Tropes of the Times

In its role as the “Paper of Record” for the United States, the New York Times plays a strong role in developing, reflecting, and reinforcing the “mainstream”  ideologies and thinking of our times. “Tropes of the Times” is a commentary on both the paper and those ideas, with some license to stray beyond when particularly outraged.

Phil Bereano

 
Phil Bereano has been reading the New York Times since junior high school in the Bronx.

Phil is Professor Emeritus of Technical Communication and Adjunct Professor Emeritus of Women Studies and American Ethnic Studies, and has been a member of the University of Washington faculty since 1975. He taught previously at Cornell University where he earned two degrees, a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering and a Master of Regional Planning and was fired for his political activism. He also holds a law degree from Columbia Law School. His work blends scholarly excellence with societal activism.

Phil is a recognized expert on the ethical and social considerations of technologies, especially genetic engineering (having begun working on genetics policy issues in 1977), including helping to define the notions of genetic discrimination/privacy. He was one of the developers of the concept of “technology assessment” in the 1970s (in 1975 he was on the team that assessed the then-futuristic notion of “mobile telephony”).

Bereano is also an outspoken defender of civil liberties, especially with respect to information technologies and computer databases (including bio-informatics) and GBLT rights. He is a member of the National Board of the American Civil Liberties Union and chairs its Committee on Databases and Civil Liberties.

Phil was a founding member of the Council for Responsible Genetics, the Washington Biotechnology Action Council, the 49th Parallel Biotechnology Consortium (citizen organizations from the US, Canada, UK, South Africa, Australia, Columbia working on issues around genetically engineered foods), Moving Images (an award-wining non-profit video production company), and ACT/UP Seattle (which established the first US large-city on-the-street AIDS prevention needle exchange). He has been a participant in the negotiation and implementation of the UN’s Cartagena Biosafety Protocol (under the Convention on Biological Diversity) and is on the Roster of Experts maintained by its Secretariat (to advise developing countries). He has also been a participant in international negotiations on food safety and on risk assessment under the auspices of a specialized UN agency, the Codex Alimentarius. Bereano has been a registered NGO delegate to four WTO meetings.

Phil has taught in France, Spain (Catalunya), Norway, and The Netherlands, and was co-developer of the world’s first courses on “women and technology” and “ethnicity and technology.” He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and in 1994 he received the University of Washington’s Outstanding Public Service Award.

In addition to his many scholarly articles, Phil has emphasized writing popular essays and op eds that demystify many of the issues surrounding modern technological developments. This is consistent with his commitment to transparency and public participation in social and governmental decision-making.

Although he has tried and been unable to compile an American rap sheet, he was busted and spent the night in Parisian jails for involvement in an ACT/UP Paris “manifestation” in 1989.

For more information, please see his academic CV.