Caitlin F. Bruce, PhD.
CV
Assistant Professor
Department of Communication
University of Pittsburgh
1411 Cathedral of Learning http://caitlinfrancesbruce.com
4200 Fifth Ave,
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Education
PhD Northwestern University, Department of Communication Studies, Rhetoric and Public Culture, Evanston IL., 2014
Committee: Robert Hariman (Chair), Dilip Gaonkar, Lauren Berlant, Jessica Greenberg
Dissertation: Transitional Art, Transnational Murmurs: Post-Revolutionary Urban Street Art
M.A., Northwestern University, Department of Communication Studies, Rhetoric and Public Culture, Evanston, IL, 2010.
Committee: Dilip Gaonkar (Chair), Robert Hariman, Jessica Greenberg
Thesis Title: Locality, Translation and cultural Reentextualization: Resisting a
Sugary Approach to Mural Practice
B.A., Cum Laude, Northwestern University 2004-2008
Major: Philosophy
Minor: Critical Theory
GPA: 3.805/4.00
Current and Past Positions
Assistant Professor of Communication, University of Pittsburgh. Fall 2014- Present
Fellow in the Paris Program in Critical Theory, Northwestern University. Fall 2013-Spring 2014.
Doctoral Student, Rhetoric and Public Culture, Northwestern University, Fall 2008-Spring 2014.
Book Manuscripts
Painting Publics: Transnational Graffiti Scenes as Spaces for Encounter,
Temple University Press. Forthcoming: March 2019. eISBN: 978-1-4399-1446-5
Citizen Voices in Aerosol: León’s Graffiti Worlds. In research stages. Anticipated publication: 2021.
Journal Publications, Peer Reviewed
““River of Words as Space for Encounter: Contested Meaning in Rhetorical Convergence Zones,” Quarterly Journal of Speech, Published online September 23, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1080/00335630.2019.1664756
“Crossing Borders, Building Solidarity: Affective Labor in Shaping Coalitional Murals” (co-authored with Elise Homan), Women’s Studies in Communication, (2018) https://doi.org/10.1080/07491409.2018.1502224
“Public art, affect, and radical negativity: the wall of daydreaming and man’s inhumanity to man,” Subjectivity, (2017): 1-19, doi:10.1057/s41286-017-0023-0.
“Tour Treize: From Precarity to Ephemerality,” GeoHumanities, (2016) http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/2373566X.2016.1234352
“’How Philly Moves’: From Urban Branding to Kinesthetic Sympathy through an Aesthetic of Blur,” Text & Performance Quarterly, (October 2016): 115-136, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10462937.2016.1202441.
“Challenging National Borders and Local Genre Forms: Declaration of Immigration as Volatile
Cultural Text”. Public Art Dialogue 6, no. 2 (2016): 206-227, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21502552.2016.1205398.
“Episode III: Enjoy Poverty: An Aesthetic Virus of Political Discomfort.” Communication,
Culture & Critique 9, no. 5 (2015): 175-321. DOI: 10.1111/cccr.12109.
“The Balaclava as Affect Generator: Free Pussy Riot Protests and Transnational
Iconicity.” Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies 12, no. 1 (2015): 42-62, DOI: 10.1080/14791420.2014.989246.
“The Controversy at Rockefeller Center: Phantom Publics, Aesthetic Barbarians,” Advances in the History of Rhetoric 17, No. 1 (2014): 65-75, DOI: 10.1080/15362426.2014.886931.
“Public Surfaces Beyond the Great Wall: Communication and Graffiti Culture in China”-
Invisible Culture 15 (2010): online.
Journal Manuscripts, Invited
“Texturing Space, Emplacing Gender: Claudia Mendez’s “Constructing History, Constructing
Identities”, In Conversation and Commentary Forum. Women’s Studies in Communication 39, No. 2 (2016): 147-152, DOI: 10.1080/07491409.2016.1176793.
Book Chapters
“Por un Instituto de Graffiti Legal: Desde Programas Temporal, Efímero, y Politizado Hacía Una
Plataforma Durable de Aprenizaje, Creación, y Empoderamiento,” In Propuestas Para León Elecciones 2018. David Mendizibal Martínez, ed. León, GTO: D.R. Promoción de la Cultura y la Educación Superior del Bajío, A.C., PROCESBAC, 2018.
“Modalities of Publicity: Leon’s City of Murals Project” in Inopinatum. The unexpected
impertinence of Urban Creativity, edited by Luca Borriello, Christian Ruggiero, Salerno, Italy: ArtiGraficheBoccia, 2013.
Book Reviews
Book Review: Participatory Critical Rhetoric: Theoretical and Methodological Foundations for Studying Rhetoric In Situ. By Michael Middleton, Aaron Hess, Danielle Endres, and Samantha Senda-Cook. Rhetoric & Public Affairs 22, no. 2 (2019): 332 335. https://www.muse.jhu.edu/article/728926.
