Every gamer's favorite academic, Dr. Henry Jenkins of M.I.T., is heading to Hollywood.

In a recent post on his blog, Jenkins writes that he will be moving on to the University of Southern California. A combination of new opportunities and old-fashioned burnout seems to be driving the change:

Even Green Lantern needs to recharge his ring now and again. When I began this process, I had the body of a 37 year old. I woke up one morning and discovered that aliens has swapped it out for the body of a 50 year old. We had enjoyed dramatic expansion over the past few years, but with it has come dramatic increases in my responsibilities, until I reached a point where it was not humanly possible to continue to work at the pace I have been working...

 

USC offered me a truly interdisciplinary position, one which straddles the Communications and Cinema Schools... USC is already doing exciting work along many of the axises which has defined my own research interests -- media literacy, civic media, games, creative industries, and fan culture/audience research... And it's hard for anyone who works on media to resist the attractions of being so close to the heart of the American entertainment industry.

GP: Henry Jenkins is so cool/influential that he's just been awarded his own category tag here at GamePolitics.