USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Biographical Sketch

Dr. Jeb Middlebrook is currently an Assistant Professor of Criminology and Justice Studies in the Department of Sociology at California State University, Dominguez Hills. He holds a Ph.D. and M.A. (2011, 2007) in American Studies and Ethnicity from USC, and a B.A. (2003) in Ethnic Studies (Individually Designed Interdepartmental Major) from the University of Minnesota. At CSUDH, he teaches, "Criminology," "Deviant Behavior," "Social Movements," "Sociology of Hip-Hop," "Sociological Research Methods," "Modern Sociological Theories," and "Introduction to Sociology," among other classes.

At USC, Dr. Middlebrook was a Lecturer in the Department of Sociology for the courses, "Social Problems," "Crowds, Publics, and Social Movements," "Public Policy and Criminal Justice," and "Social Inequality: Class, Status, and Power." He also taught as a Lecturer for the Department of Sociology, the Women's and Ethnic Studies Program, and the Graduate Certificate Program in Diversity, Social Justice, and Inclusion at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs with classes including, "The Culture of Incarceration," "Music and Social Change," and "Class, Stratification, and Power."

Dr. Middlebrook was the recipient of a Fund for Innovative Undergraduate Teaching Award (awarded work here) from the Center for Excellence in Teaching, and a Learning Environments Incentive Grant from the Center for Scholarly Technology, for his work in the Department of Sociology at USC. He was also the recipient of an Award for Excellence in Teaching in the Department of American Studies and Ethnicity at USC. Dr. Middlebrook holds the honored position as Executive Director of the Solid@rity Institute, a digital institute that uses research, education, and community organizing to connect diverse constituencies in a collective vision for social justice.

His current book manuscript is titled, Prison Music: Containment, Escape, and the Sound of America, which explores the aesthetics and politics of prison in U.S. culture from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century through an examination of prison music, film, policy, and activism. Jeb is also working on another book project, Organizing Race: Antiracist Activism and Multiracial Movement-Making. This manuscript analyzes strategic uses of race by community organizers of color and white organizers from 1960 to 2011, in their attempts to build multiracial social justice movements.

Jeb lectures nationally through SpeakOut!: The Institute for Democratic Education and Culture on topics of race, social movements, and popular culture with colleagues such as Angela Davis, the late Howard Zinn, Winona LaDuke, Sonia Sanchez, Van Jones, Noam Chomsky, Ward Churchill, and Alice Walker. Jeb's research and teaching interests span the disciplines of sociology, history, and anthropology and include topics such as race and ethnicity, social movements, social systems, transnationalism, intersectionality (race, class, gender, sexuality), popular culture, incarceration, music, archives, and ethnography. Dr. Middlebrook has given talks to thousands of people at campuses across the United States including Yale University; University of California, Berkeley; and the Universities of Minnesota, Missouri, and Kansas.

From 2008-2010, Dr. Middlebrook worked as managing editor of American Quarterly: The Journal of the American Studies Association, and was part of the editorial team that won Journal Issue of the Year in 2008 from the Council of Editors of Learned Journals for the Special Issue, Nation and Migration: Past and Future. From 2006-2008 and in 2011, he worked as a Teaching Assistant for college classes on race and ethnicity in the departments of American Studies and Ethnicity, Anthropology, and Sociology at the University of Southern California including “America, the Frontier, and the New West”, “Race and Class in Los Angeles," “Exploring Culture Through Film”, and "Social Problems."

Dr. Middlebrook has been published by American Quarterly and Greenwood Press, and has received national recognition for his work from the Ford Foundation, the Harry S. Truman Foundation, NBC, ABC, Associated Press, MTV Networks, Complex Magazine, and Hot 97 Radio in New York. He has been featured in the television program VH1’s The (White) Rapper Show, the film Mirrors of Privilege: Making Whiteness Visible, and the books Other People’s Property: A Shadow History of Hip-Hop in White America and Beacons in the Storm: White Educator Activists Working for Racial Justice.

Education

Academic Appointment, Affiliation, and Employment History

Tenure Track Appointments

Non-Tenure Track Appointments

Description of Research

Research Specialties