(she/her/mx)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_O%27Brien
Requests for pdfs of chapters from some of books (robrien@gc.cuny.edu)
1.Workers’ Paradox, The Republican Origins of New Deal Labor Policy (UNC)
2.Crippled Justice: The History of Disability in the Workplace (U of Chicago)
3.Bodies in Revolt: An Alternative Ethic of Care at the Workplace (Routledge)
4.Voices from the Edge: Narratives about the Americans with Disabilities Act (OUP, 8 of 12 chapters)
5.Out of Many, One: Obama & 3rd American Pol. Tradition (U. of Chicago)
6.Telling Stories Out of Court: Narratives about Women & Work (Cornell edited)
(selected: SIGNS; Studies in APD; Polity; Law & Social Inquiry; Tulsa Law Review)
solo book series: Heretical Thought (OUP) 8 theory books (OUP maintained website)
& solo book Public Square (PS) (Princeton), 10 books (19 year run) Record of 100% solicitation to publication.
Frontier Politics-is-Always-Personal-Protest 7. book length ms -“A Hegemonic Journey with Female Frontier Descendants – from Amsterdam to Weed Patch” Graduate Teaching: The American Presidency (TAP) ; American Political Thought (APT); Heretical and/or Contemporary Political Thought(CAPT); American Political Development (APD); Power, Resistance, Identities and Social Movements (PRISM) First female prof. “knighted” by late Rush Limbaugh as the 1st “professorette.” Writing Politics specialization founder, 2004.
Contact-Tuesdays
(212) 817-8678
Website
Blog_being refreshed
Politics – Telling Stories (my approach to narrative theory of political fiction and creative non-fiction) + Intersectionality + (American Political Thought + American Political Development, or Politics & History, broadly)
Ph.D. Political Science, University of California, Los Angeles (American politics, political theory, & history)D Phil. M.A. Political Science, University of California, Los AngelesB.A. Political Science, Claremont McKenna College (then Claremont Men’s College)High School Diploma, Capitol Page School, Washington, D.C. (Rep Ketchum, William M. sponsor, eligible not by patronage ) GOP discontinued Congressional Member Pages discontinued after August 2011.
Past Positions
Awards & Honorary Affiliations
Articles (Peer-Reviewed)
Book Series Editor, The Public Square, Princeton University Press
The Public Square series showcases some of the world’s finest public intellectuals writing on topics at the forefront of public discourse. It features authors — be they professors, journalists, essayists, poets, or novelists — whose distinctive voices resonate both within, and far beyond, the confines of the academy. Artful, accessible, and analytical, their essays contribute to international dialogue, shape and frame national debates, and engage with enduring and fundamental questions.
Books in Public Square Series
Gold Medal Winner of the 2011 Independent Publisher Book Awards in the History category / 2010 Bronze Medal Winner of the 2010 ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year / Awards in the History Category / Named a 2010 New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice / One of the 2010 Top Debate Worthy Books of the Year, U.S. News & World Report (online version) / Highly Recommended Book, 2011 Annual Awards, Boston Authors Club / Honorable Mention for the 2010 PROSE Award for Excellence in U.S. History / American Publishers Awards for Professional and Scholarly Excellence
2012 Martha C. Nussbaum, Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities (paperback)
2010 Martha C. Nussbaum, Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities
2012 Prince of Asturias Award for Social Sciences / Named one of Brenda Walker’s 2010 Best Books of the Year, The Age
2010 Joan Wallach Scott, The Politics of the Veil
2010 Jeff Madrick, The Case for Big Government
2009 Andrei Codrescu, The Posthuman Dada Guide: Lenin and Tzara Play Chess
2008 Jeff Madrick, The Case for Big Government
Finalist, 2009 PEN John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Non-Fiction
2007 Andrei Markovits, Uncouth Nation: Why Europe Dislikes America
2007 Joan Wallach Scott, The Politics of the Veil
2007 Barbara Bennett Woodhouse, Hidden in Plain Sight: The Tragedy of Children’s Rights from Benjamin Franklin to Lionel Tate
