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I am Taylor R. Genovese.

About

Portrait

I am a doctoral student in the Human and Social Dimensions of Science and Technology (HSD) program at Arizona State University. In addition to my academic interests, I enjoy digital and analogue photography, participating in Spanish Civil War living history, and watching dust accumulate on my vinyl record collection.

My dissertation work focuses on the social imaginaries of human futures on Earth and in outer space. I am interested in utilizing historical and contemporary Earth-based extraterrestrial analogues—incorporating anthropological and political theories—to investigate and speculate on how humans might politically, socially, and culturally adapt to both climate change on an environmentally altered Earth and/or life after leaving the Earth's surface.

In addition to my dissertation research, I have been investigating contemporary radical left political theory and strategies for how individuals—particularly in the Millennial generation—are imagining the future and organizing for change in light of being named the brokest generation. My current project is an ethnographic investigation, using abolition democracy as an analytic, of Fully Automated Luxury Communism (FALC) and other techno-futurist radical left political movements.

I am also a co-founder and contributor for Footnotes, an anthropology group blog for the multimodal, anticolonial, and iconoclastic.

Visual

I have been a filmmaker and photographer for over 15 years, working on projects ranging from small independent short films to internationally distributed television programs. I am currently a visual anthropologist utilizing digital video, photography, and sound as methods for multimodal anthropological research.

To see more of my photography, check out my profile on 500px.

iGuggenheim

iGuggenheim

iGuggenheim

A woman looks at her phone at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.

Glitch

Glitched Self-Portrait

Glitched Self Portrait

A self-portrait processed through a glitch emulator.

Biosphere

Biosphere 2 Lower Habitat

Biosphere 2 Lower Habitat

The Lower Habitat of the Biosphere 2 outside of Oracle, Arizona.

Lenin

From the rooftops!

From the rooftops!

A statue of Vladimir Lenin stands, arm outstretched, on a rooftop in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

VAB

NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) in Cape Canaveral, FL

NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) in Cape Canaveral, FL.

The VAB is one of the largest buildings in the world by volume at 129,428,000 cubic feet. In fact, the building is so voluminous that it has its own weather; rain clouds actually form below the ceiling on very humid days.

Spaceport

Spaceport America's Spaceport Operations Center (SOC)

Spaceport America's Spaceport Operations Center (SOC)

The dome of Spaceport America's SOC was built for versatility by using a rubber mold to spray load-bearing foam to fit the shape of the building and needs no load-bearing walls. As such, the inside can support any number of layouts.

Curriculum Vitæ

(Condensed)

Download Full CV (PDF)

[Updated October 2018]

Taylor R. Genovese

Contact Information

School for the Future of Innovation in Society
Arizona State University
P.O. Box 875603
Tempe, AZ 85287-5603

taylor.genovese@asu.edu
taylorgenovese.com
@trgenovese

Education

2017–2022 (expected) Ph.D. Human and Social Dimensions of Science and Technology, Arizona State University
—Fields: Political Anthropology; Science, Religion, & Critical Secular Studies; Multimodal Ethnography
2015–2017 M.A. Anthropology (with Distinction), Northern Arizona University
—Thesis: The New Right Stuff: Social Imaginaries of Outer Space and the Capitalist Accumulation of the Cosmos
—Advisor: Miguel L. Vásquez
2011–2013 B.A. Anthropology (magna cum laude and with Honors; minor: Classics), University of Arizona

Research Interests

Anthropology of outer space; political theory; human futures; neoliberalism; decolonization; social imaginaries; utopia; Russian Cosmism; extraterrestrial analogues; social movements; multimodality; U.S.; former Soviet Union; Space.

Employment

2017— Graduate Research Associate, School for the Future of Innovation in Society, Arizona State University
2015—2017 Graduate Assistant, Department of Anthropology, Northern Arizona University
2014—2015 Graduate Teaching Assistant, Department of Africana Studies, University of Arizona
2014—2015 Special Collections Assistant, University of Arizona Libraries
2012—2013 Research Assistant, Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology, University of Arizona

Grants and Awards (selected)

2017—2018 Conference Travel Award, Arizona State University Graduate College, School for the Future of Innovation in Society
2016 Ray Madden Research Award, Department of Anthropology, Northern Arizona University
2016 Robert C. Euler Graduate Scholarship in Anthropology, Northern Arizona University
2013 Italian Archaeology Video Grant, The Cacioppo Foundation
2012 Magellan Circle Scholar, College of Social And Behavioral Science, University of Arizona

Publications

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

2018 "Death is a Disease": Cryopreservation, Neoliberalism, and Temporal Commodification in the U.S. Technology in Society 54: 52–56. doi: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2018.03.002. (PDF)
2016 Decolonizing archival methodology: Combating hegemony and moving towards a collaborative archival environment. AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples 12 (1): 32–42. doi: 10.20507/AlterNative.2016.12.1.3. (PDF)

Book Reviews

2018 Picturing the Cosmos: A Visual History of Early Soviet Space Endeavor by Iina Kohonen. LSE Review of Books. 9 February.
2017 Placing Outer Space: An Earthly Ethnography of Other Worlds by Lisa Messeri. LSE Review of Books. 10 March.
2016 Kropotkin and the Anarchist Intellectual Tradition by Jim Mac Laughlin. LSE Review of Books. 28 September.
2016 The Left Side of History: World War II and the Unfulfilled Promise of Communism in Eastern Europe by Kristen Ghodsee. Social Anthropology / Anthropologie Sociale 24 (2): 257–58.

