Curriculum Vitae
email: kkulkarni2@fordham.edu
EDUCATION
New York University
PhD – Media, Culture, and Communication, New York University | May 2019
M.A. – Interdisciplinary Studies, Concentration: Media, Design, and Social Movements | May 2008
Gallatin School of Individualized Studies
Emory University
B.A. – Sociology | August 1999
ACADEMIC POSITIONS
Fordham University
Assistant Professor of Race and Digital Media, Department of Communications and Media Studies, | 2023–current
Princeton University
Researcher, Princeton Innovation, Office of the Dean for Research | 2022–2023
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Center for Digital Humanities | 2020–2022
New York University
Adjunct Professor, Department of Media, Culture, and Communication | 2013–2020
Adjunct Professor, Department of Integrated Digital Media (graduate), Tandon School of Engineering | 2018–2020
Adjunct Professor, Program in Media Studies, School of Professional Studies | 2019
Columbia University
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Film and Media Studies (graduate), School of the Arts | 2020
John Jay College, City University of New York
Adjunct Professor, Department of Interdisciplinary Studies | 2017
RESEARCH & TEACHING INTERESTS
Media Studies, Race Critical Code/Data Studies, Black Studies, Performance Studies, Digital Humanities, Media and Performance Ethnography, Critical Geography, Affect Theory, Queer Theory
PUBLICATIONS
”Checking in on Popular Music and Digitality” and “Whatever That Heartbeat Is: Ian Friday on Dance Music and Digitization,” Field Notes, Journal of Popular Music Studies (2024) 36, no. 3: 5 and 18–29.
“‘Like a Cosmic, Invisible Umbilical Cord’: Soul Summit and the Haptic Arrangements of Black Social Life,” Journal of Popular Music Studies (2021) 33, no. 402, Special Issue on “Soundscapes of Gentrification,” eds. Christina Zanfagna and Alex Werth.
“Mitchell-Lama Cooperative Housing and the Promise of Equity over Equality,” Housing the Co-Op: A Micro-political Manifesto, eds. Sascha Delz, Rainer Hehl, and Patricia Ventura, (Berlin: Ruby Press, 2020).
“Affective Economies of Race and Housing in Postwar Brooklyn,” Architecture, Democracy, and Emotion: The Politics of Feeling since 1945, eds. Philipp Nielsen and Till Grossman, (London: Routledge, 2018).
“Utopian Agonism and the Politics of Place-Making on the Open-Air House Music Dance Floor,” Participatory Urbanisms, eds. Kirsten Larson and Karin Shankar, UC Berkeley Global Urban Humanities Initiative (2015).
“Billionaires for Bush: Parody as Political Intervention,” e-misférica, issue 1.1: Enacting Democracy, ed. Diana Taylor (2004).
FELLOWSHIPS, HONORS, AND AWARDS
ACLS “Emerging Voices” Fellow, Center for Digital Humanities, Princeton, University | 2020–2021
Outstanding Teaching Award, Department of Media, Culture, and Communication, NYU | 2019
Inaugural Resident, Shandaken: Governors Island | 2018–2019
Helena Rubenstein Fellow, Critical Studies, Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program | 2017–2018
Fellow, NYU Provost Global Research Initiative Summer Dissertation Writing Fellowship, NYU Paris | 2017
Fellow, USC Annenberg Summer Doctoral Institute for Difference in Media and Culture | 2016
Fellow, Northwestern University Summer Institute in Performance | 2013
Fellow, UC Irvine Values in Design Institute | Summer 2012
Funded Participant, Hemispheric Institute for Performance and Politics “Art and Resistance” Seminar in Chiapas, Mexico | Summer 2011
PhD Fellowship, Department of Media, Culture, and Communication, NYU | 2010–2016
Board Member, Georgia Citizen’s Coalition on Hunger | 2001–2003
Fellow, Center for Third World Organizing, Movement Activist Apprentice Program | 2000
Alpha Kappa Delta Honor Society for Sociology | 1996–1999
Phi Sigma Iota Foreign Language National Honor Society | 1998–1999
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
”Quantum Blackness as a Problem for Media Philosophy,” Critical Approaches to Black Media Culture, Tulane University, New Orleans | Feb 2023
“Labor of/as Love: The Sunday Tea Party, Brooklyn, NY, 1994–2001: The Sunday Tea Party, Brooklyn, NY, 1994–2001,” American Studies Association Conference 2023, Montreal, Quebec | Nov 2023
“Re/compositions of Pleasure: The Sunday Tea Party, Brooklyn, NY, 1994–2001,” Pop Conference 2023, New York, NY | May 2023