American Political Science Association (APSA) Best Book Award 2009,
Human Rights Section
Advisory Board
Eric Alterman K. Anthony Appiah Alan Brinkley Mitchell Cohen Martha Fineman Ira Katznelson Robin D. G. Kelly Gara LaMarche Lewis H. Lapham Nicholas Lemann Doug McAdam Louis Menand James Morone Jo-Ann Mort David Nasaw Victor Navasky Anne Norton Frances Fox Piven John Podesta Jill Quadagno Rogers Smith Deborah Stone Philippa Strum Cass Sunstein Neera Tanden Michael Walzer William Julius Wilson
Book Series Editor, Heretical Thought, Oxford University Press, USA
1st book In Heretical Thought Book Series ~ Book Series Editor, Ruth O’Brien, The Graduate Center, The City University of New YorkAdvisory Board
*reformatting so forgive appearance for nowHeretical Thought Mission Statement:
Thought is heretical when it threatens our idea of universality, or our notion of the self or selves. Such threats can occur in the face of advances in science, human science, governance, or media. Regardless of purpose or intent, heretical ideas shape and determine our bodies and our consciousness and/or the ways we communicate about them. They also embody seismic or significant breaks in sclerotic contemporary political thought.
This series is shaped by the notion that contemporary political thought that advances significant or seismic ideas, independent of purpose or intent, and also threatens our ideas of universality, is heretical. Books in the series expose contemporary ruptures in thought, or a break in a school of thought. In doing so they will make visible, or apparent, threats that are observable, empirical, biological, chemical, or physical in the universe — suggesting not only how such threats can compel new ways of thinking, but also how they can lead to productive political action.
Ruth O’Brien’s Selected Solicited Articles (non-peer reviewed)
“Progress and Good Governance in Domestic Policy” in Debating the Obama Presidency Ed. Steven E. Schier, Rowman and Littlefield (Available 2016)
“Obama, Barack,” American Governance. Editors S. Schechter, T. S. Vontz, T. A. Birkland, M. A. Graber, & J. J. Patrick (Eds.), American Governance (Vol. 4, pp. 1-3). Farmington Hills, MI: Macmillan Reference USA (2016)
“What a Difference Thirty Years – 1978 to 2008 – Makes in the Transformation of Disability Law” Tulsa Law Review Winter 2015
“Finding a Nexus between APD and American Political Thought,” Clio, 2013.
“A Subversive Act: The Americans with Disabilities Act, Foucault, and an Alternative Ethic of Care at the Workplace,” Texas Women’s Law Review 13 (Fall 2003): 55-89.
APT meets APD, CLIO Newsletter for Politics & History, Fall 2013 (forthcoming)
Foreword to Anne Norton’s On the Muslim Question (2013)
Foreword to David Marquand’s The End of the West, The Once and Future Europe (2012 & 2011 editions)
Foreword to Jill Lepore’s The Whites of their Eyes: The Tea Party’s Revolution and the Battle over American History (2011 & 2010 editions)
Foreword to Martha C. Nussbaum’s Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities (2010 & 2012 editions)
Foreword to Jeff Madrick’s The Case for Big Government (2008 & 2010)
Foreword to Andrei Markovits’s Uncouth Nation: Why Europe Dislikes America (2007)
Foreword to Joan Wallach Scott’s The Politics of the Veil (2007 & 2010)
Barbara Bennett Woodhouse, Hidden in Plain Sight: the Tragedy of Children’s Rights from Benjamin Franklin to Lionel Tate (2007)
Selected Invited Lectures
“Describing and Delivering the Leadership We Need,” National Principals Leadership Conference, https://npli.squarespace.com/2016-summer-institute-1/#2016-summer-institute. July, 2016
Author Meets Critic: Out of Many One, Obama & the Third American Political Tradition, American Political Science Association, 2013
Out of Many One, Obama & the Third American Political Tradition, History & Culture Colloquium, September 20, 2012, Drew University
“Ceilings Waiting to be Broken: Women Sharing Discrimination Stories In and Out of Court,” March 1, 2011, Keynote Address for Women’s History Month, University of Utah
Voices from the Edge featured at ADA Day, New York Public Library (NYPL), July 7, 2010, celebrating the ADA’s 20th anniversary.
