IUEU Centre Outreach Programme
David Goldberg, 2008 VRG

Professor Goldberg is Director of the University of California Humanities Research Institute (see http://www.uchri.org/page.php?page_id=1256). His work ranges over issues of political theory, race and racism, ethics, law and society, critical theory, cultural studies and, increasingly, digital humanities. Together with Cathy Davidson of Duke University, he founded the Humanities, Arts, Science and Technology Advanced Collaboratory (HASTAC) to promote partnerships between the human sciences, arts, social sciences and technology and supercomputing interests for advancing research, teaching and public outreach. He has authored numerous books, including The Racial State (2002); Racial Subjects: Writing on Race in America (1997); Racist Culture: Philosophy and the Politics of Meaning (1993); and Ethical Theory and Social Issues: Historical Texts and Contemporary Readings (1989/1995). He has also edited or co-edited many volumes, including A Companion to Gender Studies (2005); A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies (2002); Between Law and Culture: Relocating Legal Studies (2002); Relocating Postcolonialism (2002); Race Critical Theories: Text and Context (2001); Multiculturalism: A Critical Reader (1994); Jewish Identity (1993); and Anatomy of Racism (1990). His most recent book, The Threat of Race: Reflections on Racial Neoliberalism, will be published by Wiley-Blackwell this coming October.

His visit to Australia from 28 May to 3 June as part of the programme of the IUEU Centre involved activities in three states.

At La Trobe University in Melbourne on Thursday 29 May he gave a public lecture on ‘Enduring Occupations: Neo-liberalism and contemporary sociality’. This was held in conjunction with an exhibition at the La Trobe University Art Museum on Two Way Traffic: Émigré artists represented in the La Trobe University Art Collection.

On Friday 30 May and Saturday 31 May he participated in a two-day colloquium on ‘Collaborations and New Directions in Diaspora and Migration Research: A colloquium and workshop discussions for researchers on European Diasporas’.

This event was a contribution towards developing more collaboration between La Trobe University researchers on diaspora and migration issues, in enriching their understanding of trends and directions in such research, and stimulating possible research grant proposals. While related in particular to the Centre’s priorities on European diaspora populations, as the focus of the colloquium was on research methods, directions and problems, there were also contributions by researchers on diasporas of non-European societies. It is expected that there will be a number of follow-up meetings at which issues relating to European diaspora populations will be further developed. Professor Goldberg’s role at the colloquium was to give one of the two major keynote presentations and to act as a discussant throughout the two days, along with a similar contribution from Professor Ghassan Hage from the University of Melbourne. It was specifically intended to limit numbers of participants so as to ensure a maximum involvement with specific issues, and while the original intent was to maintain that at about 40 there were in fact 55 registrants.

In Adelaide, on Monday 2 June, Professor Goldberg delivered a seminar presentation on Neoliberalising Race at the Centre for Post-colonial Studies at the University of South Australia, co-sponsored by the IUEU Centre and Flinders University. In this seminar he explored what happens to race and racism in the wake of neoliberalism. He addressed the logics of racial neoliberalisation as a set of technologies for managing demographic heterogeneities in the context of modernity's histories of globalisation.

At Macquarie University in Sydney on Tuesday 3rd June Professor Goldberg gave a public lecture on ‘Enduring Occupations: Neo-liberalism and contemporary sociality’. The lecture considered how occupations, across all their meanings, are central to contemporary neoliberalism, and how neoliberalism has refashioned occupations, racially re-arranged and re-shaped.

For further information on Professor Goldberg, please visit http://www.uchri.org/page.php?page_id=1256.