THE ACADEMIC SENATE



THE ACADEMIC SENATE

CANDIDATE INFORMATION FORM

SPRING 2020

Name: Ben Carrington

Academic Rank: Associate Professor of Sociology and Journalism

Department/School: Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism (with courtesy appointments in the Departments of Sociology and American Studies and Ethnicity).

Graduate degrees (with year, university, and discipline):

PhD, 2004, Leeds Beckett University (UK), Sociology

Major academic responsibilities:

Tenured professor, teaching across both Schools within Annenberg (Communications and Journalism), at both the undergraduate and graduate level, and I have been centrally involved with undergraduate curriculum development. I have supervised PhD students across USC, in Communications, Sociology and Education.

Previous service on USC, Senate, or school committees:

General University Service

2018-present Provost’s Oversight Committee for Athletic Academic Affairs

School of Journalism/Annenberg

2019-present Faculty Council

2018-present Undergraduate Curriculum Committee

2018-present Journalism School Committee on Appointments, Promotions and Tenure

Previous service to scholarly associations:

2020 - The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), Fellowship Award Committee

2016-2017 - Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics (COIA) UT Austin Representative

2014-16 - Fulbright National Screening Committee Member

American Sociological Association (ASA)

2017 - Sociology of Culture Section Mary Douglas Prize for Best Book Award Committee,

2017 - Sociology of Sex and Gender Section Sally Hacker Graduate Student Paper Award Committee, 2017

2015 - Sociology of Sex and Gender Section Distinguished Book Award Committee, 2015

Personal statement: why do you want to serve in this role for the Senate?

I am delighted and honored to stand as a member at large for the faculty senate.

Since I moved to USC, in 2017, from the University of Texas at Austin, I have been struck by how often the language of “cultural change” has been invoked by faculty, students and senior administrators. As a cultural sociologist who teaches and researches questions of social change and power (particularly on issues related to race, class and gender), I believe I have a professional understanding about what is required for meaningful change to take place.

Thus, I will strive to ensure that the difficult and necessary work of shifting the culture of USC towards more transparent forms of governance and a less hierarchical model of management, is pursued, both in the work of the faculty senate and in the workings of the university more generally.

Centering the scholarly mission of higher learning in everything we do as a leading research institution and prioritizing the public good (both in research and teaching) will inform my role in this position. I have been at USC long enough to have a good understanding of the key issues the institution needs to address, but I also have twenty years of experience teaching in public university settings, which will inform my work and approach as a faculty senate member. I want to join with other faculty members to ensure that we act ethically, center faculty governance and oversight, and that the managerial speak when it comes to questions of “diversity and inclusion” is genuinely embraced and implemented, even if – and when – that means challenging established ways of doing things.

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