J.R. Osborn is a scholar and experimentalist of communication, whose work explores media history, design, semiotics, visual communication, and technology with a regional focus of the Middle East and Africa. Dr. Osborn co-directs the Technology Design Studio for the Communication, Culture, and Technology (CCT) Program , and his courses frequently combine hands-on production projects with comparative and theoretical. In the past, Professor Osborn has taught and studied in Jordan, Yemen, Turkey, Mexico, Zimbabwe, the U.A.E, and Switzerland. He sits on the Board of the Association of Africanist Anthropology (AfAA), and he is a member of the Substantial Motion Research Network. Some of his projects include:
- Letters of Light: Arabic Script in Calligraphy, Print, and Digital Design (Harvard University Press, 2017 ). This book presents an aesthetic and technical study of Arabic script and typography, from the advent of calligraphic tradition through the implementation of the Unicode standard. Letters of Light won the 2018 British-Kuwait Friendship Society Book Prize and received an Honorable Mention for the 2018 Albert Hourani Book Award from the Middle East Studies Association (MESA).
- African Art Reframed: Reflections and Dialogues on Museum Culture (University of Illinois Press, 2020) . This authored book with Bennetta Jules-Rosette analyzes the global circulation of African art, drawing upon extensive curator interviews, ethnographic site visits, the visual and digital analysis of artworks (“digital unmixing”), and studies of audience response.
- “Glitter Dust: Finding Art in Dubai” (directed by Katy Chang, 2012) – This documentary feature film explores the burgeoning contemporary art scene in the United Arab Emirates. J.R. co-produced, co-directed and edited the film, which premiered at the 2012 Gulf Film Festival in the United Arab Emirates.
- The Pilgrimage Project – This collaboration with Evan Barba, Gretchen E Henderson, Lisa M Strong, Lesley H Kadish, and Don Undeen provides a model for engaged interdisciplinary education. During the 2015–2016 academic year, students researched Georgetown’s historic Old North building from a variety of disciplinary angles and presented the results of their collective research in an on-site multimedia exhibit.
Academic Appointment(s)
- Primary
- Associate Professor, College - Communication, Culture, and Technology Program