Russell Leigh Sharman is a writer and anthropologist. He received his PhD in cultural anthropology from Oxford University in 1999, and now teaches at Brooklyn College. His latest book, NIGHTSHIFT NYC, won the Best Nonfiction Book of the Year from the Indie Book Awards. As the New York Times wrote, "Probably no book has ever examined the nature of nighttime work in the city — and of the often forgotten, faceless people who do it — in as great depth and descriptive power." His first book, The Tenants of East Harlem was described by the Oral History Review as "simply excellent." He has published and presented numerous essays on urban life, culture and aesthetics, and received grants and awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Whiting Foundation and others. He also writes plays, movies, and television shows and has worked as a waiter, line cook and as a production assistant on a civil war zombie vampire movie. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and co-author, Cheryl Harris Sharman.

Education
PhD, Anthropology, Oxford University, 1999.
MA, Anthropology, Northeastern University, 1996.
BS, Film, University of Texas, 1994.

Positions
Associate Professor, 2007-present
Assistant Professor, 2002-2007
Department of Anthropology, Brooklyn College, CUNY

Adjunct Assistant Professor, 1999-2001
City University of New York, Fordham University and Purchase College, SUNY

Honors and Awards
PSC-CUNY Research Award, 2005; Whiting Foundation Fellowship, 2004-2005; National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend Award, 2004; PSC-CUNY Research Award2004; Faculty Fellows Publication Award 2004; PSC-CUNY Research Award, 2003; Tow Faculty Travel Fellowship, 2002; Radcliffe-Brown Trust Fund, 1999; Carr Fund, 1998; Peter-Lienhardt Memorial Fund for Anthropological Research, 1997.

Selected Publications
"The Art of Ethnography: Narrative Style as a Research Method," Anthropology and Humanism, Editor, Special Issue, v.32, n.2, 2007.

"Style Matters: Ethnography as Method and Genre," Anthropology and Humanism, v.32, n.2, 2007.

The Tenants of East Harlem, The University of California Press, 2006.

“Re/Making La Negrita: Culture as an Aesthetic System in Costa Rica,” American Anthropologist, v.108, n.4, 2006.

“Gauguin, Negrín and the Art of Anthropology,” in Exploring World Art, Eric Venbrux, Pamela Sheffield Rosi, and Robert L. Welsch, eds., Waveland Press, 2006.

“Red, White and Black: Communist Literature and Black Migrant Labor in Costa Rica,” Afro-Hispanic Review, v.24, n.2, 2005.

“The Invention of Fine Art: Creating a Cultural Elite in a Marginal Community,” Journal of Visual Anthropology, v.17, n.3-4, 2004.

“Duke vs. Tito: Aesthetic Conflict in East Harlem, New York,” Visual Anthropology Review, v. 18, n.1-2, 2002.

“Gauguin, Negrín and the Art of Anthropology,” Visual Anthropology Review, v.17, n.1, 2001.

“The Caribbean Carretera: Race, Space and Social Liminality in Costa Rica,” The Bulletin of Latin American Research, v.20, n.1, 2001.

“Poetic Power: The Gendering of Literary Style in Puerto Limón,” Afro-Hispanic Review, v.19, n.2, 2000.

“Carnaval in Costa Rica: Ideology and Phenomenological Experience in Puerto Limón,” Wadabagei: A Journal of the Caribbean and its Diaspora, v.1, n.2, 1998.

Selected Conference Presentations
"The Generic Fallacy and Other Half Truths," presented at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, 2007.

“The Art of Ethnography,” panel organized for the American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, San Jose, CA, 2006.

“X-Harlem: Native-born and Immigrant Relations in the New East Harlem,” presented at the Translocality conference of SANA/CASCA/UADY, Merida, Mexico, 2005.

“The Tenants of East Harlem,” presented at the Anthropology Colloquium, CUNY Graduate Center, New York, NY, 2004.

“From Migrant Settlers to Marginal Citizens: Transnationalism and the Transformation of Costa Rica’s Caribbean Coast,” presented at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, 2003.

“Pintando Fuera de los Límites: Arte, Artesanía y Puerto Limón,” presented at the Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica, 2003.

“Duke vs. Tito: Conflicting Aesthetics in East Harlem, NY,” presented at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA. 2002.

“Aesthetics on the Margins: High Art and Mass Production in the Third World and the Inner City,” International Arts Movement Lecture Series, The King’s College, New York, NY, 2001.

“The State of the (Anthropology of) Art,” Session Organizer, Society for Visual Anthropology, for the American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, 2000.

“Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?: An Introduction,” presented at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, 2000.

“Blackness and Danger: The Racialization of Space in Costa Rica,” presented at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, 1999.

Professional Memberships
American Anthropological Association
Society of Urban National and Transnational Anthropology, Councilor
Society for Visual Anthropology
New York Academy of Sciences, Anthropology Section Advisory Committee