“Toward an Affordances Approach to Literacy in the Digital Humanities,” Digital Humanities 2022, ADHO, Tokyo | July 2022
“The Accruing Situation as a Heuristic for Social Difference,” Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics Encuentro, NYU, UNAM, Mexico City | June 2019
“Sunday Tea Parties and House Epistemologies: Marking Care in Underground Topologies of Pleasure,” Whitney Independent Study Program Critical Studies Symposium, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City | May 2018
“After Identity, What?–Visualizing an Ethics of Care in Stop Telling Women to Smile and Question Bridge,” Black Portraiture[s] III, NYU, Harvard University, Johannesburg, SA | November 2016
“Race and the Affective Economies of Housing in Postwar Brooklyn,” Architecture, Democracy, and Emotions Since 1945 Conference, Center for the History of Emotions, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin | May 2016
“Ethnography of the Not-Yet-Here: Embodied Practice and Utopian Performativity at Soul Summit,” American Studies Association Annual Meeting, Los Angeles | November 2014
“Remixing Utopia: House Music, Public Space, and the Performance of Difference,” Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics Encuentro, NYU, Concordia University, Montreal | June 2014
“Relational Politics and Poetics of House Music,” American Comparative Literature Association Annual Meeting, New York City | March 2014
“Fort Greene Boheme: An Affective Community in a Divided City,” Hemispheric Institute Graduate Student Initiative Convergence, NYU, New York City | October 2013
“Online/Offline Embodiment & Digital DNA,” Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics Encuentro, NYU, Sao Paolo | January 2013
INVITED TALKS, GUEST LECTURES, & CONFERENCE RESPONSES
“Indigenous Studies + Digital Humanities,” guest lecture for Professor Ryo Morimoto’s “Nuclear Princeton: An Indigenous Approach to Science and the Environment,” Department of Anthropology, Princeton | April 2022, April 2023
“On Flashing Lights,” in conversation with resident artist Brendan Fernandes, Recess New York | August 2017
“Race and the Affective Economies of Housing in Postwar Brooklyn,” Habitat Unit, Technical University of Berlin | May 2016
Respondent, NYLON 14th Annual Conference, London School of Economics | March 2016
Respondent, NYLON 13th Annual Conference, Max Planck Institute for Human Development | March 2015
Respondent, NYLON 12th Annual Conference, Institute for Public Knowledge, NYU | March 2014
MEDIA COVERAGE
“How the ‘Jewel of Harlem’ Became Unlivable,” interviewed for article written by Katie Herchenroeder, The New Republic | April 5, 2022
“What to Say to Someone Who Is Hesitant to Get the COVID-19 Vaccine,” VICE Magazine | March 23, 2021
“Soul Summit: Doin’ It in the Park,” interviewed for documentary produced by Black-Owned Brooklyn | October 2020
GRANTS
Humanities Innovation Research Grant ($5K), NSF I-Corps Hub Northeast Region | Fall 2022
Vaccine Education & Accessibility Grant ($5K), UJA-Federation of New York | Spring 2021
Leboff Dissertation Research Grant, Department of Media, Culture, and Communication | Spring 2017
NYU Steinhardt Doctoral Student Travel Grant | Fall 2016
Department of Media, Culture, and Communication Travel Grant, NYU | Fall 2016
Department of Media, Culture, and Communication Travel Grant, NYU | Spring 2016
Max Planck Institute for Human Development Travel and Housing Grant | Spring 2016
Leboff Dissertation Research Grant, Department of Media, Culture, and Communication | Spring 2015
Department of Media, Culture, and Communication Travel Grant, NYU | Fall 2014
NYU Steinhardt Doctoral Student Travel Grant | Summer 2014
Department of Media, Culture, and Communication Travel Grant, NYU | Fall 2013
Department of Media, Culture, and Communication Summer Research Grant, NYU | Summer 2013
Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics Travel and Housing Grant | Winter 2013
Department of Media, Culture, and Communication Summer Research Grant, NYU | Summer 2012
Department of Media, Culture, and Communication Summer Research Grant, NYU | Summer 2011
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Instructor of Record:
“Race, Gender, and Digital Media,” Department of Communications and Media Studies, Fordham University, Lincoln Center | Fall 2023