Non-Refereed Articles (selected—see a comprehensive list on my full CV)

2018 The decadence and depravity of Biosphere 2. Footnotes. 30 May.
2017 (co-authored with Martin Pfeiffer) "To Peace, Because the Awful Alternative is the End of All Life": Build Bomb–Explore Space(s)–Save World! Savage Minds. 16 & 20 July.
2017 Casting into the Cosmos: Magic and Ritual in Human Spaceflight. Savage Minds. 2 & 6 July.
2016 Fear and Loathing in Truth or Consequences: Neoliberalism, Colonialism and the Lineage of the Frontier at Spaceport America. Space + Anthropology. 2 September.
2016 Orbiting the Imaginary. Peeps Magazine 1 (2): 134-139.
2016 Honey I Shrunk The Space Settlement! Dunbar’s Number & Radical Politics in Space. Astrosociological Insights 5 (1): 19-22.
2015 Marking territory in the infinite—Speculating on the implications of flags in space. Peeps Forum. 1 June.
2016 Aliens on the Internet—Anthropology of the imagination in online speculative fiction. Space + Anthropology. 13 April.

Theses and Dissertations

2017 The New Right Stuff: Social Imaginaries of Outer Space and the Capitalist Accumulation of the Cosmos. M.A. Thesis. Department of Anthropology. Northern Arizona University.

Presentations

Refereed Conference Papers

2018 ”In the Shadow of Despots: Extremism, Zealotry, and Abolitionist Anthropology.” 117th American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting. 15 November. San Jose, CA.
2017 ”Fear and Loathing in Truth or Consequences: Neoliberalism, Colonialism and the Lineage of the Frontier at Spaceport America.” 116th American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting. 30 November. Washington, D.C.
2017 ”Cosmic Colonialism: Imperial Imaginaries at Spaceport America.” Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Conference. 28 March. Santa Fe, NM.
2016 ”Radical Imaginaries of Outer Space: Resisting Extra-Planetary Neoliberalism and Cosmic Primitive Accumulation.” 115th American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting. 20 November. Minneapolis, MN.
2015 ”Decolonizing Archival Methodology: Combating Hegemony & Moving Towards a Collaborative Archival Environment.” 114th American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting. 19 November. Denver, CO.
2014 ”Comparisons in Film Production between Commercial Endeavors and Applied Visual Ethnography.” Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Conference. 18 March. Albuquerque, NM.

Panels Organized / Chaired

2018 Co-Organizer (with Courtney Cecale). ”Ethnographies of the Extreme.” 117th American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting. 15 November. San Jose, CA.
2017 Chair. ”’Realists’ of a Larger Reality: Anthropological Intersections with Science Fiction.” 116th American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting. 2 December. Washington, D.C.

Invited Talks

2018 ”Destabilizing Power and Asserting Praxis in Post-HAU Anthropology.” 117th American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting late-breaking roundtable. 17 November. San Jose, CA.
2018 ”Learning from Mars: A roundtable discussion on (de)-colonization, the ’turn-key’ project and planning futures.” 10th Annual SCARP Symposium. 16 March. University of British Columbia. Vancouver, BC.

Research Experience

2017– Ethnographic and engineering research to develop a methodology that allows fluent human-machine collaboration in low gravity environments using an assistive exoskeleton.
2017– Ethnographic research looking at how the integration of water sensor displays impact the water choices of laboratory building occupants.
2017–2018 Speculative integration of STEM, social science, and the arts to imagine what legal, political, and social norms will govern human exploration of outer space through a physical, publicly accessible, performative analogue.
2015–2017 Archival research and multi-sited ethnography for M.A. thesis.
2014 Historical research and artifact rehousing for Casa Grande Valley Historical Society.
2012–2013 Seed collection and plant growth data at urban gardens in Tucson, Arizona.

Media Coverage & Mentions (selected)

2018 Open Access, Apathy & Cowardice in academic publishing: An interview w/ Taylor R. Genovese. anthro{dendum}. 28 May.
2017 Did 3 NASA Astronauts Really Hold a ‘Space Strike’ in 1973? Atlas Obsura. August 28.
2014 College interns work to preserve CG history. Casa Grande Dispatch. July 9.
2013 UA Partners With Pima County Public Library to Welcome Non-English Speakers to the Library. UANews. December 12.

Languages

Human languages: English (native), Russian (novice), Spanish (novice).

Computer languages: HTML/CSS (novice), LaTeX (novice).

Contact

If you are a prospective student interested in ASU's HSD program and have any questions (or just want to chat), please feel free to get in touch!

Where to find me

School for the Future of Innovation in Society
Arizona State University
P.O. Box 875603
Tempe, AZ 85287-5603

On Occupied Akimel O'odham and Xalychidom Piipaash Territory

Email Me
taylor.genovese@asu.edu

Connect With Me

Twitter
Instagram
LinkedIn
Google Scholar
ORCID
SocArXiv / OSF