Marisa Brandt , Ph.D.
Holmes Hall, W-27
919 E. Shaw Lane
East Lansing, MI 48825
United States
LBC Courses Taught
Biography
A mediatrix is a woman who mediates ideas, translating them across spheres to promote understanding, order, and unity. Mediatrixes have long played a crucial social role as science and technology writers. As a technomediatrix, I investigate sites of scientific and technocultural innovation both ethnographically and textually. My work draws on ideas from feminism, science and technology studies, media and cultural studies, gender studies, cyborg anthropology, critical military studies, and social theories of health and medicine. I’m interested in how ideas about who we are as human beings are bound up in the artifacts we make, how we use them, and the knowledge they allow us to produce.
Education
Ph.D., Communication & Science Studies, University of California, San Diego
B.A., English (Honors), Creative Writing Minor, University of California, Berkeley
Honors and Awards
2024, Society for Social Studies of Science/European Association for Science Technology & Society Making and Doing Session Award for “An STS Teachbook” – shared with Emily York, Shannon Conley, David Tomblin, Nicole Mogul, Elizabeth Reddy, Marie Stettler-Kleine, and Megan Halpern
2024, Accepted to/attended University of South Carolina’s Ann Johnston Institute week-long writing workshop (competitive, funded) on STS in Public to support collaborating on CREATE/STS writing work, Ampersand Inn, Newton, New Jersey
2018, Lyman Briggs College Student Choice Faculty Teaching Award
Research
Manuscript Under Preparation:
Cool and In Control: The Making of Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy
Publications
Articles
Peer-Reviewed Articles:
- Manuscript in preparation for Computers and Education Min Zhuang*, Rachel Szczytko, Caitlin K. Kirby, Ava Crumley, Rachel A. Barnard, Imari Cheyne Tetu, Marisa Brandt, Claire Oldham Griffith, Kaisen Lin, Eleanor Louson, Casey McArdle, and Liza Potts. (2026). The HyFlex Goldilocks Zone: Finding Ideal Classroom Conditions for In-Person Persistence Through Survival Analysis; Computers and Education
- Manuscript in preparation for Issues in Interdisciplinary Studies: David Tomblin, Marisa Brandt, Nicole Mogul, Megan Halpern, Justin Yan, and Noon Bannaga, “Interdisciplinary Affective Boundary Objects: Nurturing Permissible Atmospheric Conditions to Challenge the Siloed Status Quo in Higher Education”
- Re-submitted to Bulletin of Science, Technology and Society after review and revision: Marisa Brandt, Megan Halpern, Elizabeth Reddy, Marie Stettler Kleine, Emily York, Shannon Conley, David Tomblin, Nicole Mogul, Justin Yan, Madison Kortman, Ben Rodi, Noon Bannaga, and Moaid Shaik, “Collaborating with Undergraduates to Transform STS Education”
- Submitted to Science, Technology, and Human Values, received review and in revision– Elizabeth Reddy, Marie Stettler Kleine, Emily York, Shannon Conley, David Tomblin, Nicole Mogul, Marisa Brandt, and Megan Halpern, “Thinking from the Classroom: On Approaching STS Making and Doing with Insights from Critical Pedagogy”
- 2024 Marisa Brandt, June Oh and Yukyung Bae, “Curriculum Design for a First-Year Writing Course for STEM Students” Composition Studies 52.1 (Spring 2024): 103–116 https://compstudiesjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/brandt-oh-bae.pdf
- 2024 Conley, Shannon N., Emily York, Eleanor S. Armstrong, Marisa Brandt, Anita Chan, Martín Pérez Comisso, Shelby Dietz, Rachel Douglas-Jones, Maxwell Etka, Sean Ferguson, Courtney Forberg, Anna Geltzer, Monamie Haines, Nolan Harrington, Matthew Harsh, Alexa Houck, Eric B. Kennedy, Alison Kenner, Crystal Lee, James W. Malazita, Nicole Mogul, Sharlissa Moore, Cora Olson, Elizabeth Reddy, Kathleen Sheppard, Ashley Shew, Ranjit Singh, sam smiley, Lindsay Smith, Ellan Spero, David Tomblin, Danica Tran, Raquel Velho, Andrew Webb, Aubrey Wigner, Damien Williams, Matt Wisnioski, Hong-An Wu, Kari Zacharias, and Malte Ziewitz. 2024. “Provocations from the ‘STS as a Critical Pedagogy’ Workshop.” Engaging Science, Technology, and Society 10(1–2): 103–133. https://doi.org/10.17351/ests2023.1927.
- 2023 Elizabeth Reddy, Marie Stettler Kleine, Emily York, Shannon Conley, David Tomblin, Nicole Mogul, Marisa Brandt and Kathryn Peck. “Pedagogical Workshops for Interdisciplinary Trading Zones with Faculty and Students: Insights from an Engineering-Focused University.” American Society for Engineering Education. Baltimore, MD https://peer.asee.org/pedagogical-workshops-for-interdisciplinary-trading-zones-with-faculty-and-students-insights-from-an-engineering-focused-university.pdf 2019 Lisa Messeri, Marisa Brandt. “Imagining Feminist Futures on the Small Screen? Inclusion and Care in VR Worlds.” NatureCulture special issue on Anthropology and Science Fiction
- 2019 Laura Cabrera, Marisa Brandt, Rachel McKenzie, and Robyn Bluhm, “Online Comments about Neurosurgery and Psychopharmacological Interventions: Public Perceptions and Concerns.” Social Science and Medicine. Jan, 184-192. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.11.021
- 2018 Laura Cabrera, Marisa Brandt, Rachel McKenzie, and Robyn Bluhm, “Comparison of Philosophical Concerns between Professionals and the Lay Public Regarding Two Psychiatric Treatments.” AJOB Empirical Bioethics. https://doi.org/10.1080/23294515.2018.1512534
- 2016 “Simulated War: Trauma Therapy without Politics.”Catalyst: Feminism Theory, Technoscience. 2(1), 1-42 http://catalystjournal.org/ojs/index.php/catalyst/article/view/brandt
Book in Preparation
An STS Teachbook: Recipes from our Science & Technology Studies Communities for Critical Pedagogies in Undergraduate Education, under contract with Lever Press: https://sites.google.com/view/ststeachbook/home
Member of the Editorial Collective along with Emily York, Shannon Conley, David Tomblin, Nicole Mogul, Elizabeth Reddy, Marie Stettler-Klein, and Megan Halpern.
Book Chapters
- 2022 Marisa Brandt, Morgan Kiryakoza and Mitchell Reddan, “The Ultimate Medium for People with Disabilities? Re-Centring the Human in Virtual Reality Visions of Play, Care, and Empathy” Gaming Disability: Disability Perspectives on Contemporary Video Games, Mike Kent, Tama Leaver, & Kate Ellis (eds), Routledge & CRC Press.
- 2018 with Luke Stark, “Exploring Digital Interventions in Mental Health: A Roadmap” In D. Travers Scott and Adrienne Shaw (eds). Interventions: Communication Theory and Practice. New York: Peter Lang
- 2013 “From the Ultimate Display to the Ultimate Skinner Box: Virtual Reality and the Future of Psychotherapy.” In Kelly Gates (ed), International Encyclopedia of Media Studies Vol. 6: Media Studies Futures. London: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 518–539