Ben Brucato is a writer, teacher, activist, and musician, residing in Western Massachusetts.

Research: Brucato is an interdisciplinary social scientist and humanist who has produced a wide range of work as a solo and collaborative researcher. In their collaborative work, Brucato has used quantitative survey research, qualitative interviewing, ethnographic field research, program evaluation, and mixed methods, producing peer-reviewed articles, presentations at international conferences, and internal reports on contracted research. In their solo research in critical theory, they tend toward historical and discourse analytic methods. Generally, their solo-authored work addresses topics related to social control, focusing mostly at intersections of race, police, surveillance, technology, and media. More specifically, Brucato’s recently published work focuses on the origins and development of race and police in the United States and on the visibility of police use-of-force. Their book on the historical co-origination and mutual reproduction of the unique race and police institutions in the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Anglo-American colonies is forthcoming with Rutgers University Press.

Teaching: Brucato has taught in political science, sociology, criminology and justice studies, and science and technology studies for more than a decade, instructing up to 52 credits in an academic year. Formerly an Assistant Professor of social theory in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at Framingham State University and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Rhode Island College, they have resumed their position as Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Community Engagement: For twenty-five years, Brucato has been an anti-racist activist and has organized against police violence. In Albany, NY, they were involved with Occupy Albany and #BlackLivesMatter, and in Troy, NY, they co-founded the Community Alliance Against Police Violence. Their most recent community engagement has involved raising awareness about the contemporary formations of the white nationalist movement, participating in “know your rights” workshops, and public humanities work on the history of race and police. Brucato is a member of the Massachusetts Teachers Association and the National Education Association.

Creative Work: Brucato has been a sound artist and musician for nearly three decades. Performing and recording as a solo artist under the name of Clew Of Theseus and other monikers, their creative work draws from industrial culture, Japanese harsh noise, and power electronics. With more than two dozen solo releases, they have also have collaborated with Jeph Jerman, Richard Ramirez, and Bastard Noise, among others. As a musician, Brucato has performed in several metal, punk, and hardcore bands, most recently having released an LP with the black metal band Sallow and an EP with the blackened hardcore band Rota. They presently play guitar in Robbery (hardcore), Olde Bard (black metal), and Bad Card (punk). Brucato is a former owner of Cabal, a boutique record store and gallery, and co-owner of the art gallery Perihelion Arts, and operated the record label Cathartic Process for ten years.