Joey Russo

Adjunct Assistant Professor

Joseph C. Russo is an anthropologist and ethnographer. They hold a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Texas, Austin. Their research focuses on far-right politics, conspiracy theory, and storytelling/folklore in the rural United States with an emphasis on the American South. Their first book, Hard Luck and Heavy Rain: The Ecology of Stories in Southeast Texas, was published by Duke University Press in 2023. The book won the Edie Turner Prize in Ethnographic Writing (2023) and is the Ruth Benedict Prize Honorable Mention (20230. Russo also holds an MA in English Literature from CUNY Brooklyn College and an MPhil in Cultural Studies from Goldsmiths College, London. They are a former ACLS/Mellon fellow. Their current ethnographic project is an exploration of QAnon belief in the rural United States.

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.