Institute of North American Studies, King’s College London, Strand Campus

Spring Term Research Seminar

K4U.12; 5-6.30pm

Please join us for wine and discussion at the KCL Strand Campus. All welcome.

13^th March

Toby Miller, Professor of Cultural Industries, City University

‘Blow Up the US Humanities’

Miller will discuss his new book Blow Up the Humanities, arguing that there are now two humanities within US academia. One is the venerable, powerful humanities of private universities; the other is the humanities of state schools, which focus mainly on job prospects. There is a class division between the two--both in terms of faculty research and student background--and it must end. The book examines scholarly publishing as well as media and cultural studies to show how these two humanities must merge in order to survive and succeed in producing an aware and concerned citizenry.

27^th March

Paul Smith, Professor of Cultural Studies, George Mason, Washington DC

‘Flowback: America, Neoliberalism and the End of Globalization’

At its beginnings globalisation was often described in terms of its 'flows'—of capital, commodities, people, etc. The vectors of those flows have all changed now that the neoliberal system is in deep crisis. This paper describes some of those changes and tackles some of the political-economic and cultural questions that America is now confronted with as a result of them.