B.S., Washington State University (Psychology), 1987
Ph.D., Boston College (Psychology, Social), 1992
Our Faculty
Timothy Shortell
Profile
Timothy Shortell is a visual social psychologist who studies group identities and belonging. His current research examines the framing of religious group identities using quantitative discourse analysis. He has published widely and is active in the International Visual Sociology Association and the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion. He is also a visual artist and musician. Shortell has been at Brooklyn College since 1997.
Education
Selected Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity
Books and Publications
Krase, J. and T. Shortell. "Storymaking and Photography: The Visual Essay and Migration." Visual Methods in Migration Studies. Edited by K. Nikielska-Sekula and A. Desille. Springer. 141-159.
Williams, R. and T. Shortell. "Eyes Upon the Street: Visual Social Scientific Approaches to Religion and the City." Routledge Handbook of Religion and Cities. Edited by K. Day and E. Edwards. Routledge
Shortell, T. 2019. "Social Type (Simmel)" Encyclopedia of Sociology, 2nd edition, edited by G. Ritzer and C. Rojek. Wiley Blackwell.
Everyday Globalization: A Spatial Semiotics of Immigrant Neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Paris. Routledge.
"Preface." Culture and Visual Forms of Power: Experiencing Contemporary Spaces of Resistance. Ed L.K.C. Manzo. Common Ground Publishing.
"Visual Methods in the Study of Power." Culture and Visual Forms of Power: Experiencing Contemporary Spaces of Resistance. Ed L.K.C. Manzo. Common Ground Publishing.
"Introduction: Walking as Urban Practice and Research Method." Walking in Cities: Quotidian Mobility as Urban Theory, Method, and Practice. Eds E. Brown and T. Shortell. Temple University Press.
Brown, E. and T. Shortell. Walking in Cities: Quotidian Mobility as Urban Theory, Method, and Practice. Temple University Press.
Krase, J. and T. Shortell. "Seeing Islam in Global Cities: A Spatial Semiotic Analysis." Seeing Religion: Toward a Visual Sociology of Religion. Ed R. Williams. Routledge. 61-84.
Shortell, T. and E. Brown. Walking in the European City: Quotidian Mobility and Urban Ethnography. Ashgate.
Shortell, T. and K. Aderer. "Drifting in Chinatowns: Toward a Situationist Analysis of Polyglot Urban Spaces in New York, London and Paris." Walking in the European City: Quotidian Mobility and Urban Ethnography. Eds. T. Shortell and E. Brown. Ashgate.
Krase, J., and T. Shortell. "Seeing New York City's Financial Crisis in the Vernacular Landscape." Crisis and Cities: New Critical Urban Theory. Ed. K. Fujita. Sage. 188-217.
Election Polls, Expertise, and Empirical Thinking. Clarion, December.
Shortell, T., and J. Krase. "Global Cities." Encyclopedia of Global Religion. Eds. W.C. Roof and M. Juergensmeyer. Sage.
DeSena, J. and T. Shortell. The World in Brooklyn: Gentrification, Immigration, and Ethnic Politics in a Global City. Lexington Books.
"Brooklyn and Belleville: On the Spatial Semiotics of Ethnic Identity in Immigrant Neighborhoods." The World in Brooklyn: Gentrification, Immigration and Ethnic Politics in a Global City. Eds J. DeSena and T. Shortell. Lexington Books. 259-88.
Shortell, T. and J. Krase. "On the Visual Semiotics of Collective Identity in Urban Vernacular Spaces." Sociology of the Visual Sphere. Eds. R. Nathansohn and D. Zuev. Routledge. 108-28.
"The Conflict Over Origins: A Discourse Analysis of the Creationism Controversy in American Newspapers." Mass Communication & Society 14.4: 431-53.
Krase, J. and T. Shortell. "On the Spatial Semiotics of Vernacular Landscapes in Global Cities." Visual Communication 10.3: 371-404.
"African-American Abolitionism as a Human Rights Discourse." Human Rights and the Media 6, Studies in Communications. Ed. Diana Papademas. Emerald. 121-37.
"The Rhetoric of Black Abolitionism: An Exploratory Analysis of Anti-Slavery Newspapers in New York State." Social Science History 28.1: 75-109.
"The Decline of the Public Sphere: A Semiotic Analysis of the Rhetoric of Race in New York City." Race and Ethnicity in New York City. Research in Urban Sociology, Volume Seven. Eds. Jerome Krase and Ray Hutchinson. New York: Elsevier. 159-77.
Creative Work
E. Granby Granby. Cold. Cassette. Regional Bears #16.
Windows. Book/CD.
"SemioCode: Content Coding Software for Quantitative Text Analysis."
Urban Birds. Photographs and music. Book/CD.
Lambkin, G. and T. Shortell. Motion Painting. DVD.
Awards, Honors and Fellowships
Leonard and Claire Tow Faculty Travel Award, to study multiethnic neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Paris.
PSC-CUNY 41, for "Brooklyn and Belleville: Spatial Semiotics of Collective Identity in Urban Neighborhoods."
PSC-CUNY 40, for "Seeing Difference: The Visual Semiotics of Urban Neighborhoods." Timothy Shortell and Jerome Krase, co-recipients.
PSC-CUNY 38, for "Mapping the Contentious Public Sphere."
National Science Foundation grant application, for "Modeling the Contentious Public Sphere: Extending Network Science to the Study of Public Discourse." T. Shortell and John A. Velling, co-principal investigators.
PSC-CUNY 36, for "The Network Properties of Public Discourse."
CUNY Institute for Software Design and Development, for "SemioCode: Proposal for the Development of Content Coding Software for Quantitative Text Analysis."
