NODE.801 Vita, Fragments & Ruins

VITA

B. RICARDO BROWN, PhD
Associate Professor of Cultural Studies
Department of Social Science & Cultural Studies
Pratt Institute
Dekalb Hall, Room 315, 200 Willoughby Ave., Brooklyn, New York 11205
BRBrownIII@earthlink.net http://node801.org

ACADEMIC POSITIONS

Associate Professor of Cultural Studies
Department of Social Science & Cultural Studies, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York, Fall 2004 – Present.

Coordinator (viz., Director), B.A. Program in Critical & Visual Studies
Department of Social Science & Cultural Studies, Spring 2010 – Present

Director, B.A. Program in Cultural Studies
Department of Social Science & Cultural Studies, Spring 2000 – Spring 2003.

Assistant Professor of Cultural Studies
Department of Social Science & Cultural Studies, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York, Fall 1997 – Spring 2004.

EDUCATION

Ph. D., Sociology, City University of New York Graduate Center, New York, New York., February 2001, with concentration in Cultural Studies.
Dissertation: “The Spirit of Discipline: Communitarianism in Social Theory and Social Policy” (Accepted with Distinction). Committee: Stanley Aronowitz, Patricia T. Clough, Hester Eisenstein.

M. Phil., Sociology, City University of New York Graduate Center, New York, New York, 1997, with concentration in Cultural Studies.
Classical Theory Exam: Marx, Weber, Durkheim
Contemporary Theory Exam: Foucault, Habermas, Critical Theory
Oral Exams: Fascism & Critical Theory (Stanley Aronowitz), Social Movements (Bogden Denitch), Social & Cultural Theory (Patricia T. Clough)

Graduate Fellow in Cultural and Historical Geography, Department of Geography, Maxwell School of
Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, 1985-87.
Project (unfinished): “Luminism, Emerson, and the Landscape of 19th Century New England.”

B. A., Environmental Studies, Simon's Rock College, Great Barrington, MA, 1982.
Thesis: “A Natural Resources Inventory of the Upper Campus of Simon's Rock College [with results of the sampling of the Benthic Invertebrates of Lake Mansfield].”

MONOGRAPH

Until Darwin: Science, Human Variety, and the Origins of Race.
Pickering and Chatto, London, October 2010.

ESSAYS, REVIEWS, & Other WORKS

2011.

The Bull of Phalaris: Further Notes on Terror and Materialist Politics. (Under review by Situations: Project of the Radical Imagination)

The Sociological Study of Community, c.1925-c.1975. (Under review by Critical Sociology)

2010.

John Bachman. Dictionary of Early American Philosophers. Thoemmes Continuum.

2008.

Darwin, Slavery, and Science. In The Civil War and Reconstruction Era: 1850s-1877 in the series Conflicts in American History, edited by Brian L. Johnson and Edward J. Blum. Columbia, S.C., Manly/Facts on File.

2007.

A City Without Walls: Notes on Terror and Counter-Terrorism. Situations: Project of the Radical Imagination, Spring, Vol. 2, no.1.

Josiah Nott. Encyclopedia of Race and Racism. Macmillan Press, 2007.

Brief Critical Remarks. Ubiquitous: Literary & Arts Magazine, Spring 2007.

2004.

Philip Selznick. Dictionary of Modern American Philosophy, 1860-1960, Theommes Press.

Review: “HarlemWorld: Metropolis as Metaphor.” Studio Museum in Harlem, January 28 – April 4, 2004” The Architect.

2003.

Review: “Dialectic of Enlightenment: Philosophical Fragments. by Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno. Edited by Guzelin Schmid Noerr. Translated by Edmund Jephcott.” Critical Sociology, Vol. 29:2 March, 2003.
http://crs.sagepub.com/content/29/2/274.full.pdf+html

2001.

Review: “Historicism, Psychoanalysis, and Early European Culture by Carla Mazzio and Douglas Trevor (eds).” Journal of Intercultural Studies, April 2001.

The Foundations of Ethics: Marx on Epicurean Materialism and the Domination of Sensuous Experience. Found Object, Winter/Spring Issue, Number 2.

Review: “The Postmodern Marx by Terrell Carver.” Critical Sociology, Volume 27, Number 2. http://crs.sagepub.com/content/27/2/290.full.pdf+html

2000.

