risk, but concerns about health were expressed in relation to the future. Tone, context, and collaboration emerged as important for obesity prevention discussions. Framing the conversation around healthy changes for the entire family to prevent adverse impacts of excess weight may be more effective than focusing on weight loss. Conclusions: Our human-centered design approach provides a model for developing and refining messages and materials aimed at increasing parent/provider communication about early life obesity prevention. Motivating families to engage in obesity prevention may require pediatricians and other health professionals to frame the conversation within the context of other developmental milestones, involve the entire family, and provide practical strategies for behavioral change.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Effectiveness of Monovalent mRNA Vaccines Against COVID-19–Associated Hospitalization Among Immunocompetent Adults During BA.1/BA.2 and BA.4/BA.5 Predominant Periods of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Variant in the United States — IVY Network, 18 States, December 26, 2021–August 31, 2022

  MMWR Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report · 2022 · 59 citations

  • Medicine
  • Virology
  • Immunology

  should receive a booster dose, which currently consists of a bivalent mRNA vaccine, to maximize protection against BA.4/BA.5 and prevent COVID-19-associated hospitalization.

  DOI

Frequent coauthors

• Ithan D. Peltan

  University of Utah

  27 shared

• Samuel M. Brown

  Intermountain Medical Center

  27 shared

• Michelle N. Gong

  Montefiore Medical Center

  26 shared

• Amira Mohamed

  Montefiore Medical Center

  26 shared

• Shekhar Ghamande

  25 shared

• Steven Y. Chang

  University of California, Los Angeles

  24 shared

• Nida Qadir

  Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center

  24 shared

• Tresa McNeal

  Baylor College of Medicine

  24 shared

Labs

• Global Media Technologies & Cultures LabPI

Awards & honors

• 2018 MacArthur Fellow