Sandra Zito
Curriculum Vitae
626 676 0308
Fields of Specialization
Modern
Europe, Critical Theory, Gender, Race, Nation, History and Theory, History and
Spatial Politics
Teaching Fields
World
History, Cultural Studies
Education
|
2011
|
Ph.D.,
History, University of California, Irvine Critical
Theory Emphasis, School of Humanities
First
Field: Modern Europe Second Field: Critical Theory Dissertation:
Drawing the Lines of Conflict: Borders,
Architecture, and a Critique of the Racial Violence of National Identities Committee
Members: Mark S. Poster, Felicity D. Scott, Mark LeVine |
|
2002 |
M.A.,
Cultural Studies Claremont Graduate University, California Thesis:
Another Other Question: The Discourse
of the Southern Question |
|
1993 |
B.F.A.,
Photography, Rochester Institute of Technology, New York |
Teaching Experience
|
2013 |
Visiting Lecturer,
Frontiers in/of Europe, Modern Languages and European Studies, Department of
English Studies, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Spring Semester |
|
2013 |
Visiting Lecturer, Europe
and its Former Colonies, Modern Languages and European Studies, Department of
English Studies, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Spring Semester |
|
2013 |
Visiting Lecturer, Topics
in Fiction: Postcolonial Literature: Diaspora, Migration and Exile, English
Language and Literature, Department of English Studies, University of Cyprus,
Nicosia, Spring Semester |
|
2011 |
Adult Education Instructor,
Academic Individualized Instruction Lab, Los Angeles Community Adult School,
California |
|
2010 |
Graduate
Teaching Assistant (Grader), Illmatic:
Hip-Hop and America, Upper Division,
Department of Visual Studies an African-American Studies, University of
California, Irvine |
|
2010 |
Graduate Teaching Assistant
(Discussion leader of two sections), Culture, Money, & Globalization,
Upper Division, Department of History and Global Cultures, University of
California, Irvine |
|
2009 |
Graduate Teaching Assistant
(Discussion leader of two sections), The Crusades, Upper Division, Department
of History and Global Cultures, University of California, Irvine |
|
2009 |
Graduate Teaching Assistant
(Discussion leader of two sections), Later Roman Empire, Upper Division,
Department of History and Classics, University of California, Irvine |
|
2008 |
Graduate Teaching Assistant
(Discussion leader of two sections), Problems in History: Middle East/Africa:
Medieval Iran, Upper Division, Department of History, University of
California, Irvine |
|
2008 |
Graduate
Teaching Assistant (Discussion leader of two sections), Age of the Samurai, Upper
Division, Department of History, University of California, Irvine |
|
2008-2011 |
Teaching
Assistant, Academic Individualized Instruction Lab, Los Angeles Community
Adult School, California |
|
2007 |
Graduate Teaching Assistant
(Discussion leader of two sections), Problems in History: Transnational
History: Indian Diaspora, Lower Division, Department of History, University
of California, Irvine |
|
2007 |
Graduate Teaching Assistant
(Grader), Jews and Muslims, Upper Division, Department of History, University
of California, Irvine |
|
2006 |
Graduate Teaching Assistant
(Discussion leader of two sections), World History: Beg to 1650, Lower
Division, Department of History, University of California, Irvine |
|
2006 |
Graduate
Teaching Assistant (Discussion leader of two sections), World History:
1850-present, Lower Division, Department of History, University of
California, Irvine |
|
2006 |
Graduate Teaching Assistant
(Discussion leader of two sections), World History: 1650-1850, Lower
Division, Department of History, University of California, Irvine |
|
2005 |
Graduate Teaching Assistant
(Discussion leader of two sections), Problems in History: Europe:
Revolutions, Lower Division, Department of History, University of California,
Irvine |
|
2005 |
Graduate Teaching Assistant (Discussion leader of
two sections), World History: 1850-present, Lower Division, Department of
History, University of California, Irvine |
|
2005 |
Graduate Teaching Assistant
(Discussion leader of two sections), World War II Era, Upper Division,
