Curriculum Vitae
William L. Benzon
April 2022
1301 Washington Street, Apt. 311
Hoboken, NJ 07030
917-717-9841
bbenzon@mindspring.com
http://new-savanna.blogspot.com/
Education
1973-78 Ph.D., English, State University of New York at Buffalo.
1970-73 M.A., Humanities, The Johns Hopkins University.
1965-69 B.A., Philosophy, The Johns Hopkins University.
Professional Memberships and Service
Research Advisory Board, Institute for Music and Neurologic Function, Beth Abraham Health Services,
2001 to present
Editorial Board, Journal of Social and Evolutionary Systems, 1994-2000
Positions Held
2016-present: Cofounder and Vice President, Bergen Arches Preservation Coaltion, Jersey City, NJ
2003-2010: Associate Director, World Development Endowment Foundation, New York, NY.
1995-2000: Senior Scientist and Consultant, MetaLogics, Inc., Hoboken, NJ.
1995-1996: Editor, Gravity, a website with an African-American focus.
1992-1995: Communications Consultant, Troy, New York.
1990-1992: Technical Writer, MapInfo Corporation, Troy, New York.
1989-1990: Acting Director, Troy Neighborhood Council, Troy, New York.
1978-1985: Assistant Professor of Communication, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Publications
Books Authored
Beethoven's Anvil: Music in Mind and Culture. Basic Books, Inc. 2001. Paperback editions: Oxford University
Press, 2002 (UK), Basic Books, 2002. Chinese translation: Business Weekly Publications, 2003.
Japanese translation: Kadokawa Shoten, 2006.
Visualization: The Second Computer Revolution. Harry N. Abrams, Inc.1989. Paperback edition: W.H.
Freeman, 1991. (with Richard M. Friedhoff)
Books Compiled and Edited
Thomas Naylor’s Paths to Peace: Small is Necessary, Wheatmark, 2019.
We Need a Department of Peace: Everybody's Business, Nobody's Job, Wheatmark, 2016.
Scholarly Articles
Some thoughts on lexemes, the dome, and inner speech. Language Under Discussion, Vol. 4, Issue 1, June
2016, pp. 73–77.
“Rhythm Changes” – Notes on Some Genetic Elements in Musical Culture. Signata 6, Annales des Sémiotiques
/Annals of Semiotics: Sémiotique de la musique / Music and Meaning. Per Aage Brandt and José Roberto do
Carmo Jr., eds. Presses Universitaires Liège, 2015, pp. 271-285.
Dr. Tezuka’s Ontology Laboratory and the Discovery of Japan. In Timothy Perper and Marthoa Cornog,
eds. Mangatopia: Essays on Manga and Anime in the Modern World. Libraries Unlimited, 2011, pp. 37-51.
Maps, Iconic and Abstract. In Jonathan Goodwin and John Holbo, eds. Reading Graphs, Maps, Trees: Critical
Responses to Franco Moretti. Parlor Press, 2011, pp. 56-63.
Cultural Evolution: A Vehicle for Cooperative Interaction between the Sciences and the Humanities. On
the Human. July 1, 2010. Article in an on-line forum run by the National Humanities Center, with
commentary plus response: https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2010/07/cultural-
evolution-a-vehicle-for-cooperative-interaction-between-the-sciences-and-the-humanities/
Tezuka’s Metropolis: A Modern Japanese Fable about Art and the Cosmos. In Uta Klein, Katja Mellmann,
Steffanie Metzger, eds. Heurisiken der Literaturwissenschaft: Disciplinexterne Perspektiven auf Literatur. mentis
Verlag GmbH, 2006, pp. 527-545.
Literary Morphology: Nine Propositions in a Naturalist Theory of Form. PsyArt: An Online Journal for the
Psychological Study of the Arts, August 2006, Article 060608.
https://psyartjournal.com/article/show/l_benzon-literary_morphology_nine_propositions_in
Talking with Nature in "This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison." PsyArt: A Hyperlink Journal for the Psychological
Study of the Arts, November, 2004, https://psyartjournal.com/article/show/l_benzon-
talking_with_nature_in_this_lime_tree_bo
“Kubla Khan” and the Embodied Mind, PsyArt: A Hyperlink Journal for the Psychological Study of the Arts,
November 29, 2003,
URL: https://psyartjournal.com/article/show/l_benzon-kubla_khan_and_the_embodied_mind
African Music in the World. In D. C. Major and J. S. Major, eds. The Future of Africa. The New York Society
for International Affairs, 2003, pp. 199-208.
