NOAH MCCLAIN
Ph.D. Candidate
Department of Sociology
New York University
noah.mcclain@nyu.edu
295 Lafayette Street
4th Floor
New York NY 10012
917.202.5767
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EDUCATION
Ph.D. New York University, Sociology, summer 2010 (expected)
Dissertation: “The Normalization of Anxiety: Work, Organizational Process and
Security Practices in the New York Subway”
Committee: Harvey Molotch, Chair; Craig Calhoun; Doug Guthrie; Eric
Klinenberg; Diane Vaughan
M.A. New York University, Sociology, 2007
B.A.
Sarah Lawrence College, interdisciplinary, 1998
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ARTICLES
Peer-reviewed:
2008. With Harvey Molotch. “Things at Work: Informal Social-Material
Mechanisms for Getting the Job Done.” Journal of Consumer Culture 8: 3567.
2003. With Harvey Molotch. “Dealing with Urban Terror: Heritages of Control,
Varieties of Intervention, Strategies of Research.” International Journal of
Urban and Regional Research 27: 779-98.
In preparation:
“What Turnstiles Do: Mundane Artifacts and the Mangle of Causalities”
“Free Stuff: An Agenda for the Material and Routine Bases of Privilege.”
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INVITED PRESENTATIONS
2009. “Security, Organizational-Material Cultures and the New York Subway.” Social
Sciences Lecture Series, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, April 1.
“Danger, Through the Organizational Prism: Security and Work Practices in the
New York Subway.” Organizational Behavior Group, Yale School of
Management, New Haven, January 20.
2008. With Harvey Molotch. “Learning from the Subway, How to Do Security for
Example.” Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy (ISERP) and
Department of Sociology, Columbia University, New York, January 31.
2007. “Urban Security, Organizational Uncertainty and Situated Practice: The
‘Securitization’ of the New York Subway. New York University Metropolitan
Studies Colloquium, February 22.
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CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
“The Sustained Crisis of Worker Action in a Loosely Coupled Organization.” American
Sociological Association Annual Meeting, Boston, August 2008.
“Designing for Discipline: The New York Subway Turnstile and the Distribution of
Criminality.” Commonplace Yet Extraordinary: Design Histories of Everyday
Objects Conference, Wilmington, May 2008.
“The Promise and Pitfalls of Worker Vigilance in the Subway.” Protecting New York
from Disaster Conference, University Transportation Research Center, Region II,
New York, January 2008.
“Situating ‘Eyes on the Street’ on the Subway: Onsite Actors and the Question of
Control.” American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, New York,
August 2007.
“Making Messes: Fare-Beating in the Subways, Instruments of Control and the
Trajectories of Problem Solving.” American Sociological Association Annual
Meeting, Montreal, August 2007.
“The Politics of Legitimate Action at Work.” NYLON Conference in Culture and
Politics, New York, March 2006.
“Free Stuff and the Transaction of Different Resources.” American Sociological
Association Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, August 2005.
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FELLOWSHIPS
Henry M. MacCracken Graduate Fellow, New York University, 2000-2005
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TEACHING
Bard College Prison Initiative (Annandale-on-Hudson/Woodbourne, Eastern and
Bayview penitentiaries, NY)
Advisor: B.A. Candidate Senior Projects (2009-10).
Instructor: New York, by Ethnography, Senior Seminar (spring 2010), Sociology
of Accident and Disaster; Introduction to Sociology (fall 2009); Sociology and
New York City, Senior Seminar (spring 2008).
New York University Department of Sociology; Metropolitan Studies Program; Morse
Academic Program
Instructor: Introduction to Sociology (summer 2008); Senior Independent Studies
(fall 2004); Urban Sociology (summer 2003).
Preceptor: 2002-2004; 2006-2007.
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PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES AND SERVICE
Ad-hoc Reviewer for American Journal of Sociology; Sociological Forum; International
Journal of Urban and Regional Research; Journal of Consumer Culture;
Biosecurity and Bioterrorism: Biodefense, Strategy, Practice and Science
American Sociological Association (2003-). Sections: Community and Urban Sociology;
Organizations, Occupations and Work; Computers and Information Technology;
Sociology of Culture; Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis.
New York University-London School of Economics (NYLON) Politics and Culture
Research Group (2001-)
OTHER EXPERIENCE
Investigator of Police Misconduct, Civilian Complaint Review Board, City of
New York (1998-2000)