Education
2006 PhD Yale University, African American Studies and Sociology
1999 MA University of London, Culture, Communication and Societies
1997 BA Brown University, American Studies and Human Ecology
Bio
Lucia Trimbur is an Associate Professor of Sociology at John Jay College and CUNY's Graduate Center and a Global Fellow at the University of Edinburgh. She completed her doctoral degree in African American studies and sociology at Yale University. Her work focuses on the relationships among embodied practices, perceptions of racial, class, and gender difference, and hierarchies of power. Her first book, Come Out Swinging: The Changing World of Boxing in Gleason's Gym, was published on Princeton University Press in 2013. She is currently working on her second book, Lights Out: An Ethnography of Concussion, which looks at how rule changes in American football transform the play of the game as well as attitudes toward and investments in the sport. Specifically she is interested in how increasing attention to the neurological conditions produced by concussive and subconcussive hits is altering both the regulations by which football is practiced and the interpretations that participants make in response. Her work has been published in academic journals such as the American Studies Journal, Antipode, Contexts, Ethnography, Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, Qualitative Sociology, and Quest as well as popular journals such as The Allrounder and Urban Omnibus.
Professional Memberships
American Sociological Association; American Studies Association (Critical Prison Studies Caucus, Ethnography Caucus, Sports Studies Caucus); Collegium for African American Research; Eastern Sociological Society; London Conference on Critical Thought
Course Taught
American Social Institutions: The Rise and Fall of the American Prison, Liberal Studies/ American Studies Program
Race, Racisms, and Punishment, Criminal Justice Department
Social Theories of Crime: Criminological Theory II, Criminal Justice Department
Teenagers and Punishment, Sociology Department
Senior Seminar, John Jay College Honors Program
Theories of Social Order, Sociology Department
Revenge and Forgiveness, Interdisciplinary Studies Program
Violence and Justice, Interdisciplinary Studies Program
Immigration and Its Discontents, Interdisciplinary Studies Program
Human Trafficking, Sociology Department
Senior Seminar: Writings from Prison, Sociology Department
Justice and the Individual, Interdisciplinary Studies Program
Solitary Confinement: Real and Imagined, Interdisciplinary Studies Program
Slavery, Sex, and Human Trafficking, Interdisciplinary Studies Program
Controlled Violence: The Fighting Arts, Interdisciplinary Studies Program
Political Prisoners, Political Imprisonment, Sociology Department
Citizen, Subject, State, Sociology Department
Introduction to Sociology, Sociology Department
Scholarly Work
Books
2013 Come Out Swinging: The Changing World of Boxing in Gleason’s Gym. Princeton, N.J. Princeton University Press.
Peer-Reviewed Articles and Book Chapters
forthcoming “Boxing and Black Culture.” In African American Culture, edited by Omari L. Dyson and Judson L. Jeffries.
forthcoming “The Moral Economy of the Urban Gym.” In Rings of Dissent: Boxing and the Performance of Rebellion, edited by Gaye Theresa Johnson, David J. Leonard, and Rudolfo Mondragón.
forthcoming “Lights Out: The NFL, Concussion Research, and the Suppression of Scientific Evidence.” In The Politics of Sport Injury, edited by Stephen Wagg and Allyson Pollock.
2018 “Taking a Knee, Making a Stand: Social Justice, the Politics of Sport, and Trump America.” Quest, DOI: 10.1080/00336297.2018.1551806.
2016 “Studying Sport in the University: Some Problematics and Problems.” American Studies Journal 55(3).
2011 “Buying and Selling Blackness: White-Collar Boxing and Racialized Consumerism.” In Modes of Social Identification and Division: Reconsidering the Structures of Race, Gender, Class, and Caste, edited by Abdul JanMohamad. Routledge Press.
2011 “‘Tough Love’: Mediation and Articulation in the Urban Boxing Gym.” Ethnography 12(3).
2009 “‘Me and the Law is Not Friends’: How Former Prisoners Make Sense of Reentry," Qualitative Sociology 32(3).
Invited Articles
2016 “Change Doesn’t Necessarily Mean A Paycheck.” Contexts Fall.
2016 “Still My Brother.” The Allrounder. http://theallrounder.co/2016/05/03/still-my-brother/.
2015 “Finding Mike Tyson.” The Allrounder. http://theallrounder.co/2015/04/27/finding-mike-tyson/.
2015 “The Professor’s Guide to Pugilism: How to Watch the Fight of the Century.” The Allrounder. http://theallrounder.co/2015/05/01/the-professors-guide-to-pugilism-how-to-watch-the-fight-of-the-century/.
2014 “Rings of Refuge: The Boxing Gym in a Shrinking City.” Urban Omnibus. http://urbanomnibus.net/2014/07/rings-of-refuge-the-boxing-gym-in-a-shri....
Honors and Awards
Honourable Mention for the 2014 North American Society for the Sociology of Sport (NASSS) Outstanding Book Award; Visiting Professor, The Academy of Sport, The University of Edinburgh; Faculty Fellow, The Center for Place, Culture, and Politics, CUNY Graduate Center; Dean’s List for Teaching Excellence Award, John Jay College; Faculty Fellowship Publication Program recipient, CUNY Graduate Center.
