Kent A. Ono is a Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Utah. Professor Ono conducts critical and theoretical research of print, film, and television media, specifically focusing on representations of race, gender, sexuality, class, and nation. He has contributed articles to numerous journals including: Communication Monographs, Critical Studies in Media Communication, Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, Communication Inquiry, Western Journal of Communication, Philosophy and Rhetoric, Amerasia Journal, and Journal of Asian American Studies.

He has authored Contemporary Media Culture and the Remnants of a Colonial Past (Peter Lang, 2009). Also, in addition to co-authoring Asian Americans and the Media with Vincent Pham (Polity 2009) and Shifting Borders: Rhetoric, Immigration, and California’s Proposition 187 with John Sloop (Temple University Press, 2002), he has co-edited Critical Rhetorics of Race with Michael Lacy (New York University Press, 2011) and Enterprise Zones: Critical Positions on Star Trek with Taylor Harrison, Sarah Projansky, and Elyce Helford (Westview Press, 1996) and has edited Asian American Studies after Critical Mass (Blackwell, 2005) and A Companion to Asian American Studies (Blackwell, 2005).

Ono chaired Utah's Department of Communication from 2012-2017. He directed the Asian American Studies Program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 2002-2007. He also directed the Cultural Studies Program at the University of California at Davis from 1999-2002. He founded the Asian American Cultural Politics Research Cluster at UC Davis in 1997. He wrote the proposal to create the journal, Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies. He helped propose, organize and chair the Critical and Cultural Studies Division of NCA from 2000-2001; chaired the Asian Pacific American Caucus of NCA in 1996-1997; co-chaired the Asian Pacific American Caucus of the Society for Cinema Studies (1999-2001); and has planned several conferences.

He is past editor of the journal Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies. He is past coeditor of the book series “Critical Cultural Communication” with Sarah Banet-Weiser at New York University Press. He is also past co-editor of the journal Critical Studies in Media Communication with Ronald L Jackson II. He was elected Second Vice President of the National Communication Association and was President of that Association in 2020. He is a Fellow of the International Communication Association and a Distinguished Scholar of the National Communication Association.