Draft:Bill V. Mullen
{{Short description|American Author}}
{{Draft topics|biography|literature}}
{{AfC topic|blp}}
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{{AfC submission|t||ts=20250415152952|u=AnymourusUser611|ns=118|demo=}}{{AFC comment|1=In accordance with the Wikimedia Foundation's Terms of Use, I disclose that I have been paid by my employer for my contributions to this article. AnymourusUser611 (talk) 15:29, 15 April 2025 (UTC)}}
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{{Infobox person
| name = Bill V. Mullen
| image =
| caption = American Academic
| birth_date = August 15, 1959
| parents = John and Lynn Mullen
| birth_place = New York City, NY, United States
| nationality = American
| education = Ph.D. in English at the City University of New York Graduate School and University Center (1990)
B.A. in English from Occidental College (1981)
| occupation = Author, Academic, Writer, Lecturer, Professor
| years_active = 1990-present
| imagesize =
}}
Bill V. Mullen is an American Author, Scholar, Writer, Lecturer, and Professor. He is a Professor Emeritus of American Studies at "Purdue University". He has authored several books, including James Baldwin: Living in Fire,{{cite news|title=James Baldwin: Living in Fire by Bill V Mullen review – a smart, concise introduction|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/nov/14/james-baldwin-living-in-fire-bill-v-mullen-review|newspaper=The Guardian|date=14 November 2019}} and We Charge Genocide!: American Fascism and the Rule of Law,{{cite book|last= Mullen|first= Bill V.|title= We Charge Genocide!: American Fascism and the Rule of Law
|url= https://www.vitalsource.com/products/we-charge-genocide-bill-v-mullen-v9781531508463|publisher= Fordham University Press|year= 2024|isbn= 9781531508463}}Additionally, Mullen is an active member of the organizing collective for the United States Campaign for the "Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI)"{{cite web|title= US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel|url= https://usacbi.org/|website= USACBI}}
Early Life and Career
Bill V. Mullen earned his B.A. in English from Occidental College in 1981. He earned his Ph.D. in American literature in 1990 from the City University of New York Graduate Center. In 1985-1985 he was a lecturer at the Changsha Railway Institute in the People’s Republic of China.In 1989 he was a visiting lecturer at Bryn Bryn Mawr College.From 1990-2000, he was Assistant and Associate Professor at Youngstown State University.At YSU, he held a position as officer with YSU-OEA, the Ohio Education Association faculty union.In 1997, he served as a Fulbright Lecturer at Wuhan University in the PRC. From 2000-2005, he was Associate and Full Professor of African-American Literature at University of Texas-San Antonio.From 2005-2020 he was Full Professor of American Studies at Purdue University, From 2005-2010, he was Director of American Studies at Purdue. At Purdue he served one term as Vice President of Purdue’s AAUP chapter. He currently serves as Secretary/Treasurer for AAUP Local 6741{{cite web|title= AAUP Local 6741 (AFT)|url= https://www.aaup.org/chapters/aaup-local-6741-aft|website= American Association of University Professors|date= 30 November 2023|publisher= AAUP}}. He is also a member of the organizing collective for CAHE (Coalition for Action in Higher Education){{cite web|title=Coalition for Action in Higher Education|url=https://www.chea.org/|website= Coalition for Action in Higher Education (CAHE)|publisher= CAHE}} CAHE is the organizer of the annual Day of Action for Higher Education.
In addition to academic union organizing, Mullen is known as a scholar/activist in support of Palestinian liberation. In 2009, he became a member of the organizing collective for USACBI (United States Campaign for Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel). {{cite web|title=United States Campaign for Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI)|url=https://usacbi.org/|website= USACBI}}. In 2012, he traveled on an academic delegation to Palestine.
In 2013, he participated in the successful campaign within the American Studies Association to boycott Israeli universities, passed by a 2-1 membership vote.
