For the archive of past readings and discussion notes, see the pull-down menu above under "Readings."
The third and final reading group of the Spring 2016 semester will be held at 8:00 pm on May 1st at Mark Steinberg's house (see Compass for address). All faculty, graduate students, and guests are welcome. RSVP to [email protected] Readings can be obtained through our Compass 2g Research Space (under the heading "RESEARCH - Global Utopias"). To get access to this space, please contact Program Assistant: Deirdre Ruscitti Harshman, [email protected]. See you there! |
Global Utopias Reading Group, Meeting #6
Conclusions: Environmental Utopia and Dystopia Monday, May 1, 8:00pm / Mark Steinberg's house (see Compass for address) Readings:
Readings are available through Compass2G; if you do not have access to the Compass site, please contact the Program Assistant, Deirdre Ruscitti Harshman. In Year II of the “Global Utopias” project of the Center for Historical Interpretation (CHI), of the Department of History, we shifted our focus toward “Practices and Materialities.” We explore (shaped to participants' ideas and the evolution of our collective thinking) topics such as consumption and consumerism (as dreamworlds and dystopias), technologies, art and architecture, performance, music, bodies and sexualities, intentional communities, revolutionary movements, festivals, and spaces and networks where daily life is practiced in ways that build alternatives to dominant practices (including heterotopian “other spaces.”) While Year I focused on theories and conceptualizations (see discussion notes under Reading tab above), Year II has focussed on the paradoxical unity of utopian desire and everyday practice, abstraction and materiality, impulse and enactment, impossible otherness and real viability – in the past and the present. Year III will continue a move already begun toward "environments." |