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 research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

, 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 ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, 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, located in Toronto, Ontario. It is located directly above the St. George station, S ...

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 research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institu ...

. 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 land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The inst ...

, said "her wholly original scholarship best captures new kinds of thinking and theorizing in surveillance studies". She is a member of

Deep Lab Deep Lab is a women's collective group composed of artists, researchers, writers, engineers, and cultural producers. These women are involved in critical assessments of contemporary digital culture and, together, work to exploit the potential for ...

, a "congress of cyber-feminist researchers." She is also on the executive board of

HASTAC HASTAC (/ˈhāˌstak/'), also known as the Humanities, Arts, Science and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory, is a virtual organization and platform of more than 18,000 individuals and 400+ affiliate-institutions dedicated to innovative new mod ...

, 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 research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

* 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 founded in 1951. It is the oldest scholarly organization devoted to the interdisciplinary study of U.S. culture and history. The ASA works to promote meaningful dialogue about t ...

* 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