DEVIN PROCTOR

Abridged Curriculum Vitae [for full CV, see attachment above]

Department of Sociology & Anthropology, Elon University, 2035 Campus Box, Elon, NC, 27244

[email protected]  |  devinproctor.com

 

PRESENT APPOINTMENT

 

Elon University

          Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Sociology & Anthropology Department

 

 

EDUCATION

 

George Washington University

          PhD in Anthropology

          MA in Anthropology

          MA in American Studies

 

City University of New York: The City College

          MS in Education

 

New York University

          BFA dbl. maj. in Theatre & Sociology

 

 

ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS                

 

Elon University

2020-present  Assistant Professor, Sociology & Anthropology Dept.

 

Georgetown University

2020              Adjunct Lecturer, Anthropology Dept.

 

George Washington University

2020              Professorial Lecturer, Anthropology Dept

2019              Lecturer, Columbian College of Arts and Science

2017-2018     Instructor of Record, Anthropology Dept.

2012-2013     Adjunct Assistant Professor, GWU Writing Program

 

 

RESEARCH AND TEACHING INTERESTS

 

cultural anthropology, linguistic anthropology, digital anthropology, media anthropology, science and technology studies, interdisciplinary cultural studies, American studies, media studies, videogame studies, internet collectives and fandoms, identity, space & place, embodiment, ethnographic methods, epistemological frameworks 

 

 

PUBLICATIONS

 

Book

 

(under contract).  The Spectrum of Virtuality, at Lexington Books, Rowman & Littlefield Press, as part of their Studies in New Media series

 

Edited Volume

 

(under contract).   Editor, Practicing Digital Ethnography, at Routledge

 

Selected Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

 

2025. "Reading Fascists Reading Shakespeare: Literary Populism in White Power Fiction," co-authored with Chloe Ahmann, Public Culture 37(1): https://doi.org/10.1215/08992363-11714141 

 

2023. "The #Tradwife Persona and the Rise of Radicalized White Domesticity,” Persona Studies, 8(2), pp. 7-26: https://doi.org/10.21153/psj2022vol8no2art1645  

 

2020. “The Social Production of Internet Space: Affordance, Programming, and Virtuality” Communication Theory, qtz036, https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtz036

 

Translated into Arabic: 2021. Amin, Djenih. “ا الإنتاج الاجتماعي لفضاء الإنترنت: الإمكان والبرمجة والافتراضية,” Al-Rased Al-Alamy Magazine, Oran 1 University, Algeria

 

2019. “Wandering in the City: Time, Memory, and Experience in Digital Game Space” M/C Journal 22(4): http://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/view/1549

 

2018. “Policing the Fluff: The Social Construction of Scientistic Selves in Otherkin Facebook Groups,” Engaging Science, Technology, and Society, 4 (2018), pp. 485-514: https://estsjournal.org/index.php/ests/article/view/252/166

 

Peer-Reviewed Proceedings

 

2021. “Cybernetics and Digital Whiteness: Exposure to Radicalization through Feedback Loops,” Proceedings of the IEEE Conference, Norbert Weiner in the 21st Century, Chenai, India, 2021

 

Book Chapter

 

2018. “Cybernetic Animism: Non-Human Personhood and the Internet,” in Digital Existence: Ontology, Ethics and Transcendence in Digital Culture, ed. Amanda Lagerkvist. London: Routledge, pp. 227-241.

 

Selected Media and Public Scholarship

 

with Chloe Ahmann. “Reading Scholars Reading Fascists Reading Shakespeare with Drs.

