CURRICULUM VITAE
Wayne H. Osborn, Jr. (J.R. Osborn)
1916 Madison Avenue
San Diego, California 92116
Telephone: 619-840-8592
Website: communication.ucsd.edu/people/g_osbornjr.html
Gallery: www.factoryschool.org/zoot/index.html
ACADEMIC DEGREES
University of California at San Diego (UCSD), La Jolla, CA.
ABD, currently pursuing a Ph.D. (Expected Fall 2007).
Dissertation Title: “The Type of Calligraphy: Writing,
Print, and the Technology of the Arabic Letters.”
Dissertation Committee: Carol Padden (Chair), Bennetta Jules-Rosette,
Chandra Mukerji, Brian Goldfarb, Gary Fields
University of California at San Diego (UCSD), La Jolla, CA.
M.A. in Communication, 2003.
Grinnell College, Grinnell, IA.
B.A. in Religious Studies, 1997 (Honors).
ADDITIONAL ACADEMIC TRAINING AND CERTIFICATES
TechnoSphereS: FutureS of Thinking, Seminar in Experimental Critical Theory (SECT), University of California, Humanities Research Institute, Irvine, CA, 2006.
Sana'a Institute of Arabic Language, Sana'a, Yemen, 2004.
Certificate in Ethnographic Film, UCSD Ethnographic Film Lab, 2003.
Middlebury College Arabic School, Middlebury, VT, 2003.
Pitzer College of External Studies, Harare, Zimbabwe, 1996.
LANGUAGES: Arabic, German, Turkish
Familiarity: Ottoman, Shona
ACADEMIC FELLOWSHIPS AND AWARDS
Newberry Library Short-Term Research Fellow, 2007
Institute for International and Comparative Area Studies Research Travel Grant, 2005.
University of California Friends of the International Center Fellowship, 2005.
American Institute of Yemeni Studies Arabic Language Study Grant, 2004.
Outstanding Video in African and Diaspora Studies, 2004.
“Searching for the Qur’an”(with Devon Smith)
Awarded by the African and African-American Studies Research Project, UCSD.
Outstanding Graduate Research Award, 2002.
“The Shape of Recitation: Qur’anic Calligraphy as Extension of the Letter
Awarded by the African and African-American Studies Research Project, UCSD
San Diego Fellowship, 2001-2005.
Phi Beta Kappa, Grinnell College, 1997.
PUBLICATIONS
“Writing Culture with Arabic Letters: The School of Khartoum and Contemporary Calligraphic Art.” Ethnology (2007) (Forthcoming, under review).
“Islamic Traditions of the Book: Calligraphy, Performance, and Print.” International Journal of the Book. 3,3:33-38 (2006) (Peer-Reviewed Journal).
“Theory-Pictures as Trails: Diagrams and the Visualization of Theoretical Narratives.” Cognitive Science Online, 3,2:15-44 (2005) cogsci-online.ucsd.edu/3/3-4.pdf
“Spectacular Colleges and Spectacular Rankings: The U.S. News Rankings of American “Best” Colleges.” (Co-authored with Gordon Chang, Sociology, UCSD). Journal of Consumer Culture, 5:3 (November 2005) (Peer-Reviewed Journal).
“Islamic Calligraphy as Recitation: The Visual Expansion of Divine Words.” Humanities and Technology Review 24 (Fall 2005) (Peer-Reviewed Journal).
PRESENTED PAPERS AND CONFERENCE PARTICIPATION
“Unmixing the Chaos: African and Diasporic Art on Display in Global Context” prepared for the Fiftieth Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association, New York, NY, October, 2007. (Accepted for Juried Panel).
“Writing From The Margins: Technological Narratives of Arabic Typography” prepared for the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Washington, DC, November 2007. (Invited Panel).
“A Drink at the Bar, A Dream of Afar: The Bar as Liminal Space in African and Diasporic Cinema” presented at the Forty-Ninth Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association, San Francisco, CA, November 17, 2006. (Juried Panel).
