Jeff Strabone

Jeff Strabone
NationalityAmerican
EducationDartmouth B.A. (Government)[1]
Alma materNorthwestern M.A. (History),[1]
NYU M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D. (English)[1]
Known fordirectelection.org[2]

Jeff Strabone[3] is a Brooklyn-based American scholar, political activist and civic leader. In 2016, his website directelection.org listed the names and addresses of members of the U.S. Electoral College, and he urged people to write to electors to ask them not to vote for president-elect Donald Trump, an effort which brought him national attention.[4][2][5][6] As a civic leader in Brooklyn, he has been active in promoting theatre preservation,[7] building codes and housing issues,[8][9] hospital preservation,[10][11][12][13] and traffic flow.[14] He has been a leader of Brooklyn's Cobble Hill Association, a neighborhood preservation group.[15][16] He is the co-founder and chairman of the New Brooklyn Theatre.[17][18][19][20]

In 2008, he changed his middle name to Hussein as a show of solidarity with then presidential candidate Barack Obama, who was running for the office of president, and whose Muslim-sounding middle name had been widely commented on.[21][22][23] He is an associate professor of English and teaches British and African literature, and he was granted tenure at Connecticut College in 2016.[24] He commented about the post-election effort:

The electors are elected officials so we have every right to write to them ... There’s no place to get [their] addresses ... So I realized that if one person could do all the work — gathering their addresses, creating a downloadable, printable template for a letter and even the labels ... I decided to be that person ... it immediately went viral and people responded ...

— Strabone to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, December 18, 2016[4]

Publications

  • Poetry and British Nationalisms in the Bardic Eighteenth Century: Imagined Antiquities, 2018 by Palgrave Macmillan.

