Jay Ruby (born 1935) is an American scholar who was a professor in the Department of Anthropology at Temple University until his retirement in 2003. He received his B.A. in History (1960) and Ph.D. in Anthropology (1969) from the University of California, Los Angeles.
He is a leader in the field of visual anthropology.
Fieldwork and research
As an archaeologist, Ruby conducted excavations in the American Southwest, West Mexico and the Republic of the Sudan. As a music critic and journalist, he interviewed pop music musicians, wrote album reviews and articles for the magazine, Jazz and Pop. As an ethnographer of visual culture, he conducted long term participant-observation in Central Pennsylvania and Oak Park, a suburb of Chicago. In the fall of 2013,The University of Colorado Press published an enhanced ebook, Coffee House Positano: A Bohemian Oasis in Malibu, 1957-1962 Larry Gross, USC and Ruby edited another enhanced ebook, The Complete Sol Worth.
A Country Auction: The Paul V. Leitzel Sale (1983)
Can I Get A Quarter? (1983)
Rebekah and Sophie: A Lesbian Family (2005)
Taylor Family Portrait (2005)
Dear Old Oak Parkers (2006)
Oak Park Regional Housing Center (2006)
Val (2006)
Country Auction Study Film: Reflexive Musings (2010)
Editor, A Crack in the Mirror: Reflexive Perspectives in Anthropology. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 1982
Editor, Robert J. Flaherty, A Biography. Written by Paul Rotha. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 1983
Editor with Larry Gross and John Katz. Image Ethics: The Moral Rights of Subjects in Photographs, Film and Television. New York: Oxford University Press. 1988
Secure the Shadow: Death and Photography in America. Cambridge: MIT Press. 1995
The World of Francis Cooper: Nineteenth Century Pennsylvania Photographer. University Park: Penn State University Press. 1999
Picturing Culture: Essays on Film and Anthropology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 2000 (ISBN 9780226730998)
Editor with Larry Gross and John Katz. Image Ethics in the Digital World. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 2003
Editor with Marcus Banks. Made to Be Seen: Historical Perspectives on Visual Anthropology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 2011
Coffee House Positano: A Bohemian Oasis in Malibu 1957-1962. Boulder: University of Colorado Press. 2013 (E-ISBN: 978=1-60732-272-6)
Editor with Larry Gross. The Complete Sol Worth.Los Angeles:USC Annenberg Press. 2013 (ISBN 978-1-62517-188-7)
