Alondra Nelson
Encyclopedia
Alondra Nelson is an American
academic and writer. She is Associate Professor of Sociology
at Columbia University in the City of New York. She holds an appointment in the Institute for Research on Women and Gender at Columbia. From 2003-2009, she was Assistant Professor of African American Studies
, American Studies
and Sociology
at Yale University
, where she was the recipient of the Poorvu Family Award for Interdisciplinary Teaching. At Yale, she was also the first African American woman to join the Department of Sociology faculty.
(magna cum laude) from the University of California at San Diego in 1994. She earned a Ph.D.
in American Studies
from New York University
in 2003.
From an interdisciplinary social science perspective, Nelson writes about the intersection of science, technology, medicine and African diasporic experience. Named one of "13 Notable Blacks In Technology" By AOL Black Voices, she established the Afrofuturism
on-line community in 1998 and edited an eponymous special issue of the journal Social Text
in 2002. She is also co-editor Technicolor: Race, Technology and Everyday Life, one of the first scholarly works to examine the racial politics of contemporary technoculture. Nelson recently contributed a chapter to Sound Unbound: Sampling Digital Music and Culture (The MIT Press, 2008) edited by Paul D. Miller a.k.a. DJ Spooky
. Her writing and commentary have appeared in The New York Times
, The Washington Post
, The Boston Globe
, The Guardian (London) and The Chronicle of Higher Education
, among other publications.
Nelson has been a visiting scholar at BIOS Centre for the Study of Bioscience, Biomedicine, Biotechnology and Society
at the London School of Economics
and the International Center for Advanced Studies at New York University
. Her research has been supported by the Ford Foundation
, the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation
, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
. She serves on the editorial boards of Social Studies of Science
and Social Text
.
diseases and identities.' In Atkinson, Glasner and Lock (eds.) The Handbook of Genetics & Society: Mapping the New Genomic Era. London: Routledge.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
academic and writer. She is Associate Professor of Sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
at Columbia University in the City of New York. She holds an appointment in the Institute for Research on Women and Gender at Columbia. From 2003-2009, she was Assistant Professor of African American Studies
African American studies
African American studies is a subset of Black studies or Africana studies. It is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to the study of the history, culture, and politics of African Americans...
, American Studies
American studies
American studies or American civilization is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the study of the United States. It traditionally incorporates the study of history, literature, and critical theory, but also includes fields as diverse as law, art, the media, film, religious studies, urban...
and Sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, where she was the recipient of the Poorvu Family Award for Interdisciplinary Teaching. At Yale, she was also the first African American woman to join the Department of Sociology faculty.
Education and career
Nelson earned a B.A. in AnthropologyAnthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
(magna cum laude) from the University of California at San Diego in 1994. She earned a Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in American Studies
American studies
American studies or American civilization is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the study of the United States. It traditionally incorporates the study of history, literature, and critical theory, but also includes fields as diverse as law, art, the media, film, religious studies, urban...
from New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
in 2003.
From an interdisciplinary social science perspective, Nelson writes about the intersection of science, technology, medicine and African diasporic experience. Named one of "13 Notable Blacks In Technology" By AOL Black Voices, she established the Afrofuturism
Afrofuturism
Afrofuturism is an emergent literary and cultural aesthetic that combines elements of science fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, Afrocentricity, and magic realism with non-Western cosmologies in order to critique not only the present-day dilemmas of people of color, but also to revise,...
on-line community in 1998 and edited an eponymous special issue of the journal Social Text
Social Text
Social Text is an academic journal published by Duke University Press. Since its inception as an independent editorial collective in 1979, Social Text has addressed a wide range of social and cultural phenomena, covering questions of gender, sexuality, race, and the environment...
in 2002. She is also co-editor Technicolor: Race, Technology and Everyday Life, one of the first scholarly works to examine the racial politics of contemporary technoculture. Nelson recently contributed a chapter to Sound Unbound: Sampling Digital Music and Culture (The MIT Press, 2008) edited by Paul D. Miller a.k.a. DJ Spooky
DJ Spooky
Paul D. Miller , known by his stage name DJ Spooky, That Subliminal Kid, is a Washington DC-born electronic and experimental hip hop musician whose work is often called by critics or his fans as "illbient" or "trip hop". He is a turntablist, a producer, a philosopher, and an author...
. Her writing and commentary have appeared in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...
, The Guardian (London) and The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chronicle of Higher Education is a newspaper and website that presents news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty, staff members and administrators....