Book Review: The Uses of Art in Public Spaces, Julia Lossau and Quentin Stevens, eds., Public Art Dialogue 6, no. 1 (2016): 159-160. Doi: 10.1080/21502552.2016.1149402.
National Awards
Outstanding Essay of the Year, “Crossing Borders, Building Solidarity: Affective Labor in Shaping Coalitional Murals,” Feminist & Women Studies Division, National Communication Association, 2019.
Early Career Award, Rhetorical and Communication Theory Division, National Communication
Association, 2019.
Outstanding Essay of the Year, “The Balaclava as Affect Generator: Free Pussy Riot Protests and
Transnational Iconicity,” Visual Communication Division, National Communication Association. November, 2015.
Visual Communication Division Outstanding Dissertation Award at the National Communication Association, for the dissertation, “Transitional Art, Transnational Murmurs: Post-Revolutionary Urban Street Art,” November, 2014.
Fellowships and Grants
University of Pittsburgh Humanities Center, Internal Faculty Fellow, AY 2019-2020 for the project “Citizen Voices in Aerosol: León’s Graffiti Worlds.”
Urban Communication Foundation, ECA Applied Urban Communication Research Grant, for the project “Citizen Voices in Aerosol? León’s Graffiti Worlds.” $2,500. AY 2018-2019.
University of Pittsburgh, Special Initiative to Promote Scholarly Activities in the Humanities
FY19. $4,000. January 2018-December 2018 to support project “Citizen Voices in Aerosol? León’s Graffiti Worlds.”
Camargo Foundation Core Fellowship, Cassis France, Spring 2018. $2,700. Declined.
Fulbright García-Robles/Comexus Postdoctoral Fellow, Western Hemisphere, Mexico, AY 2017-2018. $20,100.
University of Pittsburgh Humanities Center, Internal Faculty Fellow, AY 2016-2017 for the project “Citizen Voices in Aerosol: León’s Graffiti Worlds.” Awarded Fall 2016. Declined.
Pittsburgh Council on the Arts, Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts Project Stream eGrant, $1,620, for the project “Hemispheric Conversations: Urban Art Program.” 2016-2017.
Provost’s Fund for the Year of Diversity, “Hemispheric Conversations: Urban Art Program.”
$5,000. 2016-2017.
Central Research Development Fund Grant, University of Pittsburgh, “Citizen Voices in Aerosol: León’s Graffiti Worlds.” $14,324. 2016-2018.
American Studies Association Community Partnership Grant, “Art, Social Change, and
Neighborhood Identities: Hemispheric Conversations.” $3,000. 2016-2017.
Center for Latin American Studies Symposium Grant, “Hemispheric Conversations:
Urban Art Project.” $5,000. 2016-2017.
Type II Research Expense Grant for Sumer 2015 Faculty Research Grants Competition, Dietrich
School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, “Citizen Voices in Aerosol: León’s Graffiti Worlds.” $3,500. 2015.
WFI Faculty Research Grant, Villanova University Waterhouse Family Institute, Project Title: “León’s Graffiti Worlds: Citizen Voices in Aerosol, Graffiti as Communication Practice.” $5,000. 2015-2016.
Type I Third Term Research Stipend, Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences,
University of Pittsburgh. Project title: “From Periphery to Center: Transitioning Public Art Practices in Contemporary Mexico.” $4,000. Summer 2015.
Hewlett International Grant, University Center for International Studies. University of Pittsburgh. $3,500. Fall 2015.
Pittsburgh Center for Latin American Studies Faculty Research Grant, “Transitional Art, Transnational Murmurs.” $4,000. 2014.
Northwestern University’s Center for Interdisciplinary Research in the Arts (CIRA) Grant, for the project, “Wonder, Movement, and Spectacle in Public Places: Investigating and Recovering the Shared Histories of Circus Art and Graffiti in New York and Chicago.” $3,000. 2013-2014.
The Paris Program in Critical Theory Fellowship, Northwestern University. $21,000. 2013-2014.
Honorable Mention, The Ford Foundation Dissertation Writing Fellowship, 2013.
The Graduate School Graduate Research Grant, Northwestern University. $3,000. 2011.
School of Communication Ignition Research Grant, Northwestern University. $2,000. 2011.
Gary Gumpert Urban Communication Foundation Research Incentive Grant- National
Communication Association. $1,000. 2010.
Invited Workshops and Seminars:
Creative Cities Working Group, Stanford Arts Institute, May 11-12, 2018.
Public Culture in Chicago, NEH Seminar at the Newberry Library, June 2018. $2,700.
Conference Presentations:
Invited Presentations
Penn State University, Department of Communication Arts & Sciences Colloquium Series, February 22, 2019. “Encountering Ephemerality: The 5Pointz Controversy.”