Obama Year One, Keynote Address, Copenhagen Business School, Copenhagen, “Out of Many, We Are One: Obama and the Third American Liberal Tradition,” November 18, 2009
Plenary Session Panel on Workplace Discrimination, Telling Stories Out of Court, AAUW National Convention, June 22, 2009
Voices from the Edge, University of Utah School of Social Work, April 2009
“The American Frontier State and Society,” University of Oregon, Political Science Department, April 2008
“Radicalism, an American Liberal Tradition,” Holzheim University, Stuttgart, Germany, July 2008
“Telling Stories Out of Court: A Different Type of Legal Narration,” September 2007
Willowbrook Annual Memorial Lecture, College of Staten Island, CUNY, April 2007
Author Meets Critic panel at Midwest Political Science Association on Bodies in Revolt, April 2006 (cancelled day of event due to family emergency)
Bodies in Revolt, Woodrow Wilson International Center, November, 2005
“Fluidity & Identity,” Ohio State Law School, January 18, 2005
“Bridging the Divide: The ADA,” Yale Law School, May, 2004
“The Subversive Act: The Potential of the ADA,” March, 2004, Feminist Legal Theory Group, Emory Law School
“Bodies in Revolt: Foucault and Alternative Ethics of Care in the Workplace,” Subversive Legacies Conference, Texas Law School, November, 2002
“Federalism — A National Perspective,” Fulbright Institute on the Civilization of the United States for Fulbright University Professors, New York University, June, 2002
“The Psychoanalytical Roots of Disability Policy,” Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research, October, 2002
Institutional Grants
Co-Director, 2012-13 Mellon Grant, Sawyer Seminar on the Comparative Study of Cultures, entitled “Democratic Citizenship and the Recognition of Cultural Differences,” ($278,000).
Sole Director, 2003 Fulbright Summer Institute on American Political Development, Ideas and Institutions: The Rise to Globalism (read — America as Empire). Eighteen faculty from as many nations came for study for six weeks. Forty-two scholars traveling from Oberlin, University of Texas, Austin and Dallas, to University of Missouri, St. Louis, to Rutgers, University of Pennsylvania, Yale, and the CUNY campuses gave presentations. ($250,000)
Conference Planning
“Chancellor’s Award for Disability Awareness” Conference Collaboration with for Christopher Rosa, University Assistant Dean for Student Affairs, and Laurie Beck University Director, Assessment & Strategic Initiatives, among others, May 5, 2011
Planning Committee Consultant for Ohio State Conference entitled “Disability, Narrative & the Law,” February 16-17, 2006
Executive Program Committee Co-Chair (with Jeffery Tulis) of Politics and History Section for the American Political Science Association, 2001
Conference Co-Section Leader (with Eileen McDonagh) of Politics and History Section for the Western Political Science Association, 1995
Initiated and organized the first “Politics and History” Section for the Western Political Science Association, 1993 (on-going)
Selected Book Reviews
American Political Science Review (2002) on More than a Historian: The Political and Economic Thought of Charles A. Beard, by Clyde Barrow
Journal of American History review article (December 2001) on U.S. Labor and Political Action, 1918-1924: A Comparison of Independent Political Action in New York, Chicago and Seattle, by Andrew Strouthous
Journal of Policy History (Spring 2000) on Labor’s Great War: The Struggle for Industrial Democracy and the Origins of Modern American Labor Relations, 1912-1921, by Joseph A. McCartin, and Making American Industry Safe for Democracy: Comparative Perspectives on the State and Employee Representation in the Era of World War I, by Jeffrey Haydu.
