John N. Carr, Ph.D, J.D.
Ph.D., University of Washington, 2007  J.D., University of Texas, 1993  Office: Room 237	Visiting Asst. Professor Journalism  Mass Communication

Research:
My research focuses on what happens in those discursive spaces where we are confronted with difference, with a particular interest in the cultural, social, legal, political, and economic dimensions of public space and cyberspace. My work emerges from my background in critical cultural geography, but tends to be highly interdisciplinary. I draw particularly intensively on discourse analysis, political theory, critical legal studies, and political economy. My methodology is largely critical, qualitative, and interpretive. I am especially interested in the role of the activist-researcher as ethnographic participant-observer. I see such work as filling an important gap in the existing economy of truth claims within academia and in non-academic culture.

I am beginning work examining the discursive (material-symbolic) challenges and opportunities posed by cities in the trans-border American Southwest. This is an extension of a series of projects arising from a long-term ethnographic study of the communication and politics surrounding public space for young people in Seattle, Washington. I am also interested in exploring the political opportunities and challenges posed by emergent information and communication technologies as alternate public fora.

Sample Publications:

• Carr, J., Herbert, S.K., & Brown, E. (In press). "Inclusion under the law, exclusion from the city: The regulation of bodies and places in Seattle." Griffith Law Review (Special edition on urban space and law).

• Carr, J. & Erickson, K. (Revise and resubmit). Crossing the cyberspace research gap in critical geography. Progress in Human Geography.

• Carr, J. (with Erickson, K.). (Under Review). Taking it to the Electronic Streets: What are the possibilities for online contentious politics? Antipode.

• Herbert, S.K., Carr, J. & Erickson, K. (2006). The scales of justice: Federal-local tensions in the War on Terror. In S. K. McGoldrick & A. McArdle (Eds.) Uniform Behavior: Police Localism and National Politics. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

• Howard, P.N., Carr, J., & Milstein, T. (2005). Surveillance and the market for political information. Surveillance and Society, 3(1), 59-73.

On-line Interviews and Resources: A four-part interview regarding my public space research and activism is available at www.seattleskateparks.org.
     - Introduction
     - Part 1
     - Part 2
     - Part 3

There is also a discussion about the impact my research has had on ongoing planning for a park in West Seattle here.

A scholar-spotlight interview I gave in New Zealand regarding the discursive regulation of young people in public space is available in streaming audio here.

Authors: Michel Foucault, Norman Fairclough, Doreen Massey, Nick Blomley, Don Mitchell, Sally Engle Merry, Tim Mitchell, Giorgio Agamben

Teaching Style: I believe in the development of a traditional but essential set of core skills: (1) critical thinking, (2) the expression of critical thought through carefully argued persuasive writing, and (3) the expression of critical thought through public speaking. My second goal in teaching is to meaningfully engage my students with a variety of persuasive and competing theoretical systems for explaining the worlds in which they live, by providing real life examples in lecture and – where feasible – through fieldwork, as well as calling upon students to find the applicability of assignments to their own lives.

Why UNM?: As a native of Albuquerque, the possibilities and limitations of this city’s urban form, culture, economics, and politics have informed all of my academic work. Returning to New Mexico to teach at UNM allows me to continue my work on urban and discursive issues in a setting that is at once representative of many of the forces transforming Western cities, and profoundly unique. I also think that UNM students are some of the best in the country due to the depth and diversity of life experience they bring to the classroom and beyond.

Spare Time: Public space activism, mountain biking, skateboarding, snowboarding, travel, old cars/trucks and motorcycles.