In 2015, he co-edited with Ashley Dawson Against Apartheid: The Case for Boycotting Israeli Universities.{{cite book|last= Dawson, Mullen|first= Ashley, Bill V.|title= Against Apartheid: The Case for Boycotting Israeli Universities|url= https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/749-against-apartheid|publisher= Haymarket Books|year= 2015|isbn= 9781608465262}}
In 2020 and 2023, he helped to organize the Palestine Writes Literature Festival, the first Palestinian literature festival in North America.{{cite web|title=Palestine Writes Literature Festival|url=https://palestinewrites.org/|website=palestinewrites|publisher=PWLF}}. He is currently a member of WAWOG (Writers Against the War on Gaza){{cite web|title=Writers Against the War on Gaza (WAWOG)|url=https://www.writersagainstthewarongaza.com/|website=palestinewrites|publisher=WAWOG}}.He is also a member of the international group Socialist Horizon.{{cite web|title=Socialist Horizon|url=https://socialisthorizon.org/|website=Socialist Horizon}}.
=Work=
Bill V. Mullen is best known for authoring books on antiracist, intersectional, international movements against capitalism, racism, fascism and heteronormativity. His single-authored books include Popular Fronts: Chicago and African-American Cultural Politics, 1935-1946 (University of Illinois Press, 1999){{cite book|last=Mullen|first=Bill V.|title=Popular Fronts: Chicago and African-American Cultural Politicss|url= https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p081071|publisher= University of Illinois Press|year=1999|isbn=978-0-252-09801-7}} A study of Black radical cultural and political work on the South Side of Chicago. The book examines radical political connections between lesser-known Chicago cultural workers like Margaret Taylor Goss Burroughs and well-known figures like poet Gwendolyn Brooks.
His second book, Afro-Orientalism, illuminates the long history of solidarities and resistance between peoples of African and Asian descent, including figures like W.E.B. Du Bois and Grace Lee Boggs. {{cite book|last=Mullen|first=Bill V.|title=Afro-Orientalism|url= https://www.upress.umn.edu/9780816637492/afro-orientalism/|publisher= University of Minnesota Press|year=2004|isbn=9780816637492}}
His third book, Un-American: W.E.B. Du Bois and the Century of World Revolution (Temple University Press, 2015)
{{cite book|last=Mullen|first=Bill V.|title=Un-American: W.E.B.Du Bois and the Century of World Revolution|url= https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvrdf2sr|publisher=Temple University Press|year=2015|doi=10.2307/j.ctvrdf2sr |jstor=j.ctvrdf2sr |isbn=9781439911099}}, shows how Du Bois’s body of thought and political activism were shaped by the promise of “world revolution” after the 1917 Russian Revolution
He has also written a brief, accessible biography of Du Bois for Pluto Press’s Revolutionary Lives Series, W.E.B. Du Bois: Revolutionary Across the Color Line (2016){{cite book|last=Mullen|first=Bill V.|title=Revolutionary Lives Series, W.E.B. Du Bois: Revolutionary Across the Color Line|url=https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745335056/w-e-b-du-bois/|publisher=Pluto Press|year=2016|isbn=9780745335056}}
In 2019, Mullen published a full-length biography of James Baldwin titled James Baldwin: Living in Fire. The book drew upon previously unexamined archival materials and was favorably reviewed by The Guardian newspaper{{cite news|title=James Baldwin:Living in Fire by Bill V Mullen review – a smart, concise introduction|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/nov/14/james-baldwin-living-in-fire-bill-v-mullen-review|newspaper=The Guardian|date=14 November 2019}}
In 2024, Mullen published We Charge Genocide! Fordham University Press published American Fascism and the Rule of Law. The book shows how the law and bourgeois legality have enabled fascist organizing, fascist thought, and fascist governmentality. The book predicts much of the Trump administration’s use of the law to support reactionary, authoritarian, and fascist ideology{{cite book|last=Mullen|first=Bill V|title=We Charge Genocide! American Fascism and the Rule of Law|url=https://www.fordhampress.com/9781531508456/we-charge-genocide/|publisher= Fordham University Press|year=2024|isbn=9781531508456}}
Also in 2024, he co-authored with Jeanelle Hope{{cite web|title=Jeanelle Hope|url=https://www.jkhope.com/about-me|website=Jeanelle Hope}} The Black Antifascist Tradition: Fighting Back from Anti-Lynching to Abolition (Haymarket Books).
