David Humphrey

David Humphrey serves as Associate Professor in the Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures and Director of the Japanese Studies Program at Michigan State University's College of Arts and Letters. He maintains affiliated faculty positions in Film Studies and Digital Humanities, contributing to interdisciplinary scholarship across these domains. His academic journey includes foundational training at the University of California, Berkeley.

• Ph.D. in Japanese, University of California, Berkeley (with designated emphasis in New Media)
• M.A. in Japanese, University of California, Berkeley

Humphrey's research centers on the media and culture of modern Japan alongside science and technology studies within East Asian contexts. His work critically examines how comedy functions as a cultural force in Japanese media landscapes while investigating intersections of technology, surveillance, and human attention. The 2023 monograph The Time of Laughter: Comedy and the Media Cultures of Japan establishes his expertise in media historical analysis, with current research extending into machine learning's societal impacts through his forthcoming manuscript Training Attention.

His publication trajectory reveals evolving engagement with Japanese media ecosystems, progressing from historical analyses of television comedy (2013-2018) toward contemporary digital culture and surveillance studies (2020-2023). This body of work consistently applies interdisciplinary frameworks from media studies, STS, and cultural theory to examine how technological shifts reshape social practices and cultural production in Japan.

As an educator, Humphrey teaches Japanese Cinema (JPN260), Japanese Literature and Culture sequences (JPN369/469), and Global Digital Cultures (GSAH312), bridging language instruction with critical media analysis. He joined MSU in 2018 after teaching positions at Middlebury College and the University of Notre Dame, building on his Berkeley training to develop curriculum that connects Japanese cultural production with global technological transformations.