CURRICULUM VITAE
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Brian Larkin
Tow Associate Professor
Dept. of Anthropology
Barnard College, Columbia University
3009 Broadway, NY NY 10027
212 854-5402, bl190@columbia.edu
DEGREES IN HIGHER EDUCATION
1998 Ph.D. Anthropology, New York University. Uncertain Consequences. The Social and Religious
Life of Media in Northern Nigeria
1987 B.A.(Hons) American Studies, Birmingham University, England.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE IN HIGHER EDUCATION
1998 - Associate Professor, Barnard College.
1998 Adjunct Professor, New York University
GRANTS & FELLOWSHIPS
2013 Wenner-Gren Senior Research Fellowship
2011
Fellowship. IKKM (International Research Institute for Cultural Technologies and Media
Philosophy). Bauhaus-Universität, Weimar. June, July.
2011
Mellon Translation Grant. Barnard College.
2001-03 Pionier Fellow. Amsterdam School for Social Science Research, University of Amsterdam.
BOOKS/MONOGRAPHS
2008 Signal and Noise: Media, Infrastructure and Urban Culture in Nigeria. Duke University Press.
2002 Media Worlds: Anthropology on New Terrain. Faye Ginsburg, Lila Abu-Lughod, Brian Larkin
eds. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- 2008 Translated into Chinese. Chu Liu Book Co.
ARTICLES
Forthcoming
2015
2014
2014
2013
The Form of Crisis. African Futures: Essays on Crisis, Emergence and Possibility. Brian
Goldstone and Juan Obarrio eds. University of Chicago Press.
Binary Islam. Media and religious movements in Nigeria. In, New Media and Religious
Transformations in Africa. Rosalind Hackett and Benjamin Soares eds. Bloomington:
Indiana University Press.
Colonialism and the Built Space of Cinema. Reprinted from Signal and Noise: Media,
Infrastructure, and Urban Culture in Nigeria. In Empires of Vision: A Reader. Editors.
Martin Jay and Sumathi Ramaswamy eds. Durham: Duke University Press.
Techniques of Inattention. The Mediality of Loudspeakers in Nigeria. Anthropology
Quarterly 87(4): 989-1015.
Reprinted: Global Prayers: Contemporary Manifestations of the Religious in the
City. Jochen Becker, Katrin Klingan, Stephan Lanz, Kathrin Wildner eds.
Zurich: Lars Muller Publishers.
The Politics and Poetics of Infrastructure. Annual Review of Anthropology. 42: 327-43.
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2013
2011
2010
2009
2009
2008
2008
2008
2008
2006
2006
2005
2004
2004
2004
2003
Making Equivalence Happen: Commensuration and the Grounds of Circulation. Images
Without Borders. Patricia Spyer and Mary Steedly eds. PP. 237-256. Santa Fe: SAR Press.
Conversation: Historical Perspectives on the Circulation of Information. Paul N Edwards, Lisa
Gitelman, Gabrielle Hecht, Adrian Johns, Brian Larkin and Neil Safier participants. American
Historical Review 116:1393-1435.
Circulating Empires: Colonial Authority and the Immoral, Subversive Power of American Film.
In, Globalizing American Studies. Brian Edwards, Dilip Gaonkar eds. Pp. 155-183. Chicago
University Press.
Islamic, Renewal, Radio and the Surface of Things. Aesthetic Formations: Media, Religion,
Senses. Birgit Meyer ed. Palgrave.
On National Allegory. Social Text 100: 164-168.
Reprinted: The Slumdog Phenomenon: A Critical Anthology, ed. Ajay Gehlawat. New
York/ London: Anthem Press, 2013.
Pirate Infrastructures. In, Network/Netplay. Joseph Karaganis ed. Submitted to Duke
University Press.
“Media and the Political Forms of Religion”. Special Edition of Social Text 26(3). Coedited
with Charles Hirschkind.
Introduction to “Media and the Political Forms of Religion”. Special Edition of Social Text.
26(3): 1-9. Co-written with Charles Hirschkind.
‘Ahmed Deedat and the Form of Islamic Evangelism.’ Social Text (26(3): 101-121.
"Majigi and the Political Origins of Cinema in Nigeria." Communication, Media and Popular
Culture in Northern Nigeria. Ed. A. U. Adamu et al. Kano: Department of Mass
Communications. 53-59.
Pentecostalism, Islam and Culture. New Religious Movements in West Africa.
(with Birgit Meyer). Themes in West African History. Emmanuel Akyeampong ed. Pp. 286312. Oxford: James Currey.
Interview with Brian Larkin, By Anand Taneja. Contested Commons/Trespassing Publics: A
Public Record. Delhi: The Sarai Programme.
From Majigi to Hausa Video Films. Cinema and Society in Northern Nigeria. Hausa Home
Videos: Technology, Economy, Society. Abdalla Uba Adamu ed. Pp: 46-53. Kano, Nigeria: BUK
Press.