Capacious Conference, Spotlight speaker, Millersville University. August 8-11, 2018.
Invited Presentation, “Métodos del Campo por la Retórica Visual,” in the Maestría en Communicación y cultura Digital, Facultad de Ciencias Políticas y Sociales de Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro, 24 January 2018.
Invited Presentation, “El oficio de Investigador: El Financiamiento de Proyectos de Investigación,” Universidad Iberoamaericana León, 22 January, 2018.
Annual Iris Marion Young Awards for Community Engagement, presentation on “Expressing the
New Pittsburgh: Art, Gentrification, and Urban Communities. November 17, 2016.
University of Pittsburgh.
Race & Media, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM. September 24-26, 2015. Paper
title: “Zero tolerance, the fight for the Malecón, and law’s frailty: Media coverage of Leon, Guanajuato’s graffiti problem.”
Competitive Papers [Selected]
Latin American Studies Association International Congress, Barcelona Spain. May 23-26, 2018. Citizen Voices in Aerosol: Complicating Leon Guanajuato’s”Urban Image” During Zero Tolerance.”
International Society for the History of Rhetoric, Queens College, London. July 26-31, 2017.
“Citizen Voices in Aerosol: Complicating Leon Guanajuato’s Urban Image During Zero Tolerance.”
National Communication Association, Philadelphia, PA November 6-20, 2016.
Visual Communication Division, Panel Discussion (organizer): Public Photography, Visualizing Social Difference, Engaging Civic Life.
Critical Cultural Studies Division, Paper panel, “Bringing the Past to the Public(s): Mediation of Lived/Local Memories in Public Space”: Invididual Paper, “River of Words as Space of Encounter: Local Identity and Public Memory in Rhetorical Convergence Zones”
Doing the Body in the 21st Century, University of Pittsburgh, March 31-April 2, 2016. Paper:
“Establishing the Interval through Aesthetic Bodies in the Palacio de Bellas Artes.”
National Communication Association, Las Vegas, NV. November 2015. Paper presenter:
“Urban Acrobatics: Spectacular Mobility in Graffiti and Circus Communities.”
Affect Theory: Worldings/Tensions/Futures, Millersville University, October 14-17, 2015. Paper
title: “Tour 13: From Precarity to Ephemerality, Affective Interventions in Temporalities of Creative Destruction”
American Studies Association, Toronto, CA. October, 2015. Paper presenter on the “Law and
Misery: Constructing and Deconstructing Legal Regimes of Miserablism” panel. “Graffiti alongside the law: Meeting of Styles Wiesbaden.”
Communication, Post-coloniality, and Social Justice: Decolonizing Imaginations. WFI,
Villanova University, March 26-29, 2015. Paper: “Frida’s Heirs: Identity Trouble in
Mexican Art in the 1980s, and Repainting the Nation.”
National Communication Association Convention, Chicago, I.L., November 19-23, 2014.
Special Panel in Honor of Ernesto Laclau: Presentation
Panel: Right to the (Creative) City: Pilsen Public Art Scenes. Sponsor: Visual Studies
Division. Chair and discussant.
Panel: “Communicating Sex/Pleasure in Public: The Histories of the Feminist Sex
Wars in Our Present” Sponsor: Feminist and Women’s Studies Division
Paper: “Daga Sacrificia: Making the Erotic Public”
Panel: Rearticulating Revolution: Aesthetic Resources in post-’68 Mexico
Sponsor: Critical and Cultural Studies Division. Chair.
Paper: “Frida’s Heirs: Identity Trouble in Mexican Art in the 1980s, and Repainting the Nation”
Panel: A Chant of Defiance: Imagin(in)g the Visual-Material Rhetorics of Chicago
Sponsor: Visual Communication Division. Panel discussant.
American Studies Association Convention, Washington D.C., November 18-21, 2013.
Panel: Seeing and Being Seen as a Citizen: Collective Dissent in a Transnational Culture of Photography
Paper Title: “The Balaclava as Affect Generator: Transnational Iconicity and Free Pussy Riot Protests in New York”
National Communication Association Convention, Washington D.C., November 18-21, 2013.
Panel Presentation, Visual Communication Division: “Connecting Public Art to the Present: Public Art in Washington DC and Beyond,” Panel presentation: “How Philly Moves: Kinesthetic Sympathy and a Moving Mural”
Paper presentation, Rhetorical Theory Division: Panel chair, “Reading and Historicizing Critical Affect and Aesthetic Theory Rhetorically: Implicit and Explicit Connections.” Paper Title: Mujeres en el Arte: Affective Citizenship through an Aesthetics of Wonder
Eastern Communication Association Convention, Pittsburgh, PA, April 24-28, 2013 Argumentation & Forensics Division: “The Rivera Controversy at Rockefeller Center: Staging Contingency”
Political Communication/Philosophy of Communication Division: “Sites and Sights of Democracy: “Mujeres en el Arte” Performing Sexuate Civic Identity, Imagining Sexual Difference”
School of Communication Graduate Student Winter Symposium, March 2, 2013. Mujeres en el Arte: “Affective Citizenship, and Making Spaces Feel Public. ”
National Communication Association, Orlando, November 14-18, 2012.