The book is the first comprehensive history of Black Antifascism and argues that “anti-Blackness” is essential to all fascist ideology
He is currently working on two authored book projects: From Beneath the Grassroots: The Work and World of Alice Childress, a co-authored book with dramaturg Arminda Thomas {{cite web| title=Arminda Thomas(Princeton Humanities Council)|url=https://humanities.princeton.edu/people/arminda-thomas/|website=Princton Faculty| publisher=Princeton University}}on the Black feminist and radical playwright and activist Alice Childress, and The Black Antifascist Reader with Jeanelle Hope{{cite web|title=Jeanelle Hope|url=https://www.jkhope.com/about-me|website=Jeanelle Hope}} for AK Press
Mullen has edited or co-edited six other books, including A U.S. Antifascism Reader, co-edited with Christopher Vials{{cite web|title=Christopher Vials|url=https://cities.hartford.uconn.edu/person/christopher-vials/|website=University of Connecticut|date=19 January 2020 }}, published with Verso Books in the year 2020; {{cite book|last=Mullen,Vials|first=Bill V,Christopher|title=A U.S. Antifascism Reader|url=https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/717-the-us-antifascism-reader?srsltid=AfmBOopJ_A0T88XP0OAdqw_-FH-S1cvCHHiT0bb35dFgHW75Ajk24Pol |publisher=Verso Books|year=2020|isbn=9781788733502}}
Afro Asia: Revolutionary Political and Cultural Connections Between African Americans and Asian Americans, co-edited with Fred Ho (Duke University Press, 2008);{{cite book|last=Mullen,Ho|first=Bill V.Free|title=Afro Asia: Revolutionary Political and Cultural Connections Between African Americans and Asian Americans|url=https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/book/543/Afro-AsiaRevolutionary-Political-and-Cultural|publisher=Duke University Press|year=2008|isbn=978-0-8223-8117-4}}
W.E.B. Du Bois on Asia: Crossing the World Color Line, a collection of Du Bois’s writings on Asia co-edited with Cathryn Watson{{cite web|title= Cathryn Watson (The University of Iowa)|url=https://imagininglatinidades.lib.uiowa.edu/presenters/cathryn-merla-watson/|website= USACBI|publisher=The University of Iowa}}
Left of the Color Line: Race, Radicalism and Modern Literatures of the United States, co-edited with James Smethurst (University of North Carolina Press, John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Culture, 2003. {{cite book|last=Mullen|first=Bill V.|title=Left of the Color Line: Race, Radicalism and Modern Literatures of the United States|url= https://discovered.ed.ac.uk/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma9912688243502466&context=L&vid=44UOE_INST:44UOE_VU2&lang=en&search_scope=UoE&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=Everything&query=creator,exact,Mullen,%20Bill&facet=creator,exact,Mullen,%20Bill&mode=Basic&offset=0|publisher= University of Illinois Press|year=2003|isbn=0807827991}}
Nomination
He was nominated for the Robert Motherwell Book Award, Radical Revisions: Rereading 1930s Culture{{cite book|last=Mullen|first=Bill V.|title=Radical Revisions: Rereading 1930s Culture|url= https://shu.locate.ebsco.com/instances/6f40789b-5349-5050-abf1-6bb5ca56c5cd?option=author&query=MacGillivray%2C%20Catherine%20A.%20F.|publisher=University of Illinois Press|year=1996|isbn=978025202206-7}} ,co-edited with Sherry Lee Linkon
Publication
Mullen has published reviews and political essays in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Kirkus Reviews, Mondoweiss, Electronic Intifada, Against the Current, New Politics, puntoorojo, Rebel, and many other publications.