American Political Science Review (December 1999) on Office Politics: Computers, Labor, and the Fight for Safety and Health, by Vernon L. Mogensen
Journal of American History (June 1997) on Lawyers Against Labor: From Individual Rights to Corporate Liberalism, by Daniel R. Ernst
American Political Science Review (March 1997) on Broken Promise: The Subversion of U.S. Labor Policy, by James A. Gross (Temple University Press, 1995), and Unions and Public Policy: The New Economy, Law, and Democratic Politics, edited by Lawrence G. Flood (Greenwood Press, 1995)
Journal of American History (March 1995) on A Muted Fury: Populists, Progressives, and Labor Unions Confront the Courts, 1890-1937, by William G. Ross
Law and History Review (Spring 1995) on Brandeis: Beyond Progressivism, by Philippa Strum
Selected Encyclopedia Entry
“American Disability Policy” in Poverty and Social Welfare: An Encyclopedia, Gwendolyn Mink and Alice O’Connor, eds. ABC-CLIO (2004)
Selected Conference Papers
“Out of Many We are One: Obama & Spinoza and the Politics of the Multitude,” American Political Science Association Conference, 2009
“Foucault, Agents of Resistance, and Strategies for an Ethic of Care in the American Workplace,” American Political Science Association Conference, 2002
“Relational Justice and Difference in the Workplace,” American Political Science Association Conference, 2001
“Rights, Resentment, and the Power of People with Disabilities: An Assessment of the Americans with Disabilities Act,” at Cornell Law School, Feminism and Legal Theory Project Seminars, 2000
“A ‘Sweat Shop of the Whole Nation’: The History of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938,” American Political Science Association Conference, 1997
“Civil Rights and the Cultural Relativity of the State,” American Political Science Association Conference, 1996
“Going Public: The Progressive Conception of Unionism,” Social Science History Association Conference, 1993
“Voluntarism, Progressivism, and the Creation of Pre-New Deal Labor Policy,” North American Labor History Conference, 1993
“The Failure of the Progressive-Labor Alliance,” American Political Science Association Conference, 1993
“Individualism and Collectivism: The Development of American Labor Policy in Two Parts, 1935-1964,” University of Notre Dame Conference on Labor, Law, and Economics, 1993
“Partisanship and Policy Constraints: The Democrats’ Dualistic Labor Policy, 1935-1972,” Mid-Western Political Science Association, 1993
“American Labor Ideology in Comparative Context,” Western Political Science Association, 1993
“Voluntarism, Judicial Hegemony, and the Development of the Pre-New Deal Labor Policy,” American Political Science Association Conference, 1992
“Public Policy-Making between the ‘Big Bang’ Progressive and New Deal Periods,” Mid-Western Political Science Association Conference, 1992
“The First Permanent American Party Organization and National Policymaking in the 1920s,” Western Political Science Association Conference, 1992
“Labor Unions, Congress and the Courts before the New Deal,” American Political Science Association Conference, 1988
“Organized Labor’s Role in Environmental and Consumer Legislation,” American Political Science Association Conference, 1986
Other Selected Conference Activity
Discussant, “Fluidity and Identity,” American Political Science Association Conference, 2005
Discussant, “Civil Rights and Citizenship,” American Political Science Association Conference, 2003
Discussant, “Defining Citizenship: Progressive Era Politics of Inclusion and Exclusion,” American Political Science Association Conference, 2002
Chairperson, “Race, Reform, and the State,” American Political Science Association Conference, 1999
Chairperson, “Law and Constitution in Historical Perspective,” American Political Science Association Conference, 1997
Chairperson, “Regulating Business in Historical and Institutional Context,” Western Political Science Association Conference, 1995
Chairperson and participant, “Labor and the American State,” American Political Science Association Conference, 1995
Selected Media
Selected General Regular commentary for KPFK Radio (Los Angeles) 2001 to present on politics of Supreme Court, especially ADA and other health-care issues (like Supreme Court nominations, medical marijuana and Maine’s prescription-drug plan) or Supreme Court nomination(s).
