Wesley Shumar
Biographic Data
| ID | 255666 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Wesley Shumar |
| GIVEN NAMES | Wesley |
| FAMILY NAME | Shumar |
| SIGNATURE | SHUMAR W |
| AFFILIATIONS | Drexel University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5990-9671 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 30 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 9 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1996 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
The University Becoming
Being TED’
This article focuses on the ways that modern American universities are engaged in the process of articulating new producing and consuming subjects. It argues that the image of the engaged ‘media celebrity’ intellectual, as presented in the TED Talk model, has become a cultural ideal that reconciles a deeper contradiction in the academy. Through a complex process, university faculty and students are assimilated into the globalised lifestyle and th…
The Red Light in the Ivory Tower
Wither the welfare state
This summary article situates the articles in this collection within the historical unfolding of the commodification and neoliberalisation of higher education. From the 1970s to the present, the article suggests that commodification and neoliberalisation are two social forces that in many nations are difficult to disentangle. It is important to see these forces as analytically distinct as they set up contradictions whilst transforming higher educ…
Ethnography in a virtual world
This article situates the discussion of virtual ethnography within the larger political/economic changes of twenty-first century consumer capitalism and suggests that increasingly our entire social world is a virtual world and that there were very particular utopian and dystopian framings of virtual community growing out of that history. The article also situates the discussion of virtual ethnography within the anthropological ‘crisis of represen…
Structure and Agency in the Neoliberal University
This volume considers how current transitions in postsecondary education are impacting Higher Education (HE) institutions and subjects in a number of Northern nations, as well as how these transitions are indicative of the wider shift from the welfare to the market state. The university is now considered a key site for training and wealth generation in the so-called 'knowledge economy' that operates in a globalising, high tech world. Further, the…
Making Strangers at Home
Additional informationNotes on contributorsWesley ShumarWesley Shumar is assistant professor of Anthropology, Department of Culture and Communication, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA
Making Strangers at Home
Reviewing some of the major developments in cultural anthropology over the last thirty years, this article discusses the implications of these developments for the study of higher education. The article argues that one of the most fruitful directions in anthropological work comes from the efforts to combine neo-Marxist theory with forms of poststructuralism so that the relationship between history, political economy, signification and forms of su…
Global pressures, local reactions
As a summary piece, this essay describes more fully the wider globalizing context in which both students and institutions of higher education are now located. It explores three transitions that signal this new configuration: the creation of new information and media technologies; the transformation of time and space; and the expansion of the culture of consumption and the consumption of culture. The essay then discusses the four ethnographic arti…
Laboring in the dream factory, part I
Beginning with the irony of the author, who as a part-time temporary faculty instructor attempts to support the dreams of a returning student seeking a new degree in hopes of better-paying employment, part I seeks to situate such experiences within a broader structural framework. The paper moves between the models of social class developed by Eric Olin Wright (1987, 1997) and a model of a flexible workforce discussed by David Harvey (1989) to sug…
The Problem of Individualism in Family-School Policies
Aux Etats-Unis, le rapprochement famille-ecole pour la reussite scolaire des enfants et l'amelioration du systeme scolaire a fait l'objet d'une abondante litterature. A partir de l'analyse de ces recherches, les AA. montrent que cet engagement des familles degage en fait un modele complexe refletant souvent le milieu social des eleves. Selon eux les politiques d'education se sont attachees a une approche individualiste de l'implication des famill…
The Problem of Individualism in Family-School Policies
Aux Etats-Unis, le rapprochement famille-ecole pour la reussite scolaire des enfants et l'amelioration du systeme scolaire a fait l'objet d'une abondante litterature. A partir de l'analyse de ces recherches, les AA. montrent que cet engagement des familles degage en fait un modele complexe refletant souvent le milieu social des eleves. Selon eux les politiques d'education se sont attachees a une approche individualiste de l'implication des famill…
Ethnography in a virtual world
This article situates the discussion of virtual ethnography within the larger political/economic changes of twenty-first century consumer capitalism and suggests that increasingly our entire social world is a virtual world and that there were very particular utopian and dystopian framings of virtual community growing out of that history. The article also situates the discussion of virtual ethnography within the anthropological ‘crisis of represen…