“Race, Gender, and Digital Media,” (grad level) Department of Communications and Media Studies, Fordham University, Lincoln Center | Fall 2023
“Humanistic Approaches to Media and Data,” Freshman Scholars Institute, Princeton University | Summer 2021, Summer 2022
“Theories & Cultural Impact of Media and Technology” (grad level), Department of Integrated Digital Media, Tandon School of Engineering, NYU | Spring 2020, Spring 2019, Fall 2018, Spring 2018
“African American Film and Media” (grad level), Department of Film and Media Studies, Columbia University | Spring 2020
“Methods in Media Studies,” Department of Media, Culture, and Communication (MCC), NYU | Spring 2020, Fall 2019
“Race and Media,” Department of MCC, NYU | Fall 2019, Fall 2016
“Global Perspectives in Media,” School of Professional Studies, NYU | Summer 2019
“Technology and Culture,” Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY | Spring 2019
“Space and Place in Human Communication,” Department of MCC, NYU | Spring 2019, Fall 2015
“Media and Cultural Analysis,” Department of MCC, NYU | Fall 2018, Summer 2015, Spring 2014, Fall 2013
“Cultural Capital: Media and Arts in NYC,” Department of MCC, NYU | Summer 2018, Sumer 2016
“Introduction to Media Studies,” Department of MCC, NYU | Fall 2017
Teaching Assistant:
“Computer Science Tools and Techniques for Digital Humanities,” Department of Computer Science with Brian Kernighan, Princeton University | Spring 2022
“Introduction to Media Studies,” Department of MCC with Mark Crispin Miller, NYU | Fall 2011
“History of Communication,” Department of MCC with Terrance Moran, NYU | Spring 2011
RESEARCH & GRADUATE ASSISTANTSHIPS
Research Assistant:
Kelli Moore, MCC, NYU | Spring 2018, Spring 2017
Martin Scherzinger, MCC, NYU | Spring 2016
Charlton McIlwain, NYU-Connect, NYU | Summer 2015
Marita Sturken, MCC, NYU | Fall 2014
Jamie Bianco, MCC, NYU | Summer 2014
Alexander Galloway, MCC, NYU | Summer 2011
Helen Nissenbaum, MCC, NYU | Summer 2010
David Moore, Gallatin, NYU | Spring 2005
Graduate Assistant:
Program Assistant, “Liberation Lab” with Nicholas Mirzoeff, NYU London | Winter 2016
Graduate Assistant, Community Learning Initiative at NYU | 2003–2005
ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERIENCE & INSTITUTIONAL SERVICE
Associate Editor, Journal of Popular Music Studies | October 2021–2024
Coordinator, Humanities Computing Curriculum Committee, Princeton University | 2020–2022
Co-facilitator, Indigenous Studies Digital Humanities Working Group, Princeton University | 2020–2022
Co-organizer, “Justice Now!: Between Revolutionary Pasts and Liberatory Futures” with Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor and Johanna Fernandez, NYU Department of Media, Culture, and Communication Event Series | 2018
Co-coordinator, NYLON Urban Ethnography Research Network, Institute for Public Knowledge | 2015–2016
PhD Student Representative, Departmental Taskforce on Undergraduate Curriculum Redesign, MCC, NYU | 2014
Co-convener, “Gentrification, Cultural Heritage, and Resistance” Workgroup, Hemispheric Institute Graduate Student Initiative Convergence | October 2014
Assistant Editor, Public Culture and PublicBooks.org | 2012–2013
Founding Member, Art for Community Transformation at NYU | 2003–2005
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Associate Media Director: neo@Ogilvy, Ogilvy Advertising, New York City | 2006–2010
Media Supervisor: Ant Farm Interactive, Atlanta | 1999–2001
Communications Intern: Hands on Atlanta, Atlanta | Summer 1998
VOLUNTEER SERVICE
Clinton Hill-Fort Greene Mutual Aid, COVID Vaccination Organizer | 2020–2022
Brooklyn Jewish Hospital Complex Tenants’ Association, Organizer | 2020–2021
The Ali Forney Center for LGBT Homeless Youth, Life Coach | 2014–2017
Billionaires for Bush (parody street theatre group), Steering Committee & Platform Committee | 2003–2004
Atlanta Living Wage Campaign, Steering Committee | 2001–2003
Empty the Shelters, Atlanta, Steering Committee | 2001–2003
LANGUAGES
Spanish: reading/writing at an intermediate level; speaking at a conversational level
Marathi: speaking at a conversational level
Python: programming at an introductory level
SOFTWARE
Adobe Photoshop & Premiere
Asana
Audacity
Final Cut Pro
Google Colab
Google Workspace
Microsoft Office
Qualtrics
Scalar
Slack