First Person: Neuro-Cognitive Notes on the Self in Life and in Fiction, PsyArt: A Hyperlink Journal for
Psychological Study of the Arts, August 21, 2000,
URL: https://psyartjournal.com/article/show/l_benzon-first_person_neuro_cognitive_notes_on_th
At the Edge of the Modern, or Why is Prosper Shakespeare's Greatest Creation? Journal of Social and
Evolutionary Systems, 21(3), 259-279, 1998.
Culture's Evolutionary Landscape: A Reply to Hans-Cees Speel. Journal of Social and Evolutionary Systems,
20(3), 314-322, 1997.
Music Making History: Africa Meets Europe in the United States of the Blues. In Nikongo Ba'Nikongo,
ed., Leading Issues in Afro-American Studies. Durham, North Carolina: Carolina Academic Press, 1997, pp.
189-233.
Culture as an Evolutionary Arena. Journal of Social and Evolutionary Systems, 19(4), 321-362, 1996.
The United States of the Blues: On the Crossing of African and European Cultures in the Twentieth
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Century. Journal of Social and Evolutionary Systems, 16(4), 401-438, 1993.
Stages in the Evolution of Music. Journal of Social and Evolutionary Systems, 16(3): 283-296, 1993.
The Evolution of Narrative and the Self. Journal of Social and Evolutionary Systems, 16(2): 129-155, 1993.
Ontology of Common Sense. Handbook of Metaphysics and Ontology. Philosophia Verlag, 1991, pp. 159-161.
Visual Thinking. Encyclopedia of Computer Science and Technology. Volume 23, Supplement 8. Marcel Dekker,
1991, 411 - 427.
The Evolution of Cognition. Journal of Social and Biological Structures 13, 297-320, 1990. (with David G. Hays)
A Note on Why Natural Selection Leads to Complexity. Journal of Social and Biological Structures 13, 33-40,
1990. (with David G. Hays)
Principles and Development of Natural Intelligence. Journal of Social and Biological Structures 11, 293 - 322,
1988. (with David G. Hays)
Order and Disorder in Computer Art. The Journal of Chaos and Graphics 3: 8 - 11, 1988.
A Picture is Sometimes Worth More Words that You Can Count: Computer Graphics for the Technical
Communicator. Robert Krull, ed., Text Processing for the Technical Writer. Farmingdale, NY: Baywood
Publishing, 1988, 115 - 137.
Metaphor, Recognition, and Neural Process. American Journal of Semiotics 5: 59 - 79, 1987. (with David G.
Hays)
Computing and the Future of Technical Communication. Michael G. Moran and Debra Journet, eds.,
Research in Technical Communication. Westport, CT: The Greenwood Press, 1985, pp. 353 - 380.
Articulate Vision: A Structuralist Reading of "Kubla Khan." Language and Style 18: 3 - 29, 1985.
Educating Engineers: The Usefulness of the Humanities. ADE Bulletin No. 75: 18 - 21, Summer 1983.
(with David Porush)
System and Observer in Semiotic Modeling: An Essay on Semiotic Realism. In Michael Herzfeld and
Margot D. Lenhart, compilers, Semiotics 1980, Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Meeting of the Semiotic
Society of America. New York: Plenum Press, 1982, pp. 27 - 36.
Lust in Action: An Abstraction. Language and Style 14: 251 - 270, 1981.
Metaphoric and Metonymic Invariance: Two Examples from Coleridge. MLN 96: 1097 - 1105, 1981.
The Computer and Technical Communication. Technical Writing and Communication 11: 103 - 114, 1981.
Computational Linguistics and Discourse Analysis. Centrum, New Series 1: 57 - 64, Spring 1981.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and the Semiotics of Ontology. Semiotica 21: 267 - 293, 1977.
