Joshua Glenn Email & Phone Number

Greater Boston Area

I'm co-founder and lead analyst of this semiotics-fueled consultancy. “For the last two decades, Joshua Glenn has been thinking deeply about things… He analyzes texts and images from the pop culture universe (everything from packaging and advertising to women’s magazines and contemporary films) and prepares reports for marketing companies on how a product.

Providence, Rhode Island, United States

Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States

I’m founding editor of the MIT Press’s RADIUM AGE series, which reissues novels and stories from science fiction's Radium Age (1900–1935). With new contributions by historians, science journalists, and sf authors, the series recontextualizes the breakthroughs and biases of proto-sf pioneers, and charts the emergence of a burgeoning literary genre. (I first.

I'd originally intended to be a teacher — I earned an MAT in 1993 — so I've greatly enjoyed opportunities to speak with classes at MIT, Harvard, MassArt, RISD, and elsewhere… on topics ranging from semiotic analysis to the hidden meaning of objects and the unknown history of the science fiction genre. I have also spoken and moderated panels at conferences.

Rob Walker and I have spent over a decade exploring both what and how objects mean what they mean to humans. The project thus far includes SIGNIFICANT OBJECTS (2009–2010), which resulted in the book SIGNIFICANT OBJECTS (Fantagraphics, 2012); and PROJECT:OBJECT (2017–ongoing), which so far has resulted in the book LOST OBJECTS (Hat & Beard, 2022).

I co-founded and coordinate SEMIOFEST SESSIONS, a monthly series of online get-togethers intended not only to share best practices among, but to nurture collegiality and friendship within the global semio community.

Greater Boston Area

I publish and edit this high-lowbrow website dedicated to ideas, pop culture, art, genre fiction, and more. “There seem to be few boundaries as to where HiLobrow’s conversations can go, but that’s a big part of its charm. It is a potpourri of intellectualism, culture trends, unexpected artistic creations and out-of-the-box personalities.” — TIME Magazine

I publish and edit this semiotics-driven website dedicated to decoding the world of culture, design, and marketing. Contributors include commercial and academic semioticians from around the world. Of particular note: The ongoing Q&A series MAKING SENSE WITH…, which asks "what makes a semiotician tick?" Also: Global series such as COVID CODES, SEMIO.

From 2002–2008, I contributed weekly columns (The Examined Life and Brainiac) to The Boston Globe's IDEAS section. Before and since then I have written for dozens of periodicals, print and digital, including Slate, Cabinet, Feed.com, The Idler, The Baffler, n+1, 3:AM, and many others. I've also co-authored over a dozen books, and contributed introductions.

In collaboration with Elizabeth Foy Larsen and designer Tony Leone, I co-authored/edited three UNBORED books (published by Bloomsbury) and co-created five UNBORED activity kits (produced by MindWare). The first UNBORED book was a national bestseller in independent bookstores; and it reached #1 on Amazon in the following categories: Family Activity Books.

In a volunteer capacity, I coached a studio session at NuVu — the Cambridge, Mass.-based magnet innovation center for middle and high-school students. The studio I helped coach was an MBTA Map Redesign Challenge.

Consulted to 100+ brands via European and North American marketing agencies — including Added Value, Consumer Eyes, Creative Semiotics, Fresh Squeezed Ideas, Luminous, Rowland Semiotics (now The Semiotic Alliance), Semiotics Factory, and Space Doctors — as an expert in US culture and market category coding. In 2014, launched the semiotics consultancy.

I was part of the editorial team that started the Boston Globe’s weekly Ideas section. From 2002–2006, I wrote THE EXAMINED LIFE, a weekly three-item Ideas column. In 2006, I became a new media producer for the Globe’s Living/Arts section — which involved, among other things, teaching journalists to blog. In 2006, I started BRAINIAC, a blog for Ideas which.

Editor and publisher of this seminal high-lowbrow indie journal of philosophy and cultural criticism (reached circ. 10,000). “A zine that gives voice to indie intellectual thought, Hermenaut is a scholarly journal minus the university, a sounding board for thinking folk who operate outside the ivory tower.” — WIRED. “Neither postpunk zine nor scholarly.

Williamstown, MA

Hired as editorial director, promoted to co-producer of this start-up multimedia business. As editorial director, shared responsibility for all aspects of publishing online periodical about “tools for life.” As co-producer, shared responsibility for integrating efforts of all editors, Web designers, software programmers, and membership reps. Tripod was.

Hired as editorial assistant, promoted to associate editor of this bimonthly, internationally distributed magazine in Minneapolis, Minn. (circ. 305,000). Reported to editor. Responsible for “Mixed Media” section; assigned and edited all book, music, film, and magazine reviews. Conceptualized and edited cover sections; edited feature and front-of-the-book.