Brady Potts
Brady recently completed his Ph.D in the Sociology department at the University of
Southern California and is now a postdoctoral Teaching Fellow in the Dornsife College
of Letters, Arts, & Sciences. His dissertation examined the development of public
discourse around the risks associated with hurricanes and related disaster management
efforts over the twentieth century in the U.S., with an emphasis on the institutional
underpinnings of enduring discourses around fate and the civic aspects of disaster.
More broadly, his research interests include political sociology and civic engagement,
theories of culture, and the sociology of the arts. Brady is a 2012 Interdisciplinary Research Group Fellow, whose current project examines public narratives around the disaster response and relief provision in response to three Gulf Coast hurricanes: the Galveston Storm in 1900, Hurricane Camille in 1969 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Against the backdrop of the rise of disaster expertise and the establishment of state responsibility for the effects of catastrophic storms, he analyzes the ritual moments in which policies are legitimated and the effectiveness of the response is at issue. In examining these narratives, he analyzes local and national newspaper sources, organizational records and publications, oral histories, transcripts of government hearings, and other archival sources.