Chloe Ahmann and Devin Proctor,” At Today’s Totalitarianism, February: https://www.todaystotalitarianism.com/reading-scholars-reading-fascists-reading-shakespeare-with-drs-chloe-ahmann-and-devin-proctor

 

2022. “What is Cultural Anthropology?” At SAPIENS September 27: 

https://www.sapiens.org/culture/what-is-cultural-anthropology/  

 

2021. “Care by Emoji” with Tariq Adely. Anthropology News, June 25:

https://www.anthropology-news.org/articles/care-by-emoji/

 

2020. “So You Want to ‘Do’ Digital Ethnography.” At The Geek Anthropologist, March 25:

https://thegeekanthropologist.com/2020/03/25/so-you-want-to-do-digital-ethnography/

 

2015-present. Writing and maintaining Anthropolojamz research and theory blog: https://anthropolojamz.wordpress.com

 

 

TEACHING 

 

As Professor

Introduction to Cultural Anthropology

Anthropology of the Internet

Anthropology Theory

Concepts in American Studies

Exploring Virtual Space

The Global Experience

 

As Adjunct Professor/ Instructor of Record

Introduction to Cultural Anthropology

Love & Hate in the Digital Age

Youth and Technology

Anthropology Research Practicum

Contemporary Anthropological Theory: Keywords in Digital Anthropology

(co-designed and taught with Joel Kuipers)

Writing About Video Games: Fictions and Critiques of Virtual Worlds

The Road Trip in American Film and Literature                                                                                                                       

 

RECENT GRANTS & AWARDS

 

2023:   Elon University Center for Writing Excellence A.I. Engagement Grant, $1,000

 

2022:   National Science Foundation (NSF), Memorialization, Contested Knowledge, and Incomplete Mourning in the Context of COVID-19, $350,415—3 years (Research Consultant)

 

2022:   Elon University Faculty Research & Development Hultquist Summer Fellowship, $2,000

 

2021:   Cornell Center for Social Sciences research grant, Cornell University (Co-PI, $10,580, co-written with Chloe Ahmann [PI]), After Apocalypse: The Work of Utopia in White Power Activism

 

2021:   Institute for Data, Democracy, and Politics research grant, George Washington University, (Research Consultant, $12,000, co-written with Richard Grinker [PI], Joel Kuipers, Mark Edberg, and Brandon Kohrt), Death in the Time of Misinformation

 

2021:   Elon Summer Research Funding ($4,800)

 

2020:   The National Science Foundation RAPID Response grant (Co-PI, $97,509, co-written with Sarah Wagner [PI], Joel Kuipers, Roy Richard Grinker, and Jorge Benavides-Rawson) Funerary Practices, Pandemic Confinement, and the Implications for COVID-19 Transmission 

 

 

RECENT TALKS, WORKSHOPS, AND PAPERS

 

Invited Talks & Workshops

 

2022. “Indexing Racialized Bodies in the Animist Internet,” Nature Religions, Science and Technology Conference, University of Groningen, Netherlands (virtual)

 

2022. “Recognizing Racist Extremism Online,” 12th Annual INTERSECT Conference: Elon University’s Leadership & Diversity Conference, Elon, NC, November 11-12.

 

2021. “Digital Ethnography as a Method of Study and Practice,” George Washington University. (virtual)

 

2020. “Open Bodies and Virtual Space,” Elon University.

 

Conference Activity

 

2023:  “Reading for the Revolution: Notes on a Fascist Library,” with Chloe Ahmann, 122nd American Anthropological Association/ Canadian Anthropology Society Annual Meeting, Toronto, Canada, November 15-19. (virtual)

 

2022. “Hashtagging into Extremism: Tradlives, Tradwives, and the Rise of Radicalized Domesticity,” with Ashley Kinder, 121st American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Seattle, WA, November 9-13. (virtual) 

 

2021. “Vernaculars of Mourning: Memorialization in Collapsed Digital Contexts,” 120th American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Baltimore, MD, November 17-21. (virtual)

 

2021. “Cybernetics and Digital Whiteness: Exposure to Radicalization through Feedback Loops,” 2021 IEEE Conference, Norbert Weiner in the 21st Century (21CW), Anna University, Chenai, India, July 22-25. (virtual)

 

2020. “Digital Whiteness: The Construction of Body-Identity in Supremacist Internet Spaces,” Recognition and Repair Symposium, George Washington University, Washington, DC, April 10. (cancelled)

 

 

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS

 

American Anthropological Association

American Ethnological Society

Society for Cultural Anthropology

Association of Internet Researchers

Society of Linguistic Anthropology

Popular Culture Association/ American Culture Association

Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association

American Federation of Teachers

United Federation of Teachers