Opinion-Editorials (Op-Eds): “Truth Catching up with False Ads,” Newsday, November 29, 2002; “Court Unfairly Rules against People with Disabilities,” op-ed for Progressive Media Project (Knight Ridder wire service), June 14, 2002 (published in Times Union, Albany, NY, June 14, 2002; Roanoke Times, VA June 30, 2002; Sunday Gazette-Mail, Charleston, WV, June 23, 2002; and Express Times, Easton, PA, June 19, 2002)
“The Court Continues Disabling ADA,” op-ed sent out by the Progressive Media Project, which uses the Knight-Ridder wire service, May 2, 2002. (Published in Cincinnati Enquirer, May 5, 2002; Columbian,Vancouver, Canada, May 5, 2002; and Janesville Gazette, Wisconsin, May 9, 2002); “The Supreme Court’s Catch-22,” The Ragged Edge, February 2002 (reprinted on request in Washington Protection and Advocacy System Newsletter, 2002)
Selected Media and General Interest Coverage of My Research Telling Stories Out of Court: CUNY-TV, One on One; AAUW, National Convention Plenary Session Talk & Book Signing; AAUW, All Branch Read, January 2010
Bodies in Revolt: Radio, KPFK, May 10, 2005; Interview, Development, a print interview.
Voices from the Edge: Narratives about the Americans with Disabilities Act — Excerpt: “Cheaters and Copy Cats,” excerpted in monthly magazine The Ragged Edge and The Ragged Edge Reader 25 (2004): 5-8. Judicial Citation: Hartup v. American Standard, Inc., 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 78733; Readings: Disability, the Narrative, and the Law, Ohio State Law School & English Department, February 16-17, 2006; University of California-Berkeley, English Department, January 27, 2004; La Pena Community Center, Lives behind the Law (dramatic reading with professional storytellers), January 25, 2003; Emory Law School, March 4, 2004; Graduate Center, CUNY, March 25, 2004 (taped for broadcast by WBAI); featured book, Diversity Reading and Film Group, Institutional Diversity & Equity Office, Dartmouth College, 2004-05. Radio & Television: Pledge drive book for WBAI, New York, April 15, 2004; CUNY-TV, One on One with Frances Horowitz, taped March 26, 2004; Doug Henwood Show, March 18, 2004; WBAI, The Last Minority Show, March 11, 2004; WNYC, The Leonard Lopate Show, March 10, 2004; KPFK, Los Angeles pledge drive book, February 18, 2004; KPFK, hour-long show, January 6, 2004.
Crippled Justice: The History of Modern Disability Policy — Radio: WBAI, Doug Henwood Show, January 10, 2002; KPFK, “Access Unlimited,” November 2001. General Audience Book Reviews: Leonard Kriegel, “Handicapping the Crippled,” in The Nation, August 19, 2002; article-length review: Mark Ashley Stein, “Book Review: Disability, Employment Policy, and the Supreme Court,” Stanford Law Review 55 (2002): 607-34.
