People

Working Group on Globalization and Culture

The Working Group on Globalization and Culture is a continuing collective research project, a cultural studies “laboratory,” that has been running since the fall of 2003. The group is made up of graduate students and faculty from several disciplines.

The Working Group meets regularly to discuss common readings, to develop collective and individual research projects, and to present that research publicly. The general theme for the working group is globalization and culture, with three principal aspects: a) the globalization of cultural industries and goods, and its consequences for patterns of everyday life as well as for forms of fiction, film, broadcasting, and music; b) the trajectories of social movements and their relation to patterns of migration, the rise of global cities, the transformation of labor processes, and forms of ethnic, class, and gender conflict; c) the emergence of and debates within transnational social and cultural theory. The specific focus, projects, and directions of the working group are determined by the interests, expertise, and ambitions of the members of the group, and change as its members change. To inquire about joining the working group, contact Michael Denning.

2020-2021             re: sources re:lations

2019-2020             In and Out of Order and Control
2018-2019             Use: A Users’ Manual
2017-2018             Powers of Generation and Regeneration
2016-2017             The Changing Same: Care and Maintenance
2015-2016             Matters of Life and Death
2014-2015             Currents and Currencies
2013-2014             Changing Climates
2012-2013             Spaces and Times of Occupation
2011-2012             The Intimacies of Information
2010-2011             Going into Debt
2009-2010             Society of Security
2008-2009             Rethinking Utopia
2007-2008             Worlds and Contact Zones
2006-2007             Audiopolitics: Measures of Global Soundscapes
2005-2006             Measures of a Global Life
2004-2005             The Politics of the Neoliberal University
2003-2004             The Commodity Chain of the Cell Phone