Computational Linguistics and the Humanist. Computers and the Humanities 10: 265 - 274, 1976. (with David
G. Hays)
Cognitive Networks and Literary Semantics. Centennial Issue: Responsibilities of the Critic. MLN 91: 952-
982, 1976.
Touchstones. Paunch 42 - 43: 4 - 16, December 1975.
Reviews
Comeuppance: Costly Signaling, Altruistic Punishment, and Other Biological Components of Fiction.
Twentieth Century Literature: Winter 2009, Vol. 55 Issue 4, 629 – 633.
Postmodern is Old Hat: Samurai Champloo. Mechademia 3: 2271-274, 2008.
Godzilla’s Children: Murakami Takes Manhattan. Mechademia 2: 283-287, 2007.
Synch, Song, and Society, Human Nature Review 5 (2005) 66-85:
http://human-nature.com/nibbs/05/wlbenzon.html
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Signposts for a Naturalist Criticism, Entelechy: Mind and Culture, No. 6, Fall 2005/Winter 2006:
http://www.entelechyjournal.com/billbenzon.html
Gregory L. Murphy, The Big Book of Concepts, Human Nature Review 3 (2004) 138-141.
The Door is Open: Scorsese’s Blues 2. CounterPunch, October 11/13, 2003: URL:
http://www.counterpunch.org/benzon10112003.html
Scorsese’s Blues. CounterPunch, October 3/5, 2003: URL:
http://www.counterpunch.org/benzon10032003.html
F is for Fake: Ken Burn’s “Jazz.” First of the Month, Fifth Issue, 3.1.2001: 10.
Ayahuasca Variations. Human Nature Review 3 (2003) 239-251.
Rock art in Darwin's Cathedral. Evolutionary Psychology, 1:28-41, 2003. Online at:
http://human-nature.com/ep/reviews/ep012841.html
Colorless Green Homunculi. Human Nature Review. 2: 454-462, 2002.
Pursued by Knowledge in a Fecund Universe, Review of John Horgan, The End of Science: Facing the Limits of
Knowledge in the Twilight of the Scientific Age. Journal of Social and Evolutionary Systems 20(1): 93-100, 1997.
A Tale of Two Geniuses. Reviews of James Gleick, Genius, and Norman MacRae, John von Neumann. Journal
of Social and Evolutionary Systems. 17(2): 227-230, 1994.
W. H. Masters, V. E. Johnson, and R. C. Kolodny. Masters and Johnson on Sex and Human Loving. Journal of
Mind and Behavior 8: 351 – 356, 1987.
Colin Cherry. On Human Communication, 3rd Ed. American Journal of Computational Linguistics. Microfiche 77:
40 - 45, 1978.
Marc Shell. The Economy of Literature. MLN 93: 1075 - 1080, 1978.
E.D. Hirsch, Jr. The Philosophy of Composition. MLN 93: 1080 - 1088, 1978.
Miscellaneous Publications
The Song at the End of the World: Personal Apocalypse in Rintarô’s Metropolis. Mechademia 1: 171-173, 2006.
How Now, I and Thou: In Memory of David Glenn Hays, Journal of Social and Biological Structures, 18 (2):
110-111, 1995.
The Visual Mind and the Macintosh. Byte. January 1985: 113 - 130.
Letter about the Macintosh computer. Byte 9, 12: 14, 16, November 1984.
Reply to Lindley Darden concerning abstraction. AI Magazine 8, 4: December 1987: 7-8 (with David
Hays)
Letter to the editor about J. Hillis Miller’s MLA Presidential Address 1986. PMLA. Vol. 103, No. 1, Jan.
1988, p. 57.
Comment on Powers' Letter. MLN 91: 1619 -1624, 1976.
Comment on Dyson-Hudson's essay on “Levi-Strauss and Radcliffe-Brown,” in Macksey and Donato, eds.,
The Languages of Criticism and the Sciences of Man. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1970,
pp. 244 - 245.
Technical Reports
Computation and Strategic Intelligence: Notes on Sherman Kent, Double Contingency, Gibsonian
Psychology, and Metagramming. In David G. Hays and Benzon, Metagram Software - A New Perspective
on the Art of Computation. Rome Air Development Center, Final Technical Report, RADC-TR-81-118:
46 - 62, October 1981.