Marx and the Foundations of the Critical Theory of Morality and Ethics. Cultural Logic, Volume 2, Number 2.

1998.

Review: “The Rise of Baptist Republicanism by Oran P. Smith.” Southeastern Political Review [now Politics & Policy], Fall.

IN PROGRESS

Manuscripts:

Homo Socius: Human Variety and the Origins of Sociology, 1778-1914
The Bull of Phalaris: Fragments of Materialist Politics
Ancient Reflections on Human Variety
Paul Whipple: A Biography

Edited Manuscript:

The Origins of Race: Readings in the History of Science

Essays:

The History of the Life Sciences and the Origins of Sociological Discourses on Degeneracy in the United States, c.1820 - 1930
The Ibis and the Negro: A Moment in the History of Race
The Colonne du Souvigny: The Order of the World in a Medieval Garden
Recapitulation, Habermas, and the Reconstruction of Historical Materialism
Ancient Reflections on Human Variety: Aristotle, Xenophon and Pliny the Elder
Ruins, Fragments, Genealogy

CONFERENCES, LECTURES, TALKS

2011.

“'...keeping alive the critical analysis of the social world was and remains an important program’: Stanley Aronowitz and Cultural Studies”
For the panel Honoring and Engaging Aronowitz: Remaking the Knowledge Factory
Left Forum, Pace University, New York City, March 18 – 20, 2011

2009.

“Darwin, Slavery, and the Species Question.” Darwin's Reach: A Celebration of Darwin's Legacy Across Academic Disciplines, March, 12, 13, 14. Hofstra Cultural Center, Hofstra University.

2008.

“Remarks on the Successful Institutionalization and the Political Failure of Cultural Studies.” Left Forum 2008, Cooper Union, March.

2005.

“A Short History of Race for Today's Social Scientist,” National Center for Children in Poverty, Columbia University, December 2005.

2004.

Organizer, “Science and Race in 19th Century America: New Histories and Interpretations,” Annual Meeting of the American Studies Association, Atlanta, GA, November, 2004.

“The Classification of Human Variety in the History of the Life Sciences and the Origins of Race,” Annual Meeting of the American Studies Association, Atlanta, November 2004.

2002.

Organizer and Moderator, Department of Social Science & Cultural Studies, Faculty Seminar and Works-in-Progress Series, Spring/Fall 2002.

2001.

Organizer, “Culture, War, & Polis: The Pre-Socratics in Society,” Faculty Seminar co-sponsored by the Program in Cultural Studies, Pratt Institute and the CUNY Center for the Study of Culture, Technology, and Work, Fall 2001 [cancelled due to events of 9.11]

"Who are the Enemies of Civilization?” 9.11.01 and After: Responses and Responsibilities, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York, October 2001.

Co-Organizer, “Section on Marxist Sociology Roundtable Sessions,” Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, Anaheim, CA., D.C., August 2001.

2000.

“Community, Public Space, and the New Authoritarianism,” The New Authoritarianism, sponsored by the Center for Cultural Studies, NY-ACLU, Coalition for the Homeless, and others, City University of New York Graduate Center, June 2000.

“Sociology, The History of Science, and the Origins of Race,” Section on Marxist Sociology, Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, Washington, D.C., August 2000.

Organizer, “Section on Marxist Sociology Roundtable Sessions,” Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, Washington, D.C., August 2000. Sessions Organized: Human Nature and Democracy; Radical Pedagogy and Radical Praxis; Reading Louis Althusser; Negri and Potenza: Autonomous Marxism in the Post-Socialist Era; Whither Materialist Feminism?; Film and The Production of Space; Popular Culture/Popular Justice; Popular Culture and the Reification of Urban Spaces; Marxism and Science: Problems of History and Method; Prisons, Courts, and Power; Welfare Reform, Education, and the Obligation to Work; Women and Development; Biological Determinism; Authoritarianism, Neo-Fascism, Proto-Populism, and Nationalism in the New Millennium; Accumulation on a World Scale; Ethnic War and Nationalism; Local Organizations and Local Action; Contemporary Views of Classical Theories.

Organizer and Faculty Advisor, “Seeing Multi-Culturalism/Revisioning Globalization; Talk About Complications: Re-presenting Women, Questioning Gender.” Pratt Institute Annual Film, Music, and Lecture Series, 1999-2000

1998-9.

