Respected Academic to Discuss Metal Markets and Global Interdependence
September 23, 2014
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 23, 2014
CONTACT
Amanda Lichtenstein
215-238-0990
[email protected]
Respected Academic to Discuss Metal Markets and Global Interdependence
PHILADELPHIA –
What: Aluminum Futures: Global Interdependence and Extractive Industries
Using a single material as an entry point for understanding the global interdependence of our energy systems, world metals markets, mining and waste disposal/reuse, this talk is based on Dr. Sheller’s new book “Aluminum Dreams: The Making of Light Modernity.” Aluminum enabled the last century’s key global innovations that made the world more interdependent: air power, the Space Age, fast transportation and satellite communications. In the 21st century it promises to bring us new nanomaterials, transparent armor and energy efficient vehicles and buildings. But it also poses a conundrum. Aluminum’s shining dreams have a dark side of global environmental pollution, human rights concerns, and struggles for resource sovereignty and transparency in extractive industries. The story of aluminum ranges from Andrew Mellon, Alcoa and the longest anti-trust lawsuit in US history to the role of JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs in the metals market, the fall of Russia’s aluminum giant Rusal, the rise of China and the chaos in Guinea (with the largest bauxite reserves in the world). How do we assemble the material culture of modernity, at what environmental costs, and with what prospects for global interdependence as the world adapts to a changing climate?
Where: Drexel University’s LeBow College of Business
Gerri C. LeBow Hall
3220 Market Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
When: October 9, 2014; 4 – 5 p.m.
Who: This event will feature Mimi Sheller, Ph.D. Dr. Mimi Sheller is professor of sociology and founding director of the Center for Mobilities Research and Policy at Drexel University. She is founding co-editor of the journal Mobilities; associate editor of the journals Transfers: Interdisciplinary Journal of Mobility Studies and of the new journal Earth Perspectives: Transdisciplinarity Enabled. She serves on the Scientific Board of the Mobile Lives Forum, SNCF, France, and on the Michelin Challenge Bibendum Task Force on Road Safety and Connected Mobility. She was awarded her A.B. from Harvard University (summa cum laude) in history and literature, and M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology and historical studies from the New School for Social Research. She is the author of several books, including “Democracy After Slavery” (2000); “Consuming the Caribbean” (2003); “Citizenship from Below” (2012), and “Aluminum Dreams” (2014); and co-editor of “Mobile Technologies of the City” (2006), “Tourism Mobilities” (2004), “The Routledge Handbook of Mobilities” (2013) and “Mobility and Locative Media” (2014). She has held visiting fellowships in the Shelby C. Davis Center for Historical Studies at Princeton University (2008-09) and the Penn Humanities Forum at the University of Pennsylvania (2010-11); and visiting professorships at Swarthmore College (2005-2009), Media@McGill in Montreal (2009) and the Center for Mobility and Urban Studies at Aalborg University, Denmark (2009).
Contact: To register for this event or for more information please contact Amanda Lichtenstein, the Global Interdependence Center’s manager of marketing and membership, at [email protected] or 215-238-0990.
About the Global Interdependence Center: The Global Interdependence Center is a Philadelphia-based nonprofit organization that seeks to stimulate thoughtful, global dialogue on a wide range of issues that affect the international community, including economics, health care and government. GIC convenes conferences and roundtable discussions, both domestically and internationally, to identify and address emerging global issues. For more information, visit GIC’s website at www.interdependence.org.
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