Lisa Messeri awarded honorable mention for 2024 book on virtual reality

Lisa Messeri, Associate Professor of Anthropology, was awarded the honorable mention for this year’s Ludwik Fleck Prize in Science and Technology Studies for her book In the Land of the Unreal: Virtual and Other Realities in Los Angeles (Duke University Press, 2024).

The Ludwik Fleck Prize is awarded by the Society for Social Studies of Science to recognize an outstanding book in science and technology studies. It is one of the most prestigious international book prizes in the field of science studies.

“It’s an honor to be recognized alongside other insightful scholars who help us make sense of how science and technology shape our society and ourselves,” said Messeri of the honorable mention.  

In the Land of the Unreal is an ethnographic exploration of a community of Los Angeles-based storytellers, tech innovators, and artists that formed in the mid-2010s around the promise—and fantasy—of virtual reality as a cure for societal issues like sexism and racism. Messeri explores the community’s idea of virtual reality as an “empathy machine” and why “technology alone cannot upend systemic forces attached to gender and race.”

The Ludwik Fleck Prize committee described Messeri’s book as a “vital account of virtual reality and social fragmentation.”  

“Messeri’s elegant and lucid prose is accessible to an interdisciplinary audience without diluting complexity,” the prize committee wrote.  

“In the Land of the Unreal powerfully extends the field into the realm of immersive media and speculative futures. It reminds us that science and technology are not only infrastructures and policies but also stories we tell and experiences we try to feel.”