Barbara Browning
Encyclopedia
Barbara Browning is an American academic, novelist, dancer, and cultural critic.
Browning received her B.A. in comparative literature from Yale University
in 1983, spent a year in Brazil on a Fulbright fellowship
, where she studied dance, and then returned to Yale to complete her Ph.D. in 1989. She taught for six years in the English Department of Princeton University
, where she was awarded the President's Distinguished Teaching Award, and since then has taught in the Department of Performance Studies at the Tisch School of the Arts
, New York University
, serving for a time as Chair.
Her first book, Samba: Resistance in Motion (1995), was an ethnographic account of her experiences studying and performing Brazilian dance. It was the 1996 recipient of the de la Torre Bueno Prize
for an outstanding publication in the field of dance scholarship. Her second academic book was Infectious Rhythm: Metaphors of Contagion and the Spread of African Culture (1998). Browning began writing fiction in 2004, producing an audionovel in 2007 (Who Is Mr. Waxman?). Her novel The Correspondence Artist was published in 2011 by Two Dollar Radio
. Her second novel, I'm Trying to Reach You, is scheduled to be published by Two Dollar Radio
in March, 2012. It is a multimedia project linked to a series of "chamber choreographies" which she has published on YouTube
.
Readers of Browning's academic writing have noted that in addition to representing “a pioneering effort in bringing discussions about the popular culture of Brazil into the North American academy,” it evidences “the imagination of a novelist.” By the same token, her novels take up such apparently academic concerns as the work of anthropologists Claude Lévi-Strauss
and Mary Douglas
, the psychoanalytic theories of Jacques Lacan
, and the correspondence of Simone de Beauvoir
and Nelson Algren
, as well as incorporating photography and referencing video art, leading one reviewer to characterize her work as "part memoir, part fiction, part epistolary, part metadata-existentialist philosophy, part art installation."
Works:
Cultural Criticism:
Samba: Resistance in Motion (1995)
Infectious Rhythm: Metaphors of Contagion and the Spread of African Culture (1998)
Audionovel:
Who Is Mr. Waxman? (2007)
Novel:
The Correspondence Artist (2011)
Browning received her B.A. in comparative literature from 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...
in 1983, spent a year in Brazil on a Fulbright fellowship
Fulbright Award
The Fulbright Award is a scholarship awarded as part of the Fulbright Program to foster international research and collaboration. The program also awards a fellowship to Ph.D.'s to lecture and teach in foreign universities...
, where she studied dance, and then returned to Yale to complete her Ph.D. in 1989. She taught for six years in the English Department of Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
, where she was awarded the President's Distinguished Teaching Award, and since then has taught in the Department of Performance Studies at the Tisch School of the Arts
Tisch School of the Arts
Tisch School of the Arts is one of the 15 schools that make up New York University ....
, 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...
, serving for a time as Chair.
Her first book, Samba: Resistance in Motion (1995), was an ethnographic account of her experiences studying and performing Brazilian dance. It was the 1996 recipient of the de la Torre Bueno Prize
De la Torre Bueno Prize
The de la Torre Bueno Prize is an annual award offered by the Society of Dance History Scholars for the best book in the field of dance studies. The award honors José Rollins de la Torre Bueno, the first university press editor to develop a dance studies titles list...
for an outstanding publication in the field of dance scholarship. Her second academic book was Infectious Rhythm: Metaphors of Contagion and the Spread of African Culture (1998). Browning began writing fiction in 2004, producing an audionovel in 2007 (Who Is Mr. Waxman?). Her novel The Correspondence Artist was published in 2011 by Two Dollar Radio
Two Dollar Radio
Two Dollar Radio is an independent publishing house based in Columbus, Ohio, also known as The Two Dollar Radio Movement. The company was founded in 2005 by husband and wife team Eric Obenauf and Eliza Jane Wood, with Brian Obenauf. Emily Pullen joined the publishing house as an editor and outreach...
. Her second novel, I'm Trying to Reach You, is scheduled to be published by Two Dollar Radio
Two Dollar Radio
Two Dollar Radio is an independent publishing house based in Columbus, Ohio, also known as The Two Dollar Radio Movement. The company was founded in 2005 by husband and wife team Eric Obenauf and Eliza Jane Wood, with Brian Obenauf. Emily Pullen joined the publishing house as an editor and outreach...
in March, 2012. It is a multimedia project linked to a series of "chamber choreographies" which she has published on YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
.
Readers of Browning's academic writing have noted that in addition to representing “a pioneering effort in bringing discussions about the popular culture of Brazil into the North American academy,” it evidences “the imagination of a novelist.” By the same token, her novels take up such apparently academic concerns as the work of anthropologists Claude Lévi-Strauss
Claude Lévi-Strauss
Claude Lévi-Strauss was a French anthropologist and ethnologist, and has been called, along with James George Frazer, the "father of modern anthropology"....
and Mary Douglas
Mary Douglas
Dame Mary Douglas, DBE, FBA was a British anthropologist, known for her writings on human culture and symbolism....
, the psychoanalytic theories of Jacques Lacan
Jacques Lacan
Jacques Marie Émile Lacan was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist who made prominent contributions to psychoanalysis and philosophy, and has been called "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Freud". Giving yearly seminars in Paris from 1953 to 1981, Lacan influenced France's...
, and the correspondence of Simone de Beauvoir
Simone de Beauvoir
Simone-Ernestine-Lucie-Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir, often shortened to Simone de Beauvoir , was a French existentialist philosopher, public intellectual, and social theorist. She wrote novels, essays, biographies, an autobiography in several volumes, and monographs on philosophy, politics, and...
and Nelson Algren
Nelson Algren
Nelson Algren was an American writer.-Early life:Algren was born Nelson Ahlgren Abraham in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Goldie and Gerson Abraham. At the age of three he moved with his parents to Chicago, Illinois where they lived in a working-class, immigrant neighborhood on the South Side...
, as well as incorporating photography and referencing video art, leading one reviewer to characterize her work as "part memoir, part fiction, part epistolary, part metadata-existentialist philosophy, part art installation."
Works:
Cultural Criticism:
Samba: Resistance in Motion (1995)
Infectious Rhythm: Metaphors of Contagion and the Spread of African Culture (1998)
Audionovel:
Who Is Mr. Waxman? (2007)
Novel:
The Correspondence Artist (2011)
External links
- http://thecorrespondenceartist.com
- http://whoismrwaxman.com
- http://youtube.com/barbarabrowning
- http://amazon.com/Barbara-Browning/e/B001IZ2J9Q/ref=sr_tc_img_2_0?qid=1287765442&sr=1-2-ent