, among other publications.
Nelson has been a visiting scholar at BIOS Centre for the Study of Bioscience, Biomedicine, Biotechnology and Society
BIOS Centre for the Study of Bioscience, Biomedicine, Biotechnology and Society
The BIOS Centre for the Study of Bioscience, Biomedicine, Biotechnology and Society is an international centre for research and policy on social aspects of the life sciences and biomedicine located at the London School of Economics , England...
at the London School of Economics
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
and the International Center for Advanced Studies at New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
. Her research has been supported by the Ford Foundation
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....
, the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation
Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation
The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation is a private non-profit foundation based in Princeton, New Jersey. It administers programs that support leadership development and build organizational capacity in education. Its current signature program is the...
, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation of New York City and Princeton, New Jersey in the United States, is a private foundation with five core areas of interest, endowed with wealth accumulated by the late Andrew W. Mellon of the Mellon family of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is the product of the 1969...
. She serves on the editorial boards of Social Studies of Science
Social Studies of Science
Social Studies of Science is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes papers relating to the history and philosophy of science. The journal's editor-in-chief is Michael Lynch...
and Social Text
Social Text
Social Text is an academic journal published by Duke University Press. Since its inception as an independent editorial collective in 1979, Social Text has addressed a wide range of social and cultural phenomena, covering questions of gender, sexuality, race, and the environment...
.
Books and Edited Volumes
- 2001. Alondra Nelson and Thuy Linh Tu, with Alicia Headlam Hines, eds. Technicolor: Race, Technology, and Everyday Life. New York University Press, ISBN 0-8147-3604-1.
- 2002. Afrofuturism: A Special Issue of Social Text. Duke University Press, ISBN 0-8223-6545-6.
Articles and Book Chapters
- 1997. Alondra Nelson, Thuy Linh Tu, Debra Wexler Rush and Alicia Headlam Hines. ‘Communities on the verge: Intersections and disjunctures in the new information order.’ Computers and Composition, 14(2), 289-300.
- 2000. 'Afrofuturism: Past Future Visions,' Colorlines
- 2006. ‘A Black Mass as Black Gothic: Myth and Bioscience in Black Cultural Nationalism.’ In Lisa Gail Collins and Margo Crawford (eds.), Thoughts on the Black Arts Movement. Rutgers University Press, ISBN 0-8135-3695-2.
- 2007. Lundy, Braun, Anne Fausto-Sterling, Duana Fullwiley, Evelynn M. HammondsEvelynn M. HammondsEvelynn M. Hammonds is an American academic, Paige M. Gutenborg Professor of History of Science and African American Studies at Harvard University and recently appointed Dean of Harvard College. She is also a Black Feminist author, whose writing intersects the concepts of race with the academic...
, Alondra Nelson, et al. ‘Racial Categories in Medical Practice: How Useful Are They?’. PLoS: Medicine 4(9): 1423-28. - 2007. Deborah Bolnick, Duana Fullwiley, Troy Duster, Richard Cooper, Joan H. Fujimura, Jonathan Kahn, Jay S. Kaufman, Jonathan Marks, Ann Morning, Alondra Nelson, et al. ‘The Business and Science of Genetic Ancestry Testing,’ ScienceScienceScience is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
318 (5849): 399-400. - 2008. ‘The Factness of Diaspora.’ In Barbara Koenig, Sandra Soo-Jin Lee, and Sarah Richardson (eds.) Revisiting Race in a Genomic Age. Rutgers University Press.
- 2008. ‘Bio Science: Genetic Ancestry Testing and the Pursuit of African Ancestry’. Social Studies of ScienceSocial Studies of ScienceSocial Studies of Science is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes papers relating to the history and philosophy of science. The journal's editor-in-chief is Michael Lynch...
38 (5): 759-783. - 2009. Adele E. Clarke, Janet Shim, Sara Shostak and Alondra Nelson. 'Biomedicalising genetic health,
diseases and identities.' In Atkinson, Glasner and Lock (eds.) The Handbook of Genetics & Society: Mapping the New Genomic Era. London: Routledge.
External links
- Alondra Nelson, Department of Sociology, Columbia University
- Institute for Research on Women and Gender (IRWaG), Columbia University
- Alondra Nelson, Department of Sociology, Yale University
- Department of African American Studies, Yale University
- American Studies Program, Yale University
- Afrofuturism