Resistance

Biennial Theme, 2007-08 Resistance: Globalization and its Other

This Biennial Theme grew out of a working group on Global Transformations: Inequality, Uneven Development, and Resistance. It marked the first time Rutgers offered a unifying theme to students, faculty, and staff to engage in a joint global conversation. The theme provided a framework for challenging conventional thinking about the inevitability of relentless globalization. It offered an opportunity to explore the complex forces and conditions that already exist on the ground, from the local to international level, resisting globalization.

Internationally recognized scholars from various disciplines came to campus throughout the year for presentations exploring this central theme of resistance. The events focused attention on resistance as an antidote to apocalyptic thinking about the end of history and geography, the annihilation of space, and the death of hope. Such events included “Global Localities: The Travels and Translations of the World Social Forum,” “When Numbers Count: The Practice of Monitoring and Representing Human Trafficking Across the Pacific Rim,” and the film “Organs for Sale.”