Lindon W. Barrett (October 10, 1961 – July 7, 2008) was a literary and cultural theorist, professor and director of

African studies African studies is the study of Africa, especially the continent's cultures and societies (as opposed to its geology, geography, zoology, etc.). The field includes the study of Africa's History of Africa, history (pre-colonial, Colonisation of Af ...

at the

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Irvine, California, United States. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, U ...

Biography

Barrett was born in

Guyana Guyana, officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern coast of South America, part of the historic British West Indies. entry "Guyana" Georgetown, Guyana, Georgetown is the capital of Guyana and is also the co ...

to Dorothy and Leslie Barrett, later moving to England at the age of one. Five years later, the family moved to

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...

, Manitoba, Canada. Studying at both the University of Manitoba and York University in Toronto, Barrett received his undergraduate

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

in 1983. Working toward his graduate degree at the University of Denver, he received his

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

in 1986. Moving forward with his education, Lindon began work at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

in order to achieve his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

, which he was awarded in 1990. That year, he started his first academic job, at the

University of California-Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California, United States. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 ...

. By 2001, he rose from his assistant position to full professor at Irvine. He remained at Irvine for 17 years until 2007, when he joined the faculty at the University of California-Riverside.

Academic career

He became one of the founding members of the African American Studies program at UCI, where he served as director from 2003 until 2007. He taught an array of subjects at UCI, including literary culture and theory, gender and sexuality, African American literature and pop culture. Barrett would go on to be a respected writer and author of numerous books that deal with race and other social issues.

Death

Lindon Barrett was found dead at his Long Beach home in 2008; he was 46 years old. He was alleged to have been murdered by Marlon Martinez, an apparent acquaintance, who died in jail while awaiting trial. Police were called to Barrett's home by neighbors who reported a "foul odor" in the area. Investigations found that his car was also missing and they were able to locate it on Paramount Boulevard at South Street and arrested Marlon Martinez as he attempted to enter the vehicle.

Work

''Racial Blackness and the Discontinuity of Western Modernity''

Published as an incomplete manuscript the book approaches the "genealogy of how the development of racial blackness within the mercantile capitalist system of Euro-American colonial imperialism was constitutive of Western modernity." Barrett looks at the connections between historical systems of racial slavery to post-Enlightenment modernity, showing how Western modernity depended on a particular conception of racism.

''Blackness and Value: Seeing Double''

Barrett tackles multiple social justice issues speaking not only to theorists of race but also of gender and queer studies. He "investigates the principles by which 'value' operates, and asks if it is useful to imagine the concepts of racial blackness and whiteness in the U.S. operate in terms of these principles."

Bibliography

* Barrett, Lindon (2018)'': Conditions of the Present. Selected Essays''. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. * Barrett, Lindon (2013): ''Racial Blackness and the Discontinuity of Western Modernity''. University of Illinois Press. * Barrett, Lindon (1999): ''Blackness and Value: Seeing Double''. Cambridge University Press

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barrett, Lindon 1961 births 2008 deaths University of California, Irvine faculty University of California, Riverside faculty University of Manitoba alumni York University alumni University of Denver alumni