Globalization and its discontents is subject of Maxwell School graduate symposium

The Maxwell School‘s Sociology Department will sponsor a symposium, “The Challenges of Globalization: Theories and Practices,” on Monday and Tuesday, Nov. 15 and 16. The opening speaker on Monday from 4-6 p.m. is Professor Gavin Fridell, author of “Fair Trade Coffee: The Prospects and Pitfalls of Market-Driven Social Justice” (University of Toronto Press, 2007), and an upcoming publication on Joseph Stiglitz, who Fridell calls “a famous promoter of a particular version of ‘fair trade.'” His presentation will be held in Maxwell Auditorium.

On Tuesday, four panels comprised of three graduate students, each with one faculty discussant, will present papers on a range of issues relating to globalization, including “Local Impacts of Global Bio/Fuel Agro Commodity Circuits,” “Institutional and Human Trajectories of Producing Global Labor,” “Deconstructing National Identity and Economy” and “NGOs and New Social Movements.” The papers span an impressive range of topics and geographical areas, including West Africa, the Philippines, India, Nepal, Latin America, the Caribbean, Japan and Eastern Europe. All sessions will be held in 060 Eggers, the Global Collaboratory, from 8:45 a.m.-5 p.m. The full schedule is available at http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/soc.

Fridell is associate professor and department chair of politics at Trent University (Peterborough, Ontario) and a research associate at the Center for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean (CERLAC) at York University. His talk will examine the limits of legitimate dissent, as well as the political and cultural impact that Stiglitz, Nobel laureate and former chief economist and senior vice president at the World Bank, has had on the highly ideologically charged questions of fair- and free-trade.

The symposium is co-sponsored by the Program for Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration (PARCC), LGBT studies, social science program and the departments of geography, African American studies, and women’s & gender studies in the College of Arts & Sciences.