“Writing the Self in the Painting of Letters: The School of Khartoum And Contemporary Calligraphic Art,” presented at the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, San José, CA, November 16, 2006. (Invited Panel).
“Factory School: A Modular Platform for Publishing, Data Assembly, and Performance,” presented at the University of California Digital Arts Research Network (UCDARnet) Graduate Research Info/Xchge, Los Angeles, CA, April 28, 2006.
“The Nature of the Book” (with Bill Marsh), presented at &Now 2006, Lake Forest College, Lake Forest, IL April 7, 2006.
“Film as Text: Orientalism, Colonialism, and Ghostwriting” (with Jon Stern), film commentary and criticism presented at the Josephine Baker Film Symposium, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, February 17, 2006.
“Mirroring Africa: Jean Rouch and Collaborative Reversal in Documentary and Ethnographic Film,” presented at the Forty-Eighth Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association, Washington, D.C. November 17, 2005. (Juried Panel).
“Islamic Traditions of the Book: Calligraphy, Performance, and Print,” presented at the Third International Conference on the Book, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, England, September 13, 2005. (Juried Panel).
“Poetry in Gesturo-Haptic Translation” (with Bill Marsh), presented at the Annual Meeting of the Popular Culture Association, San Diego, CA, March 20, 2005. (Juried Panel).
“Identity Construction and Diasporic Transnationalism” (with Ricardo Guthrie), film commentary and criticism presented at the Dangerous Ground Film Symposium, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, February 4, 2005.
“Islamic Calligraphy as Recitation: The Visual Expansion of Divine Words,” presented at the Twenty-Sixth Annual Meeting of the Humanities and Technology Association, York College, York, PA, October 15, 2004 (Juried Panel).
“The Fluid Meanings of Abstraction: Higher Education and the U.S. News Rankings of Colleges” (Co-authored with Gordon Chang, Sociology, UCSD), presented at the 99th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association: Public Sociologies, San Francisco, CA, August 17, 2004 (Juried Roundtable).
“Islam in America,” guest lecture in Contemporary Religious Thought, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, May 29, 2004.
“Desperanto and the Use of Kinesthetic Translation in Scholarly Performance, “presented at Plasmatica 040404: Unfolding of New Structures in Old Spaces, University of California, Berkeley, CA April 4, 2004 (Invited Presentation).
“Following a Lead: Visualizing Possible Search Strategies Among a Collection of Documents,” presented for the Executive Board of Semantic Research, Inc., San Diego, CA, October 26, 2003 (Invited Presentation).
Graduate Respondent for the AAASRP Workshop on African Popular Music, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, February 21, 2003
“The Shape of Recitation: Qur’anic Calligraphy as Extension of the Letter,” presented at the Thirteenth Annual Berkeley Graduate Symposium: Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Study of Visual Representation, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, March 16, 2002 (Juried Panel).
ACADEMIC SERVICE AND EVENT ORGANIZATION
Board Member, African and African-American Studies Research Project, University of California, San Diego, 2001-Present.
Designer and Curator, Factory School, 2005-Present.
Association for Africanist Anthropology, Graduate Student Representative and Web Master, 2006-Present.
Designer and Curator, Factory School, 2005-Present.
Co-organizer with Bennetta Jules-Rosette, “Signifiers of Social Inequality and Narratives of Inclusion in Comparative Perspective” for the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Washington, DC, November 2007.
Co-organizer with Bennetta Jules-Rosette, “Representing the Social Self: African Art and Atnthropology” panel at the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, San José, CA, November 16, 2006.
Co-organizer and Curator with Ayhan Aytes, Communication in the Wild Showcase, August 21, 2006, University of California, Humanities Research Institute.
Campus Organizer, MadCat Women's International Film Festival (Film screening of tour festival program), May 24, 2006, University of California, San Diego.