PSC-CUNY 32, for "Land, Labor & Liberty: The Anti-Rent Movement in New York State, 1830-1870." Timothy Shortell and Mary Howard, co-recipients.
PSC-CUNY 31, for "Land, Labor & Liberty: The Anti-Rent Movement in New York State, 1830-1870." Timothy Shortell and Mary Howard, co-recipients.
Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums
Shortell, T. 2017. "Seeing Conflict & Cooperation in Public Discourse." Annual meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion. Washington, DC, October.
Shortell, T. 2016. "Seeing Religion Inside and Out: Spatial Semiotics and Group Boundaries." Annual meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion. Atlanta, October.
"Seeing Religion in Public Spaces: Some Methodological Considerations." Annual meeting of the Association for the Sociology of Religion. Chicago, August.
Shortell, T. and J. Krase. "Everyday Mobility as a Method of Seeing Contested Identities." Annual conference of the International Visual Sociology Association. Tinos, Greece, June.
"The Politics of Visibility: Gentrification and Immigration in East London." 68th Annual Conference of the New York State Political Science Association. New York, April.
Krase, J. and T. Shortell. "Seeing Islam in Global Cities: A Spatial Semiotic Analysis." Annual conference of the International Visual Sociology Association. Pittsburgh, PA, June.
Shortell, T. and J. Krase. "Seeing Islam in Global Cities: A Spatial Semiotic Analysis." Annual meeting of the International Visual Sociology Association. London, July.
Aderer, K. and T. Shortell. "Drifting in Chinatowns: Toward a Situationist Analysis of Cosmopolitan Urban Spaces." Annual meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society. New York, March.
Aderer, K. and T. Shortell. "Drifting in Chinatowns: Toward a Situationist Analysis of Cosmopolitan Urban Spaces." Annual meeting of the International Visual Sociology Association. Brooklyn, N.Y., July.
"A Spatial Semiotics of Public Spaces in Migrant Neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Paris." 10th conference of the European Sociological Association. Geneva, September.
"Polyglot Paris: A Spatial Semiotics of Postcolonial Immigrant Neighborhoods." Annual conference of the Society for Francophone Postcolonial Studies. London, November.
Shortell, T. and J. Krase. "Immigrant Islam: Politics of Representation and the Challenge of Seeing Collective Identity in Global Cities." 10th conference of the European Sociological Association. Geneva, September.
Krase, J. and T. Shortell. "Seeing Everyday Multiculturalism." IUAES Inter-Congress. Antalya, Turkey.
Shortell, T. and J. Krase. "On the Visual Semiotics of Collective Identity in Urban Vernacular Spaces." XVII ISA World Congress of Sociology. Gothenburg, Sweden.
Shortell, T. and J. Krase. "Place, Space, Identity: A Spatial Semiotics of the Urban Vernacular in Global Cities." ESA Sociology of Culture mid-term conference. Milan.
Shortell, T. and J. Krase. "Seeing Islam in Global Cities: A Spatial Semiotic Analysis. Annual meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion. Baltimore.
Shortell, Timothy and Jerome Krase, organizers and conveners of "Brooklyn in a Global Context: Ethnicity and Class Differences in Urban Neighborhoods," annual meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, Boston.
"Brooklyn and Belleville: A Case Study of the Visual Semiotics of Ethnic Identity in Two Diverse Urban Neighborhoods." Annual meeting of the International Visual Sociology Association. Carlisle, Cumbria, United Kingdom.
Krase, J. and T. Shortell. "Visualizing Glocalization: Semiotics of Ethnic and Class Differences in Global Cities." Annual meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society. Baltimore.
Shortell, T. and J. Krase. "Spatial Semiotics of Difference in Urban Vernacular Neighborhoods." 9th European Sociological Association Conference. Lisbon, Portugal.
"The Conflict Over Origins: A Discourse Analysis of the Creationism/Evolution Dispute." Annual meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society. New York.
Krase, J. and T. Shortell. "Visualizing Glocalization: Changing Images of Ethnic Vernacular Neighborhoods in Global Cities." First ISA Forum of Sociology. Barcelona, Spain.
Krase, J. and T. Shortell. "Imagining Chinatowns and Little Italies: A Visual Approach to Ethnic Spectacles." Le Beau Dans La Ville: Colloque International. Tours, France.
"African-American Abolitionism as a Human Rights Discourse." Annual meeting of the Amherst Branch of the Association for the Study of African-American Life and History. Amherst, Mass.
"From Innovation to Common Practice: How Faculty Networks Are Spreading New Practices at Brooklyn College." Annual meeting of the American Historical Association. Washington, D.C.
"Seeing the City: Using the Community Profile to Teach Urban Sociology." Annual meeting of the American Sociological Association. San Francisco.
"Collective Identity Construction in Black Abolitionist Discourse: A Conceptual Network Analysis of the New York Anti-Slavery Press." Race/Ethnicity Network Session, Annual Meeting of the Social Science History Association. St Louis.
"Urban Wordscapes: The Rhetoric of Public Life in Contemporary New York." Eastern Sociology Society Annual Meeting. Boston.
"The Black Abolitionist Jeremiad: An Innovative Analysis of Anti-Slavery Newspapers In New York State." Race/Ethnicity Network Session, Annual Meeting of the Social Science History Association. Chicago.
Shortell, Timothy, Nancy Sanchez, Zuleika Rodriguez and Enrique Marin. "The Rhetoric of Black Abolitionism: Moral Claims-Making and Collective Identity in the New York Anti-Slavery Press." Sociology of Religion Roundtable, Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association. Anaheim, Calif.
Professional Leadership
Member, Executive Board, TG05 Visual Sociology, International Sociological Association.
PSC faculty grievance counselor.
Pedagogical Achievements
I have created an online teaching portal, CourseServe.