Panel Presentation, Critical Cultural Studies Division: “Meeting of Styles Mexico: Graffiti and Ephemeral Intimacy.” Panel Presentation, Visual Communication Division: “Reimaging Community and Remediated Muralism: ‘How Philly Moves’”
Panel Presentation, Feminism and Women’s Studies Division: “Post Revolutionary Cultural Patrimony: “Mujeres en el Arte” and Making Art Spaces Feel Public,” Roundtable Discussion, Cross Examination Debate Association:
Gendered COMMunities in Intercollegiate Debate: Participation, Attrition, and Equality in and Outside of Rounds
National Communication Association Doctoral Honors Conference July 10-13, 2012. USC, Los Angeles, California. Presentation: “Transitional Art, Transnational Murmurs: Postrevolutionary Urban Street Art”
Media Ecology Association 13th Annual Convention, Manhattan College, Riverdale New York Jun 7-10, 2012. Panel Paper- “Imagistic Gateways in a Transnational City: “How Philly Moves” and Hyperlocal Media Strategies”
Rhetoric Society of America Conference- Philadelphia, May 26-28, 2012. Panel Paper- “Meeting of the Styles: Visual Ebulliance, Dissensus, and Transnational Re-Identification”
American Society for the History of Rhetoric Conference- Philadelphia, May 24-25 2012. Panel Paper- “Scandal at Rockefeller Center: Phantom Publics, Aesthetic Barbarians”
Urban Affairs Association, Gene Burd Track on Media and Urban Life- Pittsburgh, April 18-21, 2012. Panel Paper- “Imagistic Gateways in a Transnational City: “How Philly Moves” and Hyperlocal Media Strategies”
Midwest Political Science Association Conference-Chicago, April 12-15 2012. Panel Paper- “Revolution’s Afterlife: Public Art and Mass Communication in Mexican Public Culture”
Cultural Studies Association of America Conference- Chicago, March 24-26 2011. Panel Paper- “Meeting of the Styles: Politics of Opacity.”
Media Coverage of Research/Collaborative Projects
Luis Miguel López, “La conversación mural de León,” Ruleta Rusa, 7 February 2019. http://www.ruletarusa.mx/historiasrr/la-conversacion-mural-de-leon/.
José Antonio Castro Murillo, “Pone ejemplo León en Control de ‘grafiteros’” AM (León Guanajuato Mexico), A/2, 24 December, 2017.
Dan Crawley, “Artists Brightening Once-Gloomy South Side Passage with Mural,” KDKA, May 2, 2017, https://www.google.com/search?q=kdka+south+side+mural&oq=kdka+south+side+mural&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.2909j0j1&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8.
“Artists work with Graffiti Watch to learn, display neighborhood’s history,” South Side Reporter, May 2, 2017 77, no. 44, http://www.sopghreporter.com/story/2017/05/02/front-page/artists-work-with-graffiti-watch-to-learn-display-neighborhoods-history/17704.html?m=true.
Academic Affiliations
American Studies Association
American Society for the History of Rhetoric
Cultural Studies Association of America
Latin American Studies Association
National Communication Association
Rhetoric Society of America
Urban Affairs Association
Service
National
Visual Communication Division Awards Committee
Editorial Board Member: Contemporary Argument and Debate
Editorial Board Member: Mediapolis
Reviewer for the Journal of Curatorial Studies
Reviewer for Critical/Communication and Cultural Studies journal
University Level
Cultural Studies Program, Awards Committee AY 2015-2016
Department of Communication, Admissions and Fellowships Committee AY 2015-2017
Teaching Experience
Graduate
University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA.
Instructor of Record. Rhetoric of Space and Place.
Fall 2016. 13 students.
University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA.
Instructor of Record. Affect and Rhetoric
Fall 2015. 13 students.
Undergraduate
University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA.
Instructor, Rhetoric and Culture, Upper Level Writing Seminar.
Spring 2015. 19 students.
University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA.
Instructor, Public Speaking.
Spring 2015. 19 students.
Fall 2015. 18 students.
Spring 2016. 38 students.
Fall 2016. 18 students.
Spring 2017. 17 students.
University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA.
Instructor, Visual Rhetoric, Upper Level Writing Seminar.
Fall 2014. 16 students.
Languages English, Native speaker; Spanish: Advanced speaking, intermediate reading, intermediate writing; French: Intermediate speaking, intermediate reading