Organizer, “Seeing Multi-Culturalism: Dystopian Views of the Urban Landscape” Pratt Institute Annual Film, Music, and Lecture Series, 1998-1999.

“Recapitulation and the Reconstruction of Historical Materialism, or On Habermas,” Session on Critical Theory, Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Society, San Francisco, CA., August 1998.

Website Designer, “Which Way for Women and Development? Debating Concepts, Strategies, and Directions for the 21st Century.” Sponsored by the 20 departments and Centers of the Graduate School and University Center of the City of New York. The Borough of Manhattan Community College, October 15- 17, 1998.

1997.

“Ethics of the Social: Community, Communitarianism, and Communism,” Socialist Scholars Conference, New York, N.Y., March 1997.

Website Designer, “Hopelessly Liberal? The Media and the Cultural Conversation.” The Cultural Reporting and Criticism Program, New York University Department of Journalism and the Center for Cultural Studies, Graduate Center of the City University of New York, April 19, 1997.

Organizer and Discussant, Panel on “Communism, Socialism, and Communitarianism.” Socialist Scholars Conference, New York, N.Y., March 1997.

Discussant, “Capitalism and the Counter-Logic of Desire: Freedom, Desire, and the Labor Movement,” three papers on the logic of capital. Socialist Scholars Conference, New York, N.Y., March 1997.

1996.

“The Communitarian Network: Sociology, Sociologists, and Possible Responses to the New Right,” Section on Marxist Sociology, Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, New York, N.Y., August 1996.

“State Capitalism and the Perpetual Accumulation of Capital: the Collapse of the U.S.S.R. and the Deterritorialization of Marxist Practice” (with Simon Krysl), Section on Marxist Sociology, Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, New York, N.Y., August 1996.

1995.

Moderator and Discussant, “Irreconcilable Differences: Jobless Economic Recovery and the American Dream.” The Wages of Cybernation: A Working Conference on the Future of Work, sponsored by the Center for Cultural Studies, the Consortium for Worker Education, and the Labor Management Educators Committee, Graduate Center, City University of New York, March 1995.

“The Communitarian Frame of Community: A Critique of the Sociology of Social Movement Frames,” Special Session on Political Culture: Identities, Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, Washington, D.C., August 1995.

1994.

“Media Diversion(s): Dan Quayle, New Right Ideology, and the Uses of Murphy Brown,” Faculty Colloquium, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., May 1994.

“Media Diversion(s): Dan Quayle, New Right Ideology, and the Uses of Murphy Brown,” Works-in-Progress Series, Center for Cultural Studies, Graduate Center, City University of New York, April 1994.

“Media Diversion(s): Dan Quayle, New Right Ideology, and the Uses of Murphy Brown.” Regular Session, Annual Meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, Baltimore, Maryland, March 1994.

Lecture, “Media Diversion(s): Dan Quayle, Murphy Brown, and the New Right” for Nancy K. Cauthen, Sociology of the Family, New York University, 1993 & 1994.

ADDITIONAL ACADEMIC & WORK EXPERIENCE

Article Editor, SAGE Open, peer-reviewed Open Access project of Sage Publishers.

Editorial Collective Member, Situations: Project of the Radical Imagination, New York City, 2005 – Present.

Member, School Leadership Committee, NYC Board of Education, PS/IS 187 [c. 800 students, pre-k - 8th grades], Washington Heights, New York City, 2005 – 2007.

Visiting Lecturer, “Cultural Studies,” Pratt Institute, Spring 1997.

Adjunct Lecturer in Sociology and the Program in International Education (funded by the Soros Foundation) “Rights and Responsibilities: Community at the Intersection of 'Race,' Class, and Gender,” Bard College, Fall 1994. Syllabus included in Jean Ait-Amber Belkhir and Bernice McNair Barnett, eds. 1997. An Inclusive Curriculum: Race, Gender, and Class in Sociological Instruction, Washington, DC: American Sociological Association (Teaching Resources Series).

Legal Reference Librarian and On-Line Systems Librarian, 1987 - August 1997.
Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett, Attorneys at Law, New York, New York.
Legal and corporate reference requiring extensive use of traditional library research methods and computerized database research. Compilation and presentation of research to both firm attorneys and clients. Supervised research projects of staff and paralegals. Evaluated databases for use by the firm. Compiled monthly securities report used by the firm in all aspects of its domestic and international practice.