Piracy, Infrastructure, and the Rise of a Nigerian Video Industry. Transmissions..... Patrice
Petro and Tasha Oren eds. Pp. 159-170. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
Degraded Images, Distorted Sounds. Nigerian Video and the Infrastructure of Piracy. Public
Culture 16(4):289-314.
Reprinted in:
- 2011 Trans. Zersetzte Bilder, Verzerrte Klange. Video in Nigeria und die infrastruktur
der Raubkopie. Zfm 6(1): 48-65.
- 2008, Readings in Modernity in Africa. Peter Geschiere, Birgit Meyer, Peter Pels ed.
Oxford: James Currey.
- 2006 Politique Africaine. Special Issue: Cosmopolis: L’Afrique dans le monde. Trans:
Frederic Le Marcis.
Itineraries of Indian Cinema. African Videos, Bollywood and Global Media. Multiculturalism,
Transnationalism and Film. Ella Shohat and Robert Stam eds. Pp. 170-192. New Brunswick:
Rutgers University Press.
Reprinted in:
2008 The Bollywood Reader. Rajinder Dudrah and Jigna Desai eds. Pp.216-228. Open
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2002
1999
1999
1998
1997
University Press.
2007. The Anthropology of Globalization. 2nd edition. Jonathan Xavier Inda ed.
Blackwell Press.
Bandiri Music, Globalization and Urban Experience in Nigeria. In, Cahiers d’études africaines
168 XLII-4 Pp.739-762.
Reprinted in:
- 2005 Bollyworld: Popular Indian Cinema Through a Transnational Lens. Pp.284-308.
Raminder Kaur and Ajay Sinha eds. Delhi: Sage India.
– 2004 Social Text 22(4): 91-112.
Introduction, Media Technologies and the Design for Modern Living: A Symposium. Brian
Larkin ed. Special Issue, Visual Anthropology Review 14(2): 11-13
Theaters of the Profane: Cinema and Colonial Urbanization. Special Issue, Media and the
Design for Modern Living. Brian Larkin ed. Visual Anthropology Review 14(2): 46-62.
[PLEASE NOTE: The articles below were sometimes abridged and renamed by editors
to fit the needs of the volume]
Reprinted in:
- 2005 Uttari Nigeria mein Cinema ki Bhautik Duniya. In, Deewan-e-Sarai 02:
Shaharnama (Trans. Ravikant). Ravikant, Sanjay Sharma, Avinash Kumar eds. New
Delhi: Vani Prakasahn.
- 2004 Colonialism and the Built Space of Cinema in Nigeria. In, City Flicks:
Metropolitan Life in Modern Indian Cinema and Beyond. Preben Sepstrup ed. Pp. 183210. Delhi: Seagull Press.
- 2002 Materializing Culture: Cinema and the Creation of Social Space. In, Media
Worlds: Anthropology on New Terrain. Faye Ginsburg, Lila Abu-Lughod, Brian Larkin
eds. Pp. 319-336. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Indian Flms and Nigerian Lovers: Media and the Creation of Parallel Modernities. Africa.
67(3): 406-440.
Reprinted in:
- 2002 The Anthropology of Globalization: A Reader. Jonathan Xavier Inda and Renato
Rosaldo eds. Pp.350-378. Oxford: Blackwell Books.
- 2002. Readings in Popular African Fiction. Stephanie Newell ed. Pp. 18-32.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Hausa Dramas and the Rise of Video Culture in Nigeria. Nigerian Video Film. Jonathan Haynes
ed. Pp. 105-125 Jos, Nigeria: Nigerian Film Corporation Press.
Reprinted in:
- 2004 The Television Reader. Robert C. Allen ed. Pp. 354-366. London: Routledge.
- 2000 Nigerian Video Film. Revised Ed. Jonathan Haynes ed. Pp. 209-242. Ohio: Ohio
University Press.
MAGAZINE ARTICLES
2007 Review of the Conference ‘Nollywood Rising’. Film International. 28 5(4):
2005 Nigerian Videos. Afro-2.
2004 Indischer Film und Kulturelle Diaspora. Schnitt. Das Filmmagazine 36:14-17.
1999 Cinema Theaters and Moral Space in Northern Nigeria. ISIM Newsletter 3. July: 13.
1997 Bollywood Comes to Nigeria. Samar Magazine. Summer/Fall. No.8: 36-38.
Reprinted in:
- 2003 Afro-. 1.
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WEB PUBLICATION
2014 Everyday Static Transmission. Benjamin Tiven with Brian larkin and Tavia Nyong’o. Triple
Canopy. http://www.canopycanopycanopy.com/contents/everyday_static_transmissions
2001 Video Awudjo! Popular Video Film in the African Film Festival 2001 Festival.
http://www.africanfilmny.org/network/news/Rlarkin.html
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
2013Board Member. Buell Center for American Architecture. Columbia University.
2013Editorial Collective Member. Africa
2005Editorial Board Member: Social Text.
2009-2014
2007-2012
2000-2010
Board Member, Society for Cultural Anthropology. American Anthropological
Association.
Editorial Board Member: Critical Interventions: Journal of African Art History and
Culture.
Editorial Board Member: Identities.
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