Simone Arlene Browne (born 1973) is an author and educator. She is on the faculty at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

, and the author of ''Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of Blackness''.

Early life and education

Browne was born in 1973, and grew up in

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, where she received a BA (with honors), MA, and PhD at the

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto (OISE/UT) is Canada's only all-graduate institute of teaching, learning and research. It is located at 252 Bloor Street West on the university's St. George campus in ...

in the Department of Sociology and Equity Studies at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

. Her 2001 Masters thesis was titled ''Surveilling the Jamaican body, leisure imperialism, immigration and the Canadian imagination.'' Her doctoral dissertation in 2007 was titled ''Trusted travellers: the identity-industrial complex, race and Canada's permanent resident card.''

Career

Browne is a professor of Black Studies in the Department of African and African Diaspora Studies at the

. Her most recent book, ''Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of Blackness'', published by Duke University Press in 2015, presents a case to consider race and blackness as a central to the field of surveillance studies, and investigates the roots of present-day surveillance in practices originating in slavery and the Jim Crow era. Javier Arbona of the

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...

, said "her wholly original scholarship best captures new kinds of thinking and theorizing in surveillance studies". She is a member of Deep Lab, a "congress of cyber-feminist researchers." She is also on the executive board of HASTAC, a virtual organization led by a dynamic Steering Committee consisting of innovators from a variety of disciplines. Her work, "Not Only Will I Stare," involves the curation of an exhibit about surveillance through black women artists at the

. The exhibit "used the space to showcase selected artists and artwork which reflect the intersections and evolving history of surveillance and the Black community."

Awards, honors

* Presidential Visiting Fellow for the 2018–2019 academic year,

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

* Winner of the 2016 Best Book Prize, Surveillance Studies Network * Winner of the 2016 Lora Romero First Book Prize,

American Studies Association The American Studies Association (ASA) is a scholarly organization devoted to the interdisciplinary study of American culture, U.S. culture and American history, history. It was founded in 1951 and claims to be the oldest scholarly organization d ...

* Winner of the 2015 Donald McGannon Award for Social and Ethical Relevance in Communications Technology Research

References

External links

Simone Browne, Dark Surveillance: Race, Surveillance and Resistance
(Video, 1:04:05)
Simone Browne: Surveillance in Color (Ep. 125)
(Podcast, 20:44)
Smile, Your'e on Camera: Behind the Lens of 24/7 Surveillance

Tracking Blackness: a Q&A with Dark Matters Author Simone Browne

Biocode Mixes Art and Academia to Explore Pigeonholing

What UC-Berkeley Freshmen are Reading this Summer

Tactics of Appearance

2019 Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon panel
(video, 55:04; begins at 9:53) {{DEFAULTSORT:Browne, Simone 1973 births Living people Canadian sociologists University of Texas at Austin faculty Canadian women social scientists Canadian women sociologists University of Toronto alumni