|
|
Faculty
Kathleen LeBesco
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
email
212-517-0522
Degrees
B.A., The State University of New York at Albany
M.A., The State University of New York at Albany
Ph.D., University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Katie LeBesco joined the faculty in the department of Communication Arts in 1998, serving as chair from 2005-2010. LeBesco was named Distinguished Chair in 2009. Before moving into the role of Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in 2011, she regularly taught Principles and Theories of Communication, History and Development of Communication Theory, Communication Today, Gender, Sexuality and Media, Media Criticism, Public Speaking, Edible Ideologies: The Politics of Food, Feminist and Queer Theory, and Queer Eye: Lesbian and Gay Cinema.
Her books include Culinary Capital (Berg Press, 2012), Edible Ideologies: Representing Food and Meaning (SUNY Press, 2008), Revolting Bodies? The Struggle to Redefine Fat Identity (UMass Press, 2004), The Drag King Anthology (Harrington Park Press, 2003), and Bodies Out of Bounds: Fatness and Transgression (UCalifornia Press, 2001). In addition, she has authored more than thirty scholarly journal articles and book chapters in edited collections. Her work concerns food and popular culture, fat activism, disability and representation, working-class identity, and queer politics.
|
|
2008-2009
Achievements in Scholarship and Service
Distinguished Chair Awards
Professor of Communication Arts: appointed as a Distinguished Chair of Communication Arts for three academic years (2009-2010, 2010-2011 and 2011-2012).
Presentations
“Sexy/Fat.” Fat Politics and Sexuality in the Face of Hate panel, McNally Jackson Bookstore, New York, NY, May 20, 2010.
“Situating My Scholarship in Fat Studies.” Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Convention, St. Louis, MO, April 3, 2010.
With Jessica Sturm. “Processing Gender Ideologies: Nostalgia and the Easy Bake Oven.” Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Convention, St. Louis, MO, April 2, 2010.
“Questioning the ‘Obesity Epidemic’: Health, Morality and Fatness.” Women’s History Month Keynote, Suffolk County Community College, Eastern Campus, Riverhead, NY, March 10, 2010.
With Peter Naccarato. “Fixing Dinner, Fixing the Self.” Crossing Borders III Conference at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, Bedford Hills, NY, March 5, 2010.
“The Fat Gene, The Gay Gene, and the New Eugenics.” Re/Dress Fat Studies Reader Event, Brooklyn, NY, December 4, 2009.
With Peter Naccarato. “Celebrating ‘Junk’ Food Culture: Pleasure, Irony and Earnestness in Carnivalesque Consumption.” National Communication Association Annual Convention, Chicago, IL, November 14, 2009.
“Neoliberalism, Public Health, and the Moral Perils of Excess.” Alcohol, Tobacco & Obesity: Interrogating the New Public Health's Axis of Evil workshop at Department of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, CA, July 22, 2009.
Other Professional Activities
External examiner, Ph.D. dissertation. McPhail, Deborah. “Canada Weighs In: Gender, Race and the Making of ‘Obesity’, 1945-1970.” Department of Women’s Studies, York University, Toronto, Canada. Defended November 20, 2010.
Publications
“Fat Panic and the New Morality.” Against Health: How Health Became the New Morality. Ed. Jonathan Metzl and Anna Kirkland. New York: New York University Press, forthcoming.
With Kembrew McLeod. “Using Zines to Foster Critical Communication.” EME: Explorations in Media Ecology 8.1, forthcoming.
“Preface.” Fat Studies in the UK. Ed. Corinna Tomrley and Ann Kaloski Naylor. York, UK: Raw Nerve, 2009. 7.
“‘Gots to Get Got’: Social Justice and Audience Reception of Omar Little.” “The Wire”: Urban Decay and American Television. Ed. T. Potter & C.W. Marshall. New York: Continuum Press, 2009. 217-232.
“Quest for a Cause: The Fat Gene, the Gay Gene, and the New Eugenics.” The Fat Studies Reader. Ed. Sondra Solovay and Esther Rothblum. New York: New York University Press, 2009. 65-74.
Faculty-Student Collaborations
“Processing Gender Ideologies: Nostalgia and the Easy Bake Oven” with MMC student Jessica Sturm; Honors Day 2010 and PCA/ACA Annual Convention. Under revision for possible publication.
Involved MMC student Jessica Sturm as production assistant on my documentary film, Fat Panic!
College Service
Co-Chair, Strategic Plan Task Force.
Co-Organizer, Crossing Borders III Conference at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility.
Member, General Education Committee.
Chair, Communication Arts Department.
Director, Learning Communities Program.
Referee
University of California Press.
New York University Press.
SUNY Press.
Gender and Society.
Text and Performance Quarterly.
Canadian Journal of Sociology.
Scholar in Residence, New York University/Faculty Resource Network, Spring 2010.
Member, Experimental Cuisine Collective (co-sponsored by Depts. of Chemistry and Food Studies at New York University).
Member, Menus in the Media Working Group (sponsored by the Institute for Public Knowledge at New York University).
|
|
|
2007-2008 Achievements in Scholarships and Service
2008-2009 Achievements in Scholarships and Service
2009-2010 Achievements in Scholarships and Service
|
|
|