Department of History, University of California, Irvine |
|
2004 |
Graduate Teaching Assistant
(Discussion leader of two sections), Korean History to 1800, Upper Division,
Department of History, University of California, Irvine |
|
2001 |
Teaching Assistant,
Monsters: Facts and Fictions, Core Course, Humanities Department, Harvey Mudd
College, Claremont, California |
Research and Related
Professional Experience
|
2003-2004 |
Grant Writer, Heritage
Square Museum, Pasadena, California |
|
2002-2003 |
Historical Research
Assistant, Cultural Resource Management, Pomona, California |
|
2001-2002 |
Research Assistant to
Assistant Professor Ranu Samantrai, Cultural Studies Department, Claremont
Graduate University |
|
2001 |
Research Assistant to Associate Professor Elazar
Barkan, Cultural Studies Department, Claremont Graduate University |
|
2001 |
Research Assistant,
PresidentÕs Office, Claremont Graduate University |
|
2000 |
Research Assistant to
Assistant Professor Kathleen Fitzpatrick, English Department, Pomona College |
|
2000-2001 |
Writing Center Consultant,
Graduate Writing Center, Claremont Graduate University, California |
Awards
|
2008 |
Helen
and John S. Best Fellowship, American Geographical Society Library,
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. |
|
2008 |
Humanities
Center Individual Grant, School of Humanities, University of California,
Irvine, California. |
|
2007 |
Summer
Dissertation Fellowship, University of California, Irvine, California. |
|
2000 |
Maguire
Award, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, California. |
|
1999-2002 |
Graduate Student
Fellowship, Department of Cultural Studies, Claremont Graduate University,
Claremont, California. |
Publications
Manuscripts in Preparation
|
|
Zito,
Sandra. Blueprints for a Transcultural
Future: Decolonizing Colonial-Modernity in Contemporary Architecture
Practices. Book-length
manuscript in progress. |
Journal Articles
|
2012 |
Zito, Sandra. ÒOn the
Medicalization of Emotional and Behavioral Problems in Youth: An Interview
with Julie Magno Zito.Ó The Hedgehog
Review: Critical Reflections on Contemporary Culture Vol. 14, no. 3 (Fall
2012): 79-84. |
Conference Presentations
|
2014 |
ÒThe Architecture of the
ÒGreen LineÓ in Cyprus and the Ambivalent Structure of Modern Democratic
States.Ó Partition, Democracy, (and Europe), Arts & Humanities Research
Council Research Network on Comparative Partitions, University of St Andrews,
Scotland, March 1-2. |
|
2013 |
ÒDrawing the Lines of Racial Conflict: Sovereign-National Borders and
the Politics of Exclusion.Ó Race, Migration, Citizenship: Postcolonial and Decolonial
Perspectives, British Sociological AssociationÕs Theory Study Group,
Birmingham, England, July 4-5. |
|
2013 |
ÒDrawing the Lines of
Racial Conflict: Political Borders and the Architecture of the Other Scene.Ó Relocating Borders: A
Comparative Approach, 2013 Second EastBordNet Conference, Humboldt
University, Berlin, Germany, January 11-13. |
|
2010 |
ÒThe Nation-State as
Detention Center.Ó Quarantine, The 2010 Culture and Theory Graduate Student
Conference, University of California, Irvine, April 30. |
|
2009 |
ÒEclectic Eyes:
Experimental Architectural Practices Look at the Spaces of Global Capitalism
in Europe.Ó Out of Bounds: Exploring Global Connections, Northeastern
Graduate Student History Conference, March 21-22. |
|
2005 |
ÒObservation Decks of
Everyday Life and Death.Ó Eighth Annual Graduate Student History & Theory
Conference, University of California, Irvine, January 15. |
|
|
ÒAll Lost in the Cultural Supermarket: Borders
Bookstore and the Transformation of Public Space.Ó Fifth Annual Conference of
Field Research in Cultural Studies, Claremont Graduate University, December
1999. |
Service and Professional
Development
|
2009 |
Effective
Writing Workshop, Learning and Academic Resource Center, University of
California, Irvine. |
|
2007 |
ÒWhat
are the Causes and Consequences of Cultural Interactions?Ó, Summer 2007 World
History Institute, UC Irvine History Project. |
|
2004 |
Teaching
Assistant Professional Development Training, University of California,
