Alondra Nelson
Alondra Nelson is an American theorist, writer and academic. She is Assistant Professor of African American Studies, American Studies and Sociology at Yale University. She writes about the intersections of science, technology, medicine and African diasporic experience.
She established the Afrofuturism on-line community in 1998. In 2005, she was named one of '13 Notable Blacks in Technology' by AOL Black Voices.
Alondra Nelson is an American academic and writer. She is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Columbia University, and also holds an appointment in the Institute for Research on Women and Gender. From 2003-2009, she was Assistant Professor of African American Studies, American Studies and Sociology at Yale University[1] [2], where she was recipient of the Poorvu Family Award for Interdisciplinary Teaching.[3]
Education and career
Nelson received her bachelor’s degree (magna cum laude) in Anthropology the University of California, San Diego in 1994. She obtained a Ph.D. in American Studies from New York University in 2003.
From an interdisciplinary social science perspective, she writes about the intersection of science, technology, medicine and African diasporic experience. [4], [5] Named one of ‘13 Notable Blacks in Technology’ by AOL Black Voices,[6] she established the Afrofuturism 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.[7],[8] 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,[9] The Boston Globe,[10] The Guardian (London) and The Chronicle of Higher Education, among other publications.
Nelson has been a visiting fellow at BIOS: Centre for the Study of 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 S. Mellon Foundation. She serves on the editorial boards of Social Studies of Science and Social Text.
Bibliography
Books
•2001. co-editor with Thuy Linh Tu and Alicia Headlam Hines. Technicolor: Race, Technology, and Everyday Life. New York University Press, ISBN 0814736041.
•2002. Afrofuturism: A Special Issue of Social Text. Duke University Press, ISBN 0822365456.
Articles and Book Chapters
•1997. with 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.), New Thoughts on the Black Arts Movement. Rutgers University Press, ISBN 0813536952.
•2007. with Lundy, Braun, Anne Fausto-Sterling, Duana Fullwiley, Evelynn M. Hammonds, Alondra Nelson, et al. ‘Racial Categories in Medical Practice: How Useful Are They?’ PLoS: Medicine 4(9): 1423-28.
•2007.with Deborah Bolnick, Duana Fullwiley, Troy Duster, Richard Cooper, Joan H. Fujimura, Jonathan Kahn, Jay S. Kaufman, Jonathan Marks, Ann Morning, et al. ‘The Business and Science of Genetic Ancestry Testing,’ Science 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 Science 38 (5): 759-783.
External links
•Alondra Nelson, Department of Sociology, Columbia University
•Institute for Research on Women and Gender (IRWaG), Columbia University
•Department of Sociology, Yale University
•Department of African American Studies, Yale University
•American Studies Program, Yale University
•Afrofuturism
References
1,2. Scott Smallwood and Christopher Flores, Yale Seeks ‘Next Generation’ of Stars in Black Studies, Chronicle of Higher Education. 22 February 2002; Brian Lee, Harvard Prof Cornel West heads south to Princeton, Yale Daily News. 15 April 2002.
3. Junior Faculty Win Awards in Support of Their Research, Yale University Office of Public Affairs. 7 November 2008.
4. Alondra Nelson, Department of Sociology, Columbia University; Jeffrey R. Young, Scholars Question the Image of the Internet as a Race-Free Utopia, Chronicle of Higher Education. 28 September 2001.
5. 13 Notable Blacks in Technology, AOL Black Voices
6. John Pfeiffer, Review of Alondra Nelson, guest ed. Social Text 71: Afrofuturism. Utopian Studies 14:1 (2003): 240-43.
7. Sheryl Estrada, What Does it Mean to be Hi-Tech Anyway? Black Issues Book Review. 1 January 2002.
8. Reviews of Technicolor: Race, Technology, and Everyday Life (Resource Center for Cyberculture Studies)
9. Alondra Nelson, ‘Unequal Treatment: A Review of Medical Apartheid,’ Washington Post, 7 January 2007; Alondra Nelson, ‘Code Warrior: A Review of Hacker Cracker: A Journey from the Mean Streets of Brooklyn To the Frontiers of Cyberspace,’ Washington Post, 22 December 2002.
10. Alondra Nelson, ‘Beyond Roots,’ Boston Globe. 10 February 2006.
Bibliography
- Nelson, Alondra, Thuy Linh Tu, Debra Wexler Rush and Alicia Headlam Hines. (1997). Communities on the verge: Intersections and disjunctures in the new information order. Computers and Composition, 14(2), 289-300.
- Nelson, Alondra. (2000) 'Afrofuturism: Past Future Visions' Colorlines (Spring)
- Nelson, Alondra, Thuy Linh Tu and Alicia Headlam Hines. (2001) Technicolor: Race, Technology, and Everyday Life. New York University Press, ISBN 0814736041.
- Reviews of Technicolor: Race, Technology, and Everyday Life (Resource Center for Cyberculture Studies)
- Nelson, Alondra. (2002) Afrofuturism: A Special Issue of Social Text. Duke University Press, ISBN 0822365456.
- Nelson, Alondra. (2006) A Black Mass as Black Gothic: Myth and Bioscience in Black Cultural Nationalism in eds. Collins and Crawford, New Thoughts on the Black Arts Movement Rutgers University Press, ISBN 0813536952.
- Braun, Lundy, Anne Fausto-Sterling, Duana Fullwiley, Evelynn M. Hammonds, Alondra Nelson, et al. (2007) Racial Categories in Medical Practice: How Useful Are They? PLoS: Medicine 4(9): 1423-28.