Washington Liaison Assistant
National Coalition of Neighborhoods, Washington, D.C.
Lobbyist and managed the Washington office of this community based fair housing organization. Researched and edited study of similar fair housing organizations. Served as Washington liaison to the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. May – August, 1985.

Contributor, Ecological Impact of the Proposed Housatonic River Greenway, Great Barrington, MA. (section on potential impact of run-off pollution)
Berkshire County Regional Planning Commission, Pittsfield, MA., 1984.
Directed small research group examining the feasibility of establishing a 20 mile greenway along the Housatonic River. Responsible for the sampling of water for quality survey data and for the analysis of the social impact of the proposed project. Report submitted to the BCRPC and Berkshire Environmental Resource Center.

International Environmental Internship Program of the University of Iowa and Simon’s Rock College
Ministries of the Interior and Justice, Republic of Cyprus, Summer 1980.
Project was the first environmental impact statement performed in Cyprus. Conducted ecological field work on the environmental impact of a proposed waste treatment plant on the Akroteri Salt Marsh and Lake. Sampled water quality along the coastline of Limosol and traced biological pollutants to nearby slaughterhouses. Conducted research into legal aspects of environmental impact under Cypriot and U.K. law.

AWARDS

Course Release, NYSUT/United Federation of College Teachers (UFCT), Local 1460 Grievance Committee, Spring    2007 - present.
    Mellon Research/Creative Grant 2000-2001.
    Mellon Fund Grant for Faculty Development, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001.
    Mellon Fund Grant for Research and Travel, 1998, 2000.
    Graduate Fellowship in Cultural Geography, Syracuse University, 1985-1987.
    Scholarships and Grants, Simon's Rock College, 1979-1981.
    Research and Travel Grant for International Environmental Internship, Simon's Rock College, Summer 1980.

ACADEMIC & INSTITUTIONAL SERVICE

    Program Coordinator (Director), B.A. Program in Critical & Visual Studies, Spring 2011 - Present.
    Member, NYSUT/United Federation of College Teachers (UFCT), Local 1460 Grievance Committee, Spring 2007
-present.
    Member, Search Committee, Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences, 2010-2011
    Search Committee, Professor of World Civilization, 2010-2011
    Search Committee, Professor of World Civilization and Critical & Visual Studies, 2010- 2011
    Member, NYSUT/United Federation of College Teachers (UFCT), Local 1460 Negotiating Committee, Summer 2007.
    Senator, Academic Senate, April 2006- October 2006.
    Director, B.A. Program in Cultural Studies, Spring 2000 – Spring 2003.
    Member, Provost’s Faculty Development Fund Committee, Fall 2002---Spring 2003.
    Search Committee, Professor of History, Fall 2002 – Spring 2003.
    Chair, PART Committee, Fall 2002 – Spring 2003.
    PART Committee Rules Revision (drafted and edited revision of departmental promotion, appointment, and tenure rules
document), Spring 2002.
    Curriculum Review and New Course Development (30 Courses), Spring 2002–Fall 2003.
    Coordinator, Working Group on Cultural Studies, Spring 2000- Fall 2001.
    Search Committee, Professor of Global Studies, Spring 2000.
    Search Committee, Professor of Media Studies, Spring 2000.
    Cultural Studies Undergraduate Degree Program Proposal Committee, 1998-2000.
    Pratt Institute Distinguished Professor Selection Committee, Spring 1999.
    Search Committee, Professor of Globalization, Fall, 1998.
    Department of Social Science, United Federation of College Teachers Organizing Committee, Spring 1998- Fall 1999.

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS (past and present)

    American Sociological Association
    American Studies Association
    Society for the History of Natural History
    19th Century History Society
    Eastern Sociological Society
    Social Science History Association
    Society for Social Studies of Science

COURSES

Pratt Institute
Courses Developed for Cultural Studies Program

Introduction to Cultural Studies, Spring 1997, Spring 1998, Spring 1999, Spring 2000, Fall 2003, Spring 2004, Fall 2004, Spring 2006, Fall 2006, Spring 2007, Fall 2007, Fall 2008, Spring 2008, Spring 2010, Fall 2010, Spring 2011.

