UCSD Communication

Name:	David Joshua Benin CV
Education:	University of California, San Diego Ph.D. Program, C. Phil., ABD, in Communication (2003 – Present) New York University, New York, NY Master of Arts in Cinema Studies (2000) University of Georgia, Athens, GA Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education (Social Sciences) (1999) Cum laude
Interest:	I am currently interested in bodies – what they can do, what they can’t do, and how different systems of knowledge come to suppose to understand them. This theoretical interest is directed towards bodies that exist at the nexus of science, technology, and sport. I am examining the technological body of sport in a variety of arenas, including the bio-medical regimes of performance enhancement, adaptive technology, architecture, and “virtual reality.” Such an amorphous, shifting object of analysis necessarily requires an interdisciplinary lens, and I draw theoretical and methodological tools from Science and Technology Studies, Media Studies, and Cultural Studies. I am also a media “producer”, and explore my theoretical and creative interests through film, video, sound art production, and other digital forms. My current production work, Hors Catégorie (authored with Chris Calabro) is an interactive fiction set along the Tour de France bicycle race. Hors Catégorie experiments with bodies, bio-technologies, ethics, affect, virtuality, and what it all has to do with new media ‘writing.’ It can be accessed at: http://www.cs.ucsd.edu/~ccalabro/hors_categorie/index.html.
Recent Publications and Presentations:	David Benin and Lisa Cartwright, 2006 “Shame, Empathy, and Looking Practices: Lessons from a Disability Studies Classroom” in journal of visual culture Vol. 5(2) Fall 2006 (London: SAGE Publications). Embodiment, Virtuality, and IF Presented at the Electronic Literature Organization Conference, University of Washington, May 30, 2008. The scene of the eye Presented at “The Educated Eye: Photography and Evidence Workshop” at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin, Germany, February 22, 2008. The gendered performativity of sound: Derek Jarman’s Blue Presented at the Thinking Gender Conference, University of California, Los Angeles, February 2, 2007. Film, television, literature, and other placebos Presented at the Annual Conference of the Society for Literature, Science, and Art. New York, NY, November 9-12, 2006. Nervous Convergence (with Lisa Cartwright and Sharon Traweek) Presented at the annual conference of the Society for Disability Studies, SFSU, San Francisco, CA, 2005 Bodily Perception: experimental cinema and the condition of virtual ability Presented at the G/Q/ Q/G conference, University of California, Santa Barbara, Spring, 2005
Media Production Work (Authored):	Hors Catégorie: an experiment in embodied, affective interactive fiction (with Chris Calabro, 2007, interactive fiction) A work of interactive fiction, set along the Tour de France bicycling race, Hors Catégorie experiments with bodies, bio-technologies, ethics, affect, virtuality, and what it all has to do with new media ‘writing.’ It can be accessed at: http://www.cs.ucsd.edu/~ccalabro/hors_categorie/index.html Family Values; or, scattered speculations of the topic of resistance (2005, Video, 8”) Drawing inspiration from comic books, Foucault, and phenomenology, this work critically examines the (troubled) relationship between liberal democratic notions of resistance and the truth-making practices of mainstream documentary practice. Ramona Quimby’s Abortion: Age 16 (2005, Sound work, :58) This highly experimental sound work links in order to interrogate the “construction of aural personhood” prevalent in both cinematic sound theory and “right to life” movements. The piece questions the assumptions of personhood on which (certain, gendered) writings in sound theory seem to rest. Deer Hunter (2000, 16mm, 2:15) Examines the curious relationships between people, animals, and large firearms.
Teaching:	COCU 125: How to Read a Film (Summer, 2008) Department of Communication University of California, San Diego Communicating Sustainability: Digital Media Production (Summer, 2008) Office of Sustainability Princeton University COMS 120: Social Issue Media Production: Climate Change (Summer, 2007) Communication Department Sonoma State University COMT 120: Documentary Film Production (Fall, 2005) Department of Communication University of California, San Diego ENG 112: Composition (Summer, 2004; Summer, 2005) Department of General Studies DeVry University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania COLL149/152: Critical Thinking (Summer, 2005) Department of General Studies DeVry University, Fort Washington, PA ENG 139: Advanced Composition and Research (Summer, 2004) Department of General Studies DeVry University, Philadelphia, PA COLL139: Critical Thinking (Spring, 2003; Summer 2004) Department of General Studies DeVry University, Fort Washington, PA ENG 139: Advanced Composition and Research (Spring, 2003) Department of General Studies DeVry University, Fort Washington, PA ENG 099: Developmental English (Fall, 2002; Spring 2003) Department of General Studies DeVry University, Fort Washington, PA ENG 110: Composition (Fall, 2002; Spring 2003) Department of General Studies DeVry University, Fort Washington, PA
Teaching Assistant & Readership Work:	COCU 108: Visual Culture (Winter 2008) Department of Communication University of California, San Diego COSF 100: Communication as a Social Force (Fall, 2004, 2006) Department of Communication University of California, San Diego COSF 175: Culture Wars: Creationism vs. Evolutionism (Spring, 2006) Department of Communication University of California, San Diego COGN 21: Media Practice: Digital Media Production (2005/2006 (4 quarters)) Department of Communication University of California, San Diego COCU 150: Gender and Media (Fall 2006) Department of Communication University of California, San Diego COCU 139: Cultural Politics of Sport (Fall 2005) Department of Communication University of California, San Diego COHI 100: Communication and the Individual (Spring 2005) Department of Communication University of California, San Diego COCU 135: Television, Culture, and the Public (Winter 2004) Department of Communication University of California, San Diego COSF 150: Communication and Social Movements (Fall 2003) Department of Communication University of California, San Diego
Research Work:	Research Assistant to Professor David Serlin (Academic Year 2006) Project: The Cultural Logic of Architecture Department of Communication University of San Diego, California Research Assistant to Professor Lisa Cartwright (Fall 2004) Project: Visual Culture, Disability, and Technology Department of Communication University of San Diego, California
Awards and Honors:	Teaching Assistant Excellence Award (Cash Prize) (2006) Department of Communication University of San Diego, California Adjunct Professor of the Year Award (2002-2003) DeVry University Fort Washington, PA Full Tuition Scholarship (1999-2000) New York University, New York, NY Presidential Scholar (1998) University of Georgia, Athens, GA
Other Media Work:	cineBlast! Productions (1999-2000)