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An Executive Guide to the Computer Age. Raymond T. Yeh and Paul B. Schneck, Co-Directors, Computer
Science: Key to a Space Program Renaissance: Final Report of the 1981 NASA/ASEE Summer Study on the Use
of Computer Science and Technology in NASA. University of Maryland, Computer Science Technical
Report Series, No. 1168, Vol. II: F-1 - F-14, January 1982.
Policy, Strategy, Tactics: An Essay in H & SS Curriculum Design. Prepared for the Committee on Core
Curricula and Undergraduate Programs, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, RPI, August 1984.
Information Infrastructure Rotterdam: Evaluation of SOPHONET. Prepared for the Graduate School of
Management - Delft. October 1984. (with Abbe Mowshowitz)
Knowledge Representation, Expert Systems and Process Design: Some Preliminary Notes. Center for
Manufacturing Productivity and Technology Transfer, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Report No.
CIMBS85TR033, January 1985.
Ontology in Knowledge Representation in CIM. Center for Manufacturing Productivity and Technology
Transfer, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Report No. CIMNW85TR034, January 1985.
Photography
Chicago’s Millennium Park. Center Working Papers: Center for Studies in American Culture, State University
of New York at Buffalo. 2004. Online exhibit: http://csac.buffalo.edu/cwp/millennium/park.html
Art
Exhibited digital prints at From Paint To Pixels, Fine Arts Museum of Long Island, Hempstead, NY, 1991.
Recent Presentations
Abstract Patterns in Stories: From the intellectual legacy of David G. Hays. Workshop on the History of
Expressive Systems. Funchal, Madeira, Portugal, November 14, 2017. (invited)
Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral: What is Graffiti? Semiotics Workshop. University of Chicago, January 5,
2012. (invited)
Computing “Kubla Khan”: The Idea of Computation and the Analysis of Literature, Conference on
Science, Technology, and the Humanities: A New Synthesis, Stevens Institute of Technology, April 25,
2009.
The Magic of the Bell: Music, the Spirit, and Human Nature. Littleton-Franklin Lectures in Science and
Humanities, Auburn University, December 4, 2007. (invited)
One Candle, Ten Thousand Points of Light: The Xanadu Meme. Evolution: Biological, Cultural, and
Cosmic. 20th Annual Conference for the Society for Literature, Science and the Arts. New York City,
New York. November 9-12, 2006.
Being and Plenitude: Ontological Cognition in Disney's Fantasia. Literature and Cognitive Science
Conference. University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticu. 8 April 2006.
Emotion Recollected in Tranquility, or Why Brains Need Poems. Poetics-Cognitive Science Colloquy,
Dactyl Foundation for the Arts and Humanities. New York City, New York. 17 September 2005.
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Mind, Brain, And Text: What Literature Can Tell Us About The Mind That We Cannot Learn Through
Studying The Brain. Text and Cognition, an International Workshop. Tel Aviv University and the Israel
Science Foundation, 16 May 2005. (invited)
Music, the Social Mind, and Language. Thirty-First LACUS Forum. Linguistic Association of Canada and
the United States, University of Illinois at Chicago, July 28, 2004. (invited)
Healing Sounds: Neural Links between Music and Health. Conference on the Power of Music Therapy with
the Geriatric Population. The Jewish Home and Hospital Lifecare System, New York, New York, May
12, 2004. (invited)
The Communal Journey: Arabian Song. The 24th Annual Krost Symposium. Texas Lutheran University,
Seguin, Texas, September 19, 2003. (invited)
Magic of the Bell: Music and the Making of Community. Fifth Annual Student Research Symposium.
Goshen College, Goshen, Indiana, April 11, 2003 (invited)
Healing Sounds. Concluding remarks at Dialogues Across Disciplines: Cognitive Neuroscience and Music Processing
in Human Function. Institute for Music and Neurologic Function, New York, NY, December 2. 2002.
(invited)
Being Itself: Unicorns, Virgins, and the Great Chain. Languaging 99: A Conference Across Linguistics,
Literature, and Writing. University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, March 5, 1999.
The Ontology of Mental Space in Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan.” Languaging: The Tenth Annual Conference of
Language and Literature. University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, January 30, 1998.
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