Profile
Thomas Lamarre
Professor
Department of Cinema and Media Studies, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, and the College
Thomas Lamarre’s wide-ranging interests extend to media and mass culture, with a focus on cinema, animation, and new media; intellectual and cultural history, including an emphasis on the construction of national and cultural identities, and the legacy of colonialism and imperialism in Asia; comparative philosophy and cultural theory; Japanese literature; and ritual theory and practice. His current research on animation addresses the use of animals in the formation of media networks associated with colonialism and extraterritorial empire, and the consequent politics of animism and speciesism.
His 2009 publication, The Anime Machine: A Media Theory of Animation (University of Minnesota Press), established him as a leading figure in the field of Japanese animation. His most recent book, The Anime Ecology: A Genealogy of Television, Animation, and Game Media (University of Minnesota Press, 2018), provides a complete account of anime’s relationship to television, while placing it within important historical and global frameworks.
After studying biology and French literature as an undergraduate at Georgetown University and attaining the degree of docteur ès sciences in oceanology from the Université d’Aix-Marseille II, Lamarre earned a PhD in East Asian languages and civilizations from the University of Chicago. Previously, he was the James McGill Professor in East Asian Studies and Associate in Communications Studies at McGill University. He was named a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2016.