Ruth O’Brien latest book, Out of Many One: Obama and the Third American Political Tradition (University of Chicago Press, May 2013), with a foreword by journalist Thomas Byrnes Edsall, distinguished professor at Columbia’s School of Journalism, was honored with a 2013 “Author Meets Critic” American Political Science Association convention session. O’Brien’s controversial blog about President Obama led Rush Limbaugh to dub her a “professorette” in advance of its publication, underscoring Edsall’s foreword anticipated that “A truly original book, Out of Many One will enrage and persuade.”
O’Brien also wrote Bodies in Revolt: Gender, Disability, and a Workplace Ethic of Care (Routledge), Crippled Justice: The History of Modern Disability Policy in the Workplace (University of Chicago), which received an honorable mention from Gustavus Meyers Center for the Study of Human Rights and Bigotry, and Workers’ Paradox: The Republican Origins of the New Deal Labor Policy, 1886-1935 (University of North Carolina Press).
O’Brien who earned her Ph.D. in political science at UCLA, joined the Graduate Center’s doctoral faculty in 1997 and, in 2004, founded the Writing Politics specialization in political science. She also serves as an adjunct affiliated scholar with the Center for American Progress. In her research and books, she focuses on American politics, law, political theory without national borders, globalism, and American/global dichotomy.
The Writing Politics specialization emanated from two books she contributed to and edited: Telling Stories out of Court: Narratives about Women and Workplace Discrimination (ILR, Cornell University Press); and Voices from the Edge: Narratives about the Americans with Disabilities Act (Oxford University Press), also earning them an honorable mention from the Gustavus Meyers Center for the Study of Human Rights and Bigotry
As a book series editor, O’Brien edits the award-winning Public Square series for Princeton University Press, showcasing public intellectuals such as Jill Lepore, Jeff Madrick, Anne Norton, Martha Nussbaum, and Joan Scott. O’Brien is also launching “Heretical Thought,” an Oxford University Press political-theory series that is global in outlook. She is also an adjunct affiliated scholar for Center for American Progress Washington, D. C.
NARRATED RESUME or Curriculum Vitae by TOPIC
RESEARCH
Single Authored Books: O’Brien published 4 single-authored books 1. Out of Many, One: Obama & the Third American Political Tradition (University of Chicago, May 2013) 2. Bodies in Revolt: Gender, Disability, and a Workplace Ethic of Care (Routledge, 2005). 2. Crippled Justice: The History of Modern Disability Policy in the Workplace (University of Chicago, 2001), which received an honorable mention from the Gustavus Meyers Center for the Study of Human Rights and Bigotry, and 3. Workers’ Paradox: The Republican Origins of New Deal Labor Policy, 1886–1935 (University of North Carolina, 1998).
Edited Books: O’Brien’s involvement with Writing Politics can be seen in 2 edited books: Telling Stories out of Court: Narratives about Women and Workplace Discrimination (ILR, Cornell University Press, 2008) and Voices from the Edge: Narratives about the Americans with Disabilities Act (Oxford University Press, 2004), which also earned an honorable mention from the Gustavus Meyers Center. She is currently revising a book on Barack Obama and contemporary theory and ideas underlying the American political tradition.
O’Brien has published articles in Polity, Studies in American Political Development, Law & Social Inquiry, and SIGNS, among other journals.
Book Series Editor O’Brien is the book series editor of the Public Square Books for Princeton University Press. The authors in this series have won over a dozen awards. It is series showcases the world’s finest public intellectuals, such as Andrei Codrescu, Jill Lepore, Jeff Madrick, and Martha Nussbaum, writing about social-justice issues. Public Square books have received a total of 11 awards and mentions thus far, including a PEN nomination and the APSA Human Rights Award. They have been reviewed in international dailies and national weeklies such as the New York Times and the New York Review of Books.
EXTERNAL INSTITUTIONAL GRANTS O’Brien ran a Fulbright Summer Institute for the U.S. State Department, hosting 18 international scholars on “American Political Development: The Rise to Globalism” (read “America as Empire”). In 2012–13 she is co-directing a Mellon Sawyer Seminar series with Richard Wolin, Carol Gould, and Omar Dahbour.
OUTREACH AWARDS O’Brien won the CUNY Chancellor’s Disability Awareness Award in 2011. O’Brien was nominated for the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award for radio commentary by KPFK, where she can be heard regularly. In 2005 J.M. Kaplan Furthermore Foundation Award provided funding for the Public Square series.
TEACHING O’Brien teaches the Core Political Science Course for all entering students in the Ph.D. and M.A. Program; American Politics, specifically American political development (APD) and American political thought (APT); contemporary American political thought; Writing Politics (the role of public intellectuals); and Life Writing (legal storytelling or narration).
RECENT SEMINAR ROTATION
• Special Topic: American Political Development & Ideas
• Neos & Isms: Special Topic in American Political Development
• Introduction to American Politics
• American Political Thought
• Contemporary American Political Thought
WRITING POLITICS SPECIALIZATION & LIBERAL STUDIES
• Role of American Public Intellectual
• Forms of Life Writing (Narrative as Political Performance)
• Power, Resistance, Identity & Social Movements
CORE POLITICAL SCIENCE
• Political Science Core Course: Power & Resistance