He has published articles on Palestine, fascism, and U.S race radicals in Against the Current, including this review: A Genocide in Its Context Against the Current No. 235, Dated March-April 2025 {{cite book|last=Mullen|first=Bill V|title=A Genocide in Its Context|url=https://againstthecurrent.org/bill-v-mullen|publisher=University of Illinois Press|year=2025}}
He has published an article about James Baldwin and the FBI in this review for a 2017 issue of Social Text
In 2019, he published a review of a book on the James Baldwin debate with William F. Buckley at Cambridge University in the Los Angeles Review of Books
In 2023, he had published an interview with Palestinian-British novelist Isabella Hammad titled “Spectres of Palestinian History: An Interview with Isabella Hammad” in Mondoweiss {{cite book|last=Mullen|first=Bill V.|title=Spectres of Palestinian History: An Interview with Isabella Hammad|url=https://mondoweiss.net/author/bill-v-mullen|publisher=Mondoweiss|year=2023}}
In 2024, He reviewed Maya Wind’s {{cite web|title=Maya Wind|url=https://www.mayaywind.com/|website=Maya Wind}} book, Towers of Ivory and Steel: How Israeli Universities Deny Palestinian Freedom, for New Politics{{cite book|last=Mullen|first=Bill V.|title=Towers of Ivory and Steel: How Israeli Universities Deny Palestinian Freedom for New Politics|url=https://newpol.org/how-israeli-universities-deny-palestinian-freedom/ |publisher=Newpol|year=2024}}
In 2015, He wrote an article about the American Studies boycott campaign against Israeli universities titled “Throwing Stones in Glass House: The American Studies Association and the Road to Academic Boycott” for American Quarterly, the flagship journal of the Association{{cite book|last=Mullen|first=Bill V.|title=Throwing Stones in Glass House: The American Studies Association and the Road to Academic Boycott|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/32902|publisher=Newpol|year=2015}}
He regularly contributes to Rebel, the Irish political magazine. In 2025, after Trump’s inauguration, He published the article “Trump’s Dark Revolution From Above.” {{cite book|last=Mullen|first=Bill V.|title=Trump's Dark Revolution From Above|url=https://www.rebelnews.ie/author/bill-mullen/|publisher=rebel|year=2025}}
In 2013, He contributed an essay to the Journal of Academic Freedom, published by the American Association of University Professors, in support of boycotting Israeli universities. The article is titled “Palestine, Boycott and Academic Freedom: An Introduction Reassessment.” {{cite book|last=Mullen|first=Bill V.|title=Palestine, Boycott and Academic Freedom: An Introduction Reassessment|url=https://www.aaup.org/import-tags/bill-v-mullen|publisher=rebel|year=2013}}
Interview Appearance
He interviewed with New Books Network to discuss his book, James Baldwin: Living in Fire.{{cite web|title= Discussing James Baldwin: Living in Fire|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4TjNNbu9y0|website=New Books Network| date=13 January 2024 |publisher=Youtube}}
He did a book talk for Haymarket Books to discuss his book The Black Antifascist Tradition: Fighting Back from Anti-Lynching to Abolition with Jeanelle Hope{{cite web|title=Jeanelle Hope|url=https://www.jkhope.com/about-me|website=Jeanelle Hope}} {{cite web|title=Discuss his book The Black Antifascist Tradition: Fighting Back from Anti-Lynching to Abolition with Jeanelle Hope|url= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YN7O2lqaRM|website=Youtube| date=10 May 2024 |publisher=Haymarket Books}}.
He was on a panel with Robin D.G. Kelley, Rami Abushehab {{cite web|title=Rami Abushehab |url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10517636/|website=Rami Abushehab |publisher=IMBD}}, Maha Nassar{{cite web|title=Maha Nassar |url=https://menas.arizona.edu/person/maha-nassar|website=Maha Nassar|publisher=Arizona University}}, and Huzama Habayeb, called “The Parallel Lives of James Baldwin and Ghassan Kanafani” for the Palestine Writes Literature Festival.{{cite web|title=Palestine Writes Literature Festival|url=https://palestinewrites.org/|website=palestinewrites|publisher=PWLF}}.
In 2020.
He did a meeting for Pilsen Community Books in Chicago on “Anti-Fascism in the U.S.A.” with James Tracy
He did a talk about his book, We Charge Genocide: American Fascism and the Rule of Law, for the podcast Law and Disorder.{{cite web|title=Bill Mullen on Law and Disorder Podcast|url=https://lawanddisorder.org/category/surveillance/|website=Youtube|publisher=Law and Disorder}}.
He did a talk on Democracy Nerd about his book, The U.S. Anti-Fascism Reader, with Christopher Vials {{cite web|title=Christopher Vials|url=https://cities.hartford.uconn.edu/person/christopher-vials/|website=University of Connecticut|date=19 January 2020 }},{{cite web|title=Talk on Democracy Nerd about The U.S. Anti-Fascism Reader book|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwNr6l5YK4I
|website=Youtube| date=25 February 2021 |publisher=Democracy Nerd}}.
References
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