Tom Boellstorff, professor of anthropology, has been named one of five UCI inaugural Inclusive Excellence Fellows. Funded by the UC Office of the President Advancing Faculty Diversity grant, the fellowship will support collaboration with Nina Bandelj, UCI associate vice provost for faculty development and professor of sociology, to organize and run faculty development activities. The cohort will also serve in mentoring roles for faculty who participate in grant sponsored activities.

Boellstorff's research focuses on questions surrounding digital culture, sexuality, globalization, nationalism, language, and HIV/AIDS. A fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, he is the author of many articles and the books The Gay Archipelago (Princeton University Press, 2005); A Coincidence of Desires (Duke University Press, 2007); and Coming of Age in Second Life (Princeton University Press, new edition 2015). He is also the coauthor of Ethnography and Virtual Worlds: A Handbook of Method (Princeton University Press, 2012), and the coeditor of Data, Now Bigger and Better (Prickly Paradigm Press, 2015). He's co-editor of the Princeton Studies in Culture and Technology series (Princeton University Press). A former editor-in-chief of American Anthropologist, the flagship journal of the American Anthropological Association, Boellstorff currently sits on the editorial boards of many journals, including Games and Culture and Sexualities. He earned his bachelor’s in linguistics and music and master’s and doctorate in anthropology, all at Stanford University.

Joining Boellstorff in the inaugural cohort are Sharon Block, professor of history, School of Humanities; Kevin Bradford, associate professor of teaching, Paul Merage School of Business; Frances Leslie, professor emerita, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences; and Regina Ragan, professor of materials science and engineering, Henry Samueli School of Engineering.