Co-organizer and Curator with Ricardo Guthrie and Brian Goldfarb, Communication in the Wild Showcase, May 19, 2006, University of California, San Diego.
Co-Organizer and Technical Assistance, “The Making of Africa Remix: Contemporary African Art in Global Perspective” by Simon Njami.
Co-organizer with Bennetta Jules-Rosette, Josephine Baker Film Symposium, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, February 17, 2006.
Co-organizer with Bennetta Jules-Rosette, Dangerous Ground Film Symposium, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, February 4, 2005.
Graduate Student Representative, Hiring Committee: “Critical Studies in Communication Technology” and “Digital Media Production and Theory,” Dept. of Communication, University of California, San Diego, 2004-2005.
Graduate Student Representative, Space and Equipment Committee, Dept. of Communication, University of California, San Diego, 2003-2004.
Co-organizer and Curator with Ricardo Guthrie and Bill Marsh, Communication in the Wild Showcase, April 16, 2004, University of California, San Diego.
African and African American Studies Research Project, University of California, San Diego, Administrative Assistant for African Studies Minor, Program Symposia, and Colloquia (2000-2001). Two-year project theme of Borders, Boundaries and New Frontiers.
MEDIA PRODUCTIONS, PERFORMANCES, AND EXHIBITS
“We are Hip-Cap” (PowerPoint Performance piece), performed at Communication in the Wild Showcase, University of California, San Diego, CA, May 19, 2006.
“Translation Station: Jan Patocka” (Gestural Dance Translation Experiment), performed in the San Diego Poetry Guild Fall Showcase, San Diego, CA, October 27, 2004.
“What We Do” (Gestural Dance Translation Experiment), performed at Communication in the Wild Showcase, University of California, San Diego, CA, April 16, 2004.
“A * Outline for Symbol Formation” (Tutorial Performance), performed at the San Diego Poetry Guild Winter Showcase 2004, San Diego, CA, January 16, 2004.
“Searching for the Qur’an” (20-minute Video, with Devon Smith), 2003. Awarded the 2004 Outstanding Video in African and Diaspora Studies, by the African and African-American Studies Research Project, University of California, San Diego.
“Small Books, Deep Memories: Books Fit for a Travel Pouch” (Book Exhibit), 2nd Place, Friends of the Library Book Competition, Geisel Library, University of California, San Diego, May 2003.
“Desperanto” (Poetry-Dance Performance, with Bill Marsh), performed at AV Text Fest #6, Mexicali, MX, April 11, 2003 and the Hotels/Motels Exhibition, San Diego, CA, December, December 20, 2003.
“Shanghai Gardens” (Interactive Multimedia, with Ge Jin), submitted to Memefest 2003.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Advanced Topics in Communication and Culture: Comics and Sequential Art, Lecturer (2006, 2007). Department of Communication, UCSD.
Methods of Media Production, Lecturer (2006). Department of Communication, UCSD.
The Psychology of Filmic Language, Teaching Assistant for Professor Sonja Baumer (2006). Department of Communication, UCSD.
Ethnographic Film and Media Methods, Teaching and Technical Assistant for Professor Bennetta Jules-Rosette (2005). Department of Sociology, UCSD.
Methods of Media Production, Teaching Assistant for Professor Giovanna Chesler (2004, 2005). Department of Communication, UCSD.
Communication and Culture, Teaching Assistant for Professor Valerie Hartouni (2004). Department of Communication, UCSD
Introduction to Communication, Teaching Assistant for Professor Michael Schudson (2004) and Professor Geofferey Bowker (2003). Department of Communication, UCSD
CURRENT ASSOCIATION MEMBERSHIPS
African Studies Association
American Anthropology Association
Sections: Association for Africanist Anthropology, Middle East Section, Society
for Visual Anthropology, Society for the Anthropology of Religion
American Institute of Yemeni Studies
Humanities and Technology Association
Middle-East Studies Association
Popular Culture Association
