CAS News  Back to CAS News

Prominent Norwegian academic to speak at USF
[11.01.2012]

TAMPA, Fla. -- The effects of globalization are widely debated, but the perspectives from local communities worldwide are often overlooked. On Thursday, Nov. 8, University of Oslo anthropologist Thomas Hylland Eriksen will address that neglect. Eriksen will speak on “Overheating: The Three Crises of Globalization,” using an anthropological perspective to address these crises: finance/the economy; climate/the environment; and identity/culture. His talk begins at 7 p.m. in CWY 202 (Military Science Building), with a wine and cheese reception continuing after the talk.

In the talk, presented by the Humanities Institute, with support from the Department of Anthropology and ResearchOne, Eriksen will focus on how these crises are experienced locally. Examples include: How do Andean peasants deal with their melting tropical glaciers? How do Malian traders react to the rise of militant Islamism in the east of their country? What do ordinary Icelanders do about the dire economic situation in which their country finds itself?

Eriksen is a noted European public intellectual, who contributes often to the popular media, with a particular expertise on multiculturalism and citizenship issues. He was called upon frequently to comment on the July 22, 2011, massacre in Norway, in which Anders Behring Breivik slaughtered more than 80 people. In one of his many opinion pieces, Eriksen argued that Breivik’s worldview “seems to have been shaped by online fantasy games and the anti-Islamist blogosphere -- a recipe for national fragmentation.” This blogosphere is “characterized by unmitigated hatred of the new Europe, aggressive denunciations of the "corrupted, multiculturalist power elites" and pejorative generalizations about immigrants, targeting Muslims in particular,” Eriksen wrote in the Guardian shortly after the killing.

As an internationally renowned anthropologist, Eriksen has published many books, including “What Is Anthropology?”, “Engaging Anthropology,” “Globalization: The Key Concepts” and “Flag, Nation and Identity in Europe and America.”

-USF-

Filed under:Arts and Sciences Anthropology Events Humanities Institute  
Credits
Author: Special to CAS
Contact: