The Centre for Creative Practice & Cultural Economy is hosting a seminar by Professor Daniel Miller on “Why Denim?” on November 25th, 2010 at the University of Technology, Sydney.
Event Details:
Where: 235 Jones Street, Broadway – UTS Building 10, Level 14, Room 201
Time: 4:00pm
When: November 25th, 2010
Please R.S.V.P. to Catherine.Baird@uts.edu.au by November 19th 2010 for catering and seating purposes
Abstract: Why Denim?
In most countries of the world around half the population on any given day are wearing denim blue jeans. This lecture seeks to provide answers as to why this should be the case. It shows how the expected answers from historical and commercial perspectives are insufficient. Instead we have to look to much broader issues. As a result denim blue jeans provide surprising insights into how people today understand and respond to their contemporary world, and the relationships between explanations for local and for global phenomenon. This lecture will be used to exemplify research in the field of material culture studies, and how these connect the intensive study of particular populations, such as immigrant populations living in North London, to arguments that reach all the way up to key theoretical issues in philosophy and social science, such as why people might strive to become more, rather than less, ordinary.
Bio: Professor Daniel Miller
Daniel Miller is professor of material culture studies at the department of anthropology at UCL. He is the author and editor of many books based on ethnographic research in India, the Philippines, Trinidad and London on topics ranging from clothing and housing, the impact of mobile phones on poverty to the nature of consumption. His work has been used across a number of disciplines from anthropology to cultural and media studies. He is internationally regarded as one of the leading figures in the study of material culture. Current projects include The Global Denim project, a forthcoming book on the social impact of Facebook, and a Philippines’ based ethnographic study of the use of new media in maintaining relationships between people separated for long periods. The first of a two volume retrospective collection of Daniel Miller’s work, Stuff, was published by Polity in 2010.
Additional Information:
Professor Daniel Miller will also be available for individual sessions on Friday 26 November. For more information or if you would like to book a time, please contact Elaine Lally at Elaine.Lally@uts.edu.au