Communication and Social Justice in an Age of Globalization

Leader: Stephen John Hartnett, University of Colorado at Denver

Communication and Social Justice in an Age of Globalization

Stephen John Hartnett, University of Colorado at Denver 

As the literati in New York City hold protests to denounce the imprisonment of Chinese writers, weapons dealers from Dallas sell the hardware that will slaughter women and children in Sudan; while President Obama preaches about the glories of free trade, children in Indonesia pull twelve-hour shifts to stitch shirts worn by drug dealers in Medellin and stock brokers in Montreal; as Qatari and Saudi oil barons reap the lucre of the laziness of SUV-sheathed suburbanites, French and Italian youths use the Web to advocate for closing the black-market for child sex slaves in Delhi—in our age of globalization, everything circulates, everything is connected. 

To avoid the charge of provincialism, and to break the canard of scholarly neutrality, this workshop will hold conversations about how rhetoric scholars and teachers can become more globally-savvy critics of and participants in movements for social justice. We will discuss the recent literature on communication and social justice, trends in globalization studies, and specific case studies of prison abolition and torture, human rights, the sex and drug trade, peace building, and/or others as proposed by workshop participants.

Questions? Contact Stephen John Hartnett, Stephen.Hartnett@ucdenver.edu