Desert studies: more from less than ZERO

The Johannesburg Workshop in Theory and Criticism invite you to a public lecture entitled Desert studies: more from less than ZERO by Prof. Dick Hebdige, Director, Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, University of California, Santa Barbara. Desert Studies is an interdisciplinary research field that has tended in the past to be heavily weighted towards the natural and agricultural sciences. It is the contention of the Desert Studies project that widespread public concern with issues as apparently diverse and unconnected as global population growth, suburban sprawl and climate change, natural resource management, wildlife habitat protection, border conflict escalation and political tensions in regions as disjunct as the American South West and the Middle East have pushed the desert from the margins to the forefront of attention in debates on the future of our planet. The talk argues that the critical arts should figure proactively in the debates currently being joined around these issues.

Date: 2 February 2012
Time: 18:30

Venue: WISER Seminar Room, 6th Floor, Richard Ward Building, East Campus

More info: www.jwtc.org.za