Laboring in the dream factory, part I
Beginning with the irony of the author, who as a part-time temporary faculty instructor attempts to support the dreams of a returning student seeking a new degree in hopes of better-paying employment, part I seeks to situate such experiences within a broader structural framework. The paper moves between the models of social class developed by Eric Olin Wright (1987, 1997) and a model of a flexible workforce discussed by David Harvey (1989) to sug…
Global pressures, local reactions
As a summary piece, this essay describes more fully the wider globalizing context in which both students and institutions of higher education are now located. It explores three transitions that signal this new configuration: the creation of new information and media technologies; the transformation of time and space; and the expansion of the culture of consumption and the consumption of culture. The essay then discusses the four ethnographic arti…
The Problem of Individualism in Family-School Policies
Aux Etats-Unis, le rapprochement famille-ecole pour la reussite scolaire des enfants et l'amelioration du systeme scolaire a fait l'objet d'une abondante litterature. A partir de l'analyse de ces recherches, les AA. montrent que cet engagement des familles degage en fait un modele complexe refletant souvent le milieu social des eleves. Selon eux les politiques d'education se sont attachees a une approche individualiste de l'implication des famill…
Laboring in the dream factory, part I
Beginning with the irony of the author, who as a part-time temporary faculty instructor attempts to support the dreams of a returning student seeking a new degree in hopes of better-paying employment, part I seeks to situate such experiences within a broader structural framework. The paper moves between the models of social class developed by Eric Olin Wright (1987, 1997) and a model of a flexible workforce discussed by David Harvey (1989) to sug…
Making Strangers at Home
Additional informationNotes on contributorsWesley ShumarWesley Shumar is assistant professor of Anthropology, Department of Culture and Communication, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA
Making Strangers at Home
Reviewing some of the major developments in cultural anthropology over the last thirty years, this article discusses the implications of these developments for the study of higher education. The article argues that one of the most fruitful directions in anthropological work comes from the efforts to combine neo-Marxist theory with forms of poststructuralism so that the relationship between history, political economy, signification and forms of su…
Global pressures, local reactions
As a summary piece, this essay describes more fully the wider globalizing context in which both students and institutions of higher education are now located. It explores three transitions that signal this new configuration: the creation of new information and media technologies; the transformation of time and space; and the expansion of the culture of consumption and the consumption of culture. The essay then discusses the four ethnographic arti…
Structure and Agency in the Neoliberal University
This volume considers how current transitions in postsecondary education are impacting Higher Education (HE) institutions and subjects in a number of Northern nations, as well as how these transitions are indicative of the wider shift from the welfare to the market state. The university is now considered a key site for training and wealth generation in the so-called 'knowledge economy' that operates in a globalising, high tech world. Further, the…
Ethnography in a virtual world
This article situates the discussion of virtual ethnography within the larger political/economic changes of twenty-first century consumer capitalism and suggests that increasingly our entire social world is a virtual world and that there were very particular utopian and dystopian framings of virtual community growing out of that history. The article also situates the discussion of virtual ethnography within the anthropological ‘crisis of represen…
Wither the welfare state
This summary article situates the articles in this collection within the historical unfolding of the commodification and neoliberalisation of higher education. From the 1970s to the present, the article suggests that commodification and neoliberalisation are two social forces that in many nations are difficult to disentangle. It is important to see these forces as analytically distinct as they set up contradictions whilst transforming higher educ…
The Red Light in the Ivory Tower
Being TED’
This article focuses on the ways that modern American universities are engaged in the process of articulating new producing and consuming subjects. It argues that the image of the engaged ‘media celebrity’ intellectual, as presented in the TED Talk model, has become a cultural ideal that reconciles a deeper contradiction in the academy. Through a complex process, university faculty and students are assimilated into the globalised lifestyle and th…
The University Becoming
Political science (9 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Social science (6 works) · Higher Education Governance and Development (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Anthropology (4 works) · Law (4 works) · Computer Science (3 works) · Media studies (3 works) · Anthropological Studies and Insights (2 works)