Michael Wesch
Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology, Kansas State University

Dubbed “the explainer” by Wired magazine, Michael Wesch is a cultural anthropologist at Kansas State University exploring the impacts of new media on human interaction. After two years studying the impacts of writing on a remote indigenous culture in the rainforest of Papua New Guinea, he has turned his attention to the effects of social media and digital technology on global society. His videos on technology, education, and information have been viewed over six million times and are frequently featured at international film festivals and major academic conferences.

Wesch has won several major awards for his work, including a Wired Rave Award and the John Culkin Award for Outstanding Praxis in Media Ecology. He is also a multiple award-winning teacher whose teaching projects are frequently featured in the Chronicle of Higher Education and other major media outlets worldwide.