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Shared Scholarship Series Examines Global Research by WSU Faculty

Tim Murphy (Urban Studies) presented “Nocturnal Bohemia: Queer Time and Space in an Urbanizing Brazil” and Carlos Fontes (Communication) presented “Global Crisis and the Emergent Paradigm” at a recent Shared Scholarship Series event.  Both scholars examine innovative ways the local and global, micro and macro, intersect in processes of social, cultural, and political change.

Murphy’s research explores the relationship between urban capitalist development and the emergence of alternative lifestyle communities in secondary cities in Brazil.  According to his analysis, members of these informal societies engage intensively at the local and global levels while sidestepping the nation, and their daily activities involve both participation in and resistance to the capitalist norm.

Fontes directs attention to the social, political, and environmental dimensions of imminent global crises, painting a stark image of potential disasters lying ahead due to the dominance of national state and corporate interests.  Proposing the need for fundamental structural change, he identifies the emergence of a promising new paradigm that merges grassroots activism and indigenous sensibilities with new institutions and technologies.

The Shared Scholarship Series is organized by Martin Fromm (History and Political Science) and Daniel Hunt (Communication), with support and sponsorship from Andrea Bilics and the Center for Teaching and Learning.