Irvine. |
Professional Affiliations
|
2012 |
American
Historical Association |
|
2011 |
Association
for Cultural Studies |
|
2006 |
Storefront
for Art and Architecture |
|
2002 |
Los
Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design |
Languages
|
|
French, reading knowledge Italian,
reading knowledge |
References
|
|
Mark Poster, Professor
Emeritus (Deceased, 2012) Department of History &
Visual Studies, University of California, Irvine Felicity D. Scott,
Assistant Professor Graduate School of
Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University Mark LeVine, Professor Department of History,
University of California, Irvine ƒtienne Balibar, Professor
Emeritus Moral and Political
Philosophy at UniversitŽ de Paris X-Nanterre Distinguished Professor of
Humanities at the University of California, Irvine |
Dissertation
Abstract
Drawing the
Lines of Conflict: Borders, Architecture, and a Critique of the Racial Violence
of National Identities
Experimental
and radical architectural discourses on the geopolitics of borders and
identities, produced between the late twentieth and early twenty-first
centuries, enable a rethinking of the relationships between the structural
violence of nation-states, sovereign-national borders, and national identities.
The following dissertation analyzes three architectural groups –
Multiplicity, Estudio Cruz, and Diller + Scofidio – whose works
contribute to a critical discourse on the spatial politics of borders, the
construction of identifications, and the ethics of the uneven distribution of
wealth across the globe. Utilizing
an interdisciplinary method that draws from Marxist, psychoanalytic, and race
critical theories, in particular the work of the critical political
philosopher, ƒtienne Balibar, this dissertation argues that borders are
everywhere, ordinary and controversial, architectonic devices whose meanings
and effects vary. Borders are necessary for the production and classification
of the identity of things and persons, but some borders and some identifications
have more violent consequences than other border devices. The kind of border
that determines the boundaries of national and political states and
identifications – sovereign-national borders – are the consequence
of the structural violence of states, which appropriate individual identities
in an ambiguous manner in order to maintain hegemony over racial, ethnic, and class
exploitation within a world division of labor and power. Sovereign-national
borders are overdetermined by material, ideological, and unconscious
determinants related to the history of European colonial conquest and a world
capitalist economy.
Since
the end of the Cold War, sovereign-national borders are vacillating and
proliferating, moving from the peripheral edge of state polities and crossing
inside and across nation-states, spreading a global authoritarianism and racial
violence. This emergent condition enables a rethinking of sovereign-national
borders in terms of how they constrain bodies and identifications around an
imaginary racial homogeneity, i.e., around the idea of race as an essentialist,
genetic, purity, not a historical and social construct. In addition,
sovereign-national borders structure a certain type of gaze, or way of looking,
at other bodies and landscapes that determines who gets to flourish and who
gets to barely live, who is an enemy and who is an ally, who one has empathy for
and who one has hatred for, and who gets to harm and who receives harm in a
hierarchical international order of things related to European colonial,
racial-scientific, and geographical classificatory systems. Identifying with a
nation means identifying with the idea of race as an essentialist homogeneity,
not a historical construct; identifying with a nation means identifying the
self as a part of a racially exclusive community, agreeing to find some foreign
other – which can be conceived as a class, religious, ethnic, or racial
subject – to perpetually exclude. Sovereign-national borders do not make
the sovereign-national people safe,
they make them militant and racist.