Kent Worcester (born 1959) is an American political scientist, historian, and songwriter. His work deals with popular culture, intellectual history, trade unions, and social democracy. He has written extensively on comics and graphic novels and wrote a biography of

C.L.R. James Cyril Lionel Robert James (4 January 1901 – 31 May 1989),Fraser, C. Gerald, ''The New York Times'', 2 June 1989. who sometimes wrote under the pen-name J. R. Johnson, was a Trinidadian historian, journalist and Marxist. His works are in ...

, the West Indian intellectual, among many other publications.

Biography

Worcester received his B.A. in economics and political science from the

University of Massachusetts Boston The University of Massachusetts Boston (stylized as UMass Boston) is a public research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the only public research university in Boston and the third-largest campus in the five-campus University of Massa ...

and his M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in political science from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. From 1990 to 2000, Worcester was a program director at the

Social Science Research Council The Social Science Research Council (SSRC) is a US-based, independent, international nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing research in the social sciences and related disciplines. Established in Manhattan in 1923, it today maintains a he ...

, a nonprofit organization that promotes interdisciplinary research in the social sciences. He is currently a professor of political science at

Marymount Manhattan College Marymount Manhattan College is a private college on the Upper East Side of New York City. As of 2020, enrollment consists of 1,571 undergraduates with women making up 80.1% and men 19.9% of student enrollment. The college was founded in 1936. Hi ...

Publications

Worcester is an important contributor to the growing body of critical literature on comics and graphic novels. His writings place particular emphasis on their social and political impact and subtext. Worcester has been contributing t
The Comics Journal
(print and web versions) since 1993, and was a blogger for tcj.com from 2008-2010. He coedited ''A Comics Studies Reader'' (2008) with

Jeet Heer Jeet Heer is a Canadian author, comics critic, literary critic and journalist. He is a national affairs correspondent for ''The Nation'' magazine and a former staff writer at ''The New Republic''. As of 2014, he was writing a doctoral thesis at Yor ...

. The book received the Peter C. Rollins Book Award in 2009 for its contribution to popular culture and American studies. Worcester, Heer, and Charles Hatfield co-edited ''The Superhero Reader'' (2013), which was nominated for an Eisner Award for Best Academic/Scholarly Work in 2014. Worcester is the author of ''C.L.R. James: A Political Biography'' (1996), which was part of a resurgence of scholarly interest in the life and work of the Caribbean writer, socialist, and anticolonial activist. Other works by Kent Worcester include studies of trade union responses to neoliberal economic restructuring from the 1970s to the 1990s in Britain, the United States, and Europe. He wrote a history of the Social Science Research Council, which was commissioned by then President

Kenneth Prewitt Kenneth Prewitt (born March 16, 1936) is the Carnegie Professor of Social Affairs at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, where he is also director of the Scholarly Knowledge Project. He was Director of the United Stat ...

for the organization’s 75th anniversary in 2001. Worcester edited a collection of essays for the American Political Science Association, ''Navigating Political Science'' (2018), which deals with professional concerns in the field and with theoretical and methodological questions.

Singer/songwriter

In the 1980s Worcester was a singer, songwriter, and rhythm guitarist for the satirical rock band The Dog’s Breakfast. He wrote "Changes", "Father Song", "New York", and "Paul is Dead" for the group's album ''Beautiful Banality''. He contributed several songs to recordings by guitarist and songwriter Matt Backer: "Landlocked" for the album ''Is That All?'' (2001); "The Impulse Man", "Oh No Don't Cry", and "Once in a While" for the album ''The Impulse Man'' (2006); and "Assiduous Polygamy" and "I'm No Fool" for the album ''Idle Hands'' (2012). In 2019 he released a self-produced EP, ''That’s Why I Surf''; and another in 2021, ''A Million Candles,'' both on Bandcamp. In 2020 the independent music website Divide & Conquer interviewed Worcester about his music, his work with Backer and The Dog's Breakfast, and the connections between comics and popular music. In a 2022 review of Worcester’s most recent release, “Soviet America,” Jamie Funk described Worcester’s entire Bandcamp output as “pure and genuine.”“Kent Worcester – Soviet America"
''Divide and Conquer''.

Bibliography

* ''Trade Union Politics: American Unions and Economic Change, 1960s-1990s''. 1995. Humanities Press, coedited with Glenn Perusek. * ''C.L.R. James: A Political Biography''. 1996. SUNY Press. * ''Violence and Politics: Globalization's Paradox''. 2000. Routledge, coedited with Sally Avery Bermanzohn and Mark Ungar. * ''The Social Science Research Council, 1923-1998''. 2001. SSRC. * ''Arguing Comics: Literary Masters on a Popular Medium''. 2004. University Press of Mississippi, coedited with Jeet Heer. * ''A Comics Studies Reader''. 2008. University Press of Mississippi, coedited with Jeet Heer. * ''The Superhero Reader''. 2013. University Press of Mississippi, coedited with Charles Hatfield and Jeet Heer. * ''Silent Agitators: Cartoon Art From the Pages of New Politics''. 2016. New Politics Associates. * ''Peter Bagge: Conversations''. 2016. University Press of Mississippi. * ''Peter Kuper: Conversations''. 2018. University Press of Mississippi. * ''Navigating Political Science: Professional Advancement and Success in the Discipline''. 2018. American Political Science Association. * ''From MORI to Magna Carta: The Selected Writings of Sir Robert Worcester, Vols. 1 & 2''. 2021-2022. IndieBooks, London. Robert Worcester, author; Kent Worcester, editor.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Worcester, Kent Living people Comics critics 1959 births American political scientists American historians American singer-songwriters American critics University of Massachusetts Boston alumni Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Marymount Manhattan College faculty Place of birth missing (living people)