Controversies in Cultural Theory: Postmodernism, Science Studies and the Social Text Affair, Fall 1997, Fall 1998, Spring 2001.

Controversies in Cultural Theory: Marx and Nietzsche, Fall 1999. Co-taught with Prof. Sameetah Agha. Syllabus included in Teaching Sociology from a Marxist Perspective, 2nd ed. Washington, D.C.: American Sociological Association.

Methods of Cultural Analysis, Spring 1998, Spring 1999, Spring 2000, Spring 2001.

Cultural Studies Praxis Course I: From Work to Text, Spring 2004.

Cultural Studies Praxis Course II: Siting Culture

New Elective Courses Created within the Department of Social Science & Cultural Studies

The Uses of Terror, Fall 2004.

Sociology and Society: An Introduction to Sociological Theory

Fixity, Succession, Progress, and Degeneration: Cuvier, Hegel, Spencer, Lombroso.

Marx, Darwin, Nietzsche, Freud: Transvaluation and Society, Fall 2007, Spring 2008.

Marx, Darwin, Nietzsche, Freud: the Sciences of Life & Society, Fall 2010.

Foucault and Critical Theory, Spring 2006, Spring 2007, Spring 2010.

Societies of Control, Fall 2000, Spring 2001, Fall 2003, Spring 2005.

Science and the Origins of Race, Spring 2000, Fall 2003, Spring 2005, Fall 2006. Syllabus included in the collection at the RaceSci: The History of the Science of Race site edited by Prof. Evelynn Hammonds at http://di-145c.mit.edu/racesci/

Spaces, Movements, Identities (this course met jointly with Prof. W. Menking’s Planning and Environment course in Urban Planning), Fall 1998, Spring 2000, Fall 2003, Fall 2004. Syllabus included in Teaching Sociology from a Marxist Perspective, 1st and 2nd eds., Washington, D.C.: American Sociological Association.

Elective Courses revised for the Department of Social Science & Cultural Studies

Perception and Creativity, Fall 1997, Fall 1998, Fall 1999.

Political Institutions: State, Civil Society, and Community, Fall 1997, Fall 1999, Spring 2004, Spring 2005, Spring 2006, Fall 2006.

Introductory Sociology: The Ends and Uses of Society, Fall 1999, Fall 2000. Syllabus included in Teaching Sociology from a Marxist Perspective,1st and 2nd eds., Washington, D.C.: American Sociological Association.

Bard College

Rights & Responsibilities: Community at the Intersection of Race, Class, and Gender, Fall 1999. Syllabus in Jean Ait-Amber Belkhir and Bernice McNair Barnett, eds. 1997, 1999. An Inclusive Curriculum: Race, Gender, and Class in Sociological Instruction, 1st and 2nd editions American Sociological Association Teaching Resources Series.

BLOGS : WEB SITES : PROJECTS

NODE801 http://node801.org
RUINS http://node801.blogspot.com
My main site and its associated blog. Essays and notes, as well as much of the content on the website related to teaching are (slowly) being moved to the academia.edu site: http://pratt.academia.edu/BRicardoBrown

http://until-darwin.blogspot.com
A blog associated with my book Until Darwin: Science, Human Variety, and the Origins of Race.

http://soundcloud.com/summerclub-node801
Unmixed tracks and sound samples exchanged with a long-standing but loose network Depending on the vicissitudes of our experiences of everyday life, the tracks are replaced or remixed after they have been exchanged. Once this was done via mailed cassette tapes, which says a bit about how long this project has lasted.

Aeschylus: Prometheus Bound, part of the project Genealogical Sources on Materialism
for the Study of the Writings of Karl Marx, February, 2009.

From the Archive: Documents and Materials from the Formation of Cultural Studies at Pratt Institute c.1997-2002.

Talk version of "Media Diversion(s): Dan Quayle, New Right Ideology, and the Uses of Murphy Brown" Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, Baltimore, Maryland, March 1994.

PHALANX: Journal of a Marginal Collective, c. 1990

“A Natural Resources Inventory of the Upper Campus of Simon's Rock College (with results of the sampling of the Benthic Invertebrates of Lake Mansfield)." Undergraduate Thesis, Simon's Rock College, Great
Barrington, MA.