On-Line Week-Long Debate — Debated Professor Stephen Bagenstos, counsel for some Supreme Court cases defending disability rights, for Legal Affairs Debate Club — http://legalaffairs.org/webexclusive/debateclub_ADA0206.msp
Selected Service to the Field
School of Professional Studies, CUNY, created template for M.A. in Disability Studies, 2006-07: Disability Law and Policy (DSAB 626); Disability and Narrative (DSAB 627); Disability History (DSAB 620)
Irving K. Zola Awards Committee, Society for Disability Studies, 2006
American Political Science Association, Chair of Carey McWilliams Awards Committee for best journalistic contribution to politics, 2005-06
Michael Harrington Book Award of the New Political Science section, American Political Science Association, 2005-06
American Political Science Association Committee on the Status of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and the Transgender in the Profession, 2003-04
American Political Science Association, Politics & History Executive Council, 2002-2004
Referee: Political Theory, Journal of American History; Journal of Policy History; Political Research Quarterly; Polity; Studies in American Political Development; Law & Society Review; Gender & SIGNS
Reader: Cornell University; Princeton University; University of Chicago; Greenwood/Praeger; University of Pittsburgh; Oxford University Press
Full Professorship, Grant, or Recommender for: University of Texas, Austin; Hunter College; College of Staten Island; Canadian Research Chairs; University of Calgary; Woodrow Wilson Center, Washington, D.C.; University of Oregon
First editorial research assistant for Studies in American Political Development
Teaching
Graduate Seminars— Introductory: American Politics; Power, Resistance, Identity; Power, Resistance, Identity & Social Movements; Civil Rights & Social Movements (proposed); Social Movements (proposed) or Women’s Rights, Duties, Obligations & Social Movements (proposed pending) or American NeoTribalism
American Political Development: American Political Development (APD); APD “Neos & Isms”; America as Empire; APD & the Role of Ideas; Political Parties, Interest Groups, and the Presidency (proposed)
Political Thought: American Political Thought; Contemporary American Political Thought/Theory; “Dead and Alive: Neos, Isms, & Pronouns”; American Neotribalism & “All Other Persons” (phrase from American Constitution & Federalist Paper #54)
Writing Politics Specialization: The Role of the American Public Intellectual; Blogging and the Role of the Public Intellectual; Blogging Dissent: Public Intellectuals Writing Politics (proposed)
Liberal Studies: Forms of Life Writing (storytelling as political performance, especially narrative, law, and contemporary political theory)
Professional Development Seminars: Independent Tutorials (1 to 6 credit); How to Teach Political Science (created first class for political science, 2000); Workshop in Publishing & Performative Politics; Teaching Power (proposed)
Undergraduate Courses (I began teaching only graduate courses in 2000, prior taught: Legislative Process; Civil Rights and the State; The Presidency; Political Parties, Interest Groups and Social Movements)
Graduate Center Service
Committees Chair, Awards Committee, 2009-10; American Studies Certificate Program’s Advisory Committee, 2008-12 (Elected); Graduate Center Academic Review Committee, 2005-07 (Elected); Executive Council of Executive Officers, 2004-06 (Elected); Chair of Executive Committee, 2003-09 Chair of Subfields, 2003-09; Chair of Awards Committee, 2003-09; Chair of Faculty Membership Committee, 2003-09; Chair of Professional Development Committee, 2000-03; Chair of Forum Lecture Series, Fall 2000 & Fall 2001; Chair of Alumni Relations Committee, 2001-03; Executive Committee, 2000-09; Faculty Membership Committee, 2000-09; Chair of American Politics Exam Committee, 2000-01; Dissertation Fellowship Awards Committee, 1999, 2001, 2003;Political Science Program Awards Committee 1998
External Periodic Report, 2008-09 (quoted statistical highlights for 10-year external review). Catherine Rudder & Rogers M. Smith, external reviewers.
Faculty Recruitment: “1/3rd of our members have joined the graduate faculty in the past 10 years.” Increased Competitiveness: “Our admissions pool has grown both in number and in quality . . . . More of the Ph.D. applicants are choosing to come to the program, from 23% in 2000 to 51% in 2005.” (Charles Tien, Internal Report, 2005 and 2008). 200+ GRE Score Increase: “GRE scores of admitted students increased greatly from 1999-2005. The Program housed two political science journals — Global Governance and Polity (2004-10).
Curriculum Development
Writing Politics Specialization for Political Science Ph.D. & M.A. Program, 2004
Writing Politics trains students to write serious political analysis for an educated lay audience. This type of political writing, a form of literary journalism or creative non-fiction, can be found in the New York Review of Books, Harper’s Magazine, or The New Yorker. This specialization, the first of its kind in political science, helps political scientists reach a larger audience.
Disability Studies: School of Professional Studies, CUNY, 2006-07, templates for M.A. in Disability Studies, include Disability Law and Policy; Disability and Narrative: and Disability History.
Education
(revised May 2017)