Lisa Parks

Lisa Parks is a Distinguished Professor of Film and Media Studies and Director of the Global Media Technologies and Cultures Lab at UC Santa Barbara. Her research focuses on satellite technologies, media infrastructures, surveillance, and environmental media. She has authored/co-edited books including Rethinking Media Coverage (2018) and Cultures in Orbit (2005). Parks holds a MacArthur Fellowship (2018) and has held fellowships at institutions like the Bauhaus University in Weimar and the Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin. She leads major grants from the National Science Foundation and collaborates across disciplines with artists, sociologists, and computer scientists to advance technological literacy and social justice.

Her work bridges media studies with critical analyses of power structures in vertical spaces (e.g., drones, satellites), emphasizing how media systems shape global governance and environmental challenges. Parks previously taught at MIT as a Professor of Comparative Media Studies.

• Key Awards: MacArthur "Genius Grant" (2018)
• Grants: NSF-funded projects on media infrastructures and U.S. State Department initiatives
• Labs: Directs the Global Media Technologies and Cultures Lab at UCSB