Mizuko Ito

In January 2013, Ito and her collaborators, who include Kris Gutierrez, Sonia Livingstone, Bill Penuel, Jean Rhodes, Katie Salen, Juliet Schor, Julian Sefton-Green, and S. Craig Watkins, released Connected Learning: An Agenda for Research and Design, a synthesis report of the Connected Learning Research Network.

In 2006, Ito received a MacArthur Foundation grant to "observe children's interactions with digital media to get a sense of how they're really using the technology." This work led to creation of the Digital Media and Learning Research Hub (housed in the University of California Humanities Research Institute) and the publication of two books: Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out and Engineering Play: A Cultural History of Children's Software.

Ito's main professional interest are connected learning and young people's use of media technology. She has explored the ways in which digital media are changing relationships, identities, and communities. With Misa Matsuda and Daisuke Okabe, Ito edited Personal, Portable, Pedestrian: Mobile Phones in Japanese Life (MIT Press, 2005). She also investigated otaku fan culture with collaborators Daisuke Okabe and Izumi Tsuji, which resulted in the book Fandom Unbound: Otaku Culture in a Connected World.

Ito did her graduate work at Stanford University. In 1991, she received a Masters of Arts degree in anthropology; her thesis was "The Holistic Alternative: A Symbolic Analysis of an Emergent Culture." In 1998, she received a Ph.D. from the Department of Education for her dissertation: "Interactive Media for Play: Kids, Computer Games and the Productions of Everyday Life." In 2003, she received a Ph.D. from the Department of Anthropology for her dissertation: "Engineering Play: Children’s Software and the Productions of Everyday Life."

Mizuko Ito grew up between the United States and Japan. In Japan, she attended Nishimachi International School and the American School in Japan. She did her undergraduate work at Harvard University, graduating in 1990 with a degree in East Asian studies: her thesis was "Zen and Tea Ritual: A Comparative Analysis."

Mizuko Itō or Mizuko Ito or Mimi Ito (伊藤瑞子 , Itō Mizuko, born 22 July 1968) is a Japanese cultural anthropologist who is a Professor in Residence at the Humanities Research Institute at the University of California, Irvine. Her main professional interest is young people's use of media technology. She has explored the ways in which digital media are changing relationships, identities, and communities.