References

  1. ^ a b c "Jeff Strabone". Connecticut College. Retrieved December 14, 2016. ...Associate Professor of English JOINED CONNECTICUT COLLEGE: 2010 -- B.A., Dartmouth College M.A., Northwestern University -- M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D., New York University...
  2. ^ a b Mary Frost (December 7, 2016). "Gone viral: Brooklyn man's website helps people contact Electoral College before Trump vote". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Retrieved December 14, 2016. ...Jeff Strabone, co-founder of New Brooklyn Theatre, associate professor of English at Connecticut College and past president of the Cobble Hill Association, said the site, directelection.org, helps people send their own signed postal letters to the members of the Electoral College from states won by Donald Trump to ask them, respectfully, to vote for Trump....To use Strabone's website to send the letters, people need a computer, paper, envelopes and Avery Standard 5160 labels.
  3. ^ Pronunciation: U.S.: /struh/ˈboʊn (struhBONE); U.K.: ˈstreɪˈboʊn (STRAYbone)
  4. ^ a b Mary Frost (December 18, 2016). "Conversation with Brooklyn's Jeff Strabone on how his Electoral College website went crazy viral". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Retrieved December 14, 2016. ...Strabone's website immediately went viral, with links to it on Huffington Post and Reddit (and in the Brooklyn Eagle) along with thousands of tweets and Facebook links. Clearly, Strabone's work filled a need for many thousands of voters....
  5. ^ James DeVinne (December 2016). "Site Lets You Contact Electoral College Members". Democratic Underground. Retrieved December 14, 2016. ...Jeff Strabone, a Connecticut College professor and neighborhood activist in Brooklyn, created the site directelection.org to help people send their own signed postal letters to electors from states won by Donald Trump. ...
  6. ^ JOHN DEL SIGNORE (December 6, 2016). "Republican Presidential Elector Says He Won't Vote For Trump, Urges Others To Join Him". Gothamist. Archived from the original on December 8, 2016. Retrieved December 14, 2016. ...Brooklyn resident Jeff Strabone has launched a customizable mail merge website that aims to help people send their own "signed postal letters to the members of the Electoral College from states won by Donald Trump to ask them, respectfully, not to vote for Trump." ...
  7. ^ THOMAS MACMILLAN (December 29, 2015). "Activists Battle to Save Brooklyn's Historic 'Slave Theater': A shrine to African-American history, the building has been bought by a developer". The New York Times. Retrieved December 14, 2016. ..."The battle to save the Slave is the intersection of race, class, history and property," said Jeff Strabone, chair of the New Brooklyn Theatre company, a local arts organization that had sought to buy the theater and preserve its history....
  8. ^ NATALIE O’NEILL (January 21, 2012). "Update: Cobble Hill residents say planned renovation is too tall". Brooklyn Paper. Retrieved December 14, 2016. ...Jeff Strabone is irked about a plan to build a three-story backyard extension in a strict historic section of Cobble Hill....
  9. ^ Jake Mooney (January 2, 2009). "On the Rooftop, Mystery Huts". The New York Times. Retrieved December 14, 2016. ...That was when Jeff Strabone, president of the Cobble Hill Association, a local group, went to an open house at the building for prospective renters....
  10. ^ Jake Mooney (November 20, 2008). "As a Hospital Awaits Its Fate, It Leaves Lives in the Balance". The New York Times. Retrieved December 14, 2016. ...But trust in Continuum is low in some neighborhood circles, said Jeff Strabone, an N.Y.U. professor ...
  11. ^ Melanie Evans (January 18, 2014). "Protests over closing N.Y. hospital highlight common issue". Modern Healthcare. Retrieved December 18, 2016. ..."Hospitals of the city are an ecosystem," said Jeff Strabone, chairman of the New Brooklyn Theater. He addressed the dozens of residents and hospital workers who attended a performance last week a...
  12. ^ LAURA KUSISTO (August 12, 2014). "Affordable Housing Is Unclear in Brooklyn Hospital Venture: Questions Raised About Lower-Cost Housing at Long Island College Hospital Site". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved December 14, 2016. ..."This is our hospital. Now we're told that we have to lose it to make way for housing. It should be the least intrusive housing possible," said Jeff Strabone, a spokesman for the Cobble Hill Association....
  13. ^ Mary Frost (October 31, 2014). "Amidst protests, NYU Langone takes over health center at LICH". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Retrieved December 14, 2016. ...Protesters mocked the tombstone-like appearance of NYU-Langone's signage outside of the walk-in emergency clinic. Shown - Jeff Strabone, spokesperson for the Cobble Hill Association...."It's fitting that LICH is closing for good on Halloween," said Jeff Strabone, spokesperson for the Cobble Hill Association.
  14. ^ TANAY WARERKAR (July 11, 2013). "Park Slopers change minds about traffic-calming for Fourth Ave. and approve city plan". New York Daily News. Retrieved December 14, 2016. ..."I couldn't be more glad about the decision," said Jeff Strabone, ...
  15. ^ Mary Frost (August 26, 2015). "Cobble Hill Association torn over leader as LICH development looms". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Retrieved December 14, 2016. ..."He's been a tireless champion for the neighborhood," said Jeff Strabone, a former president of CHA and longtime spokesperson. ...
  16. ^ Mary Frost (October 27, 2014). "March for LICH draws chanting crowd to Atlantic Ave. in Brooklyn". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Retrieved December 14, 2016. ...CHA's Jeff Strabone, Councilmember Brad Lander and Democratic contender for AD52 Jo Anne Simon....
  17. ^ "Board of Directors". New Brooklyn Theatre. Retrieved December 14, 2016. ...JEFF STRABONE (Chairman of the Board) is a co-founder of New Brooklyn Theatre. He holds a B.A. from Dartmouth, an M.A. from Northwestern, and an M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. from New York University. Currently Assistant Professor of English at Connecticut College where he teaches British and African literatures, he has also taught at New York University, CUNY Lehman, and the University of South Florida, and been a Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. As a civic leader in Brooklyn, he has served as president of the Cobble Hill Association.....
  18. ^ Note: a 501(c)3 nonprofit theatre company
  19. ^ Jennifer Morrissey (September 23, 2014). "Conn Faculty Brings Community Action to the Stage". The College Voice. Retrieved December 18, 2016. ...Professor Jeff Strabone can definitely be considered more than ordinary. Aside from teaching English, Strabone acts as both the chairman and a cofounder of the New Brooklyn Theater ...
  20. ^ Paul DeBenedetto (May 1, 2014). "Bed-Stuy Theater Company Goes International For Summer 2014 Season". DNAInfo. Archived from the original on December 20, 2016. Retrieved December 18, 2016. ...We think that theater can uniquely move forward public conversations," Strabone said....
  21. ^ JODI KANTOR (June 29, 2008). "Obama Supporters Take His Name as Their Own". The New York Times. Retrieved December 14, 2016. ...Jeff Strabone of Brooklyn now signs credit card receipts with his newly assumed middle name, ...
  22. ^ Doctor MO (2008). "Doctor MO Presents...Jeff Strabone: I Am Hussein". Blog Talk Radio. Retrieved December 14, 2016. ...Jeff Strabone, the famed blogger from the 'I Am Hussein' viral covenant, stops by for a candid conversation with Doctor MO,...
  23. ^ Note: the name change was not legally done; it was a public gesture.
  24. ^ Dana Gallagher and Isabelle Smith (May 3, 2016). "Developing Contentions Over Tenure and Promotion". The College Voice (Connecticut College student newspaper). Retrieved December 14, 2016.