The University of Queensland will host a public lecture later this month presented by world - renowned urban sociologist, Professor Saskia Sassen.
Professor Sassen is the Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology and Co-Chair on The Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University. Her research focuses on globalisation, immigration, global cities, the new technologies, and changes within the liberal state that result from current transnational conditions.
The lecture is a joint initiative of the School of Social Science and The Institute of Social Science Research (ISSR) titled Immigrants and Citizens in the Global City.
Immigrants and Citizens in the Global City will explore how citizenship and alienage - the two foundational institutions for membership in the modern state, are being partly destabilised through major current transformations.
"As citizens lose rights due to the new types of policies that reduce social rights and immigrants gain rights through the human rights regime, we see a blurring of the distinctions; much of this blurring has been obscured by the strong nationalism of particular sectors," Professor Sassen said.
"Cities, especially the complex spaces of global cities, are one kind of space where the national is becoming denationalised through the material and discursive practices of a growing variety of actors, from global firms to foreign workers."
In addition to her appointments at Columbia University, Professor Sassen serves on a number of editorial boards and is an advisor to several international bodies.
She is a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences Panel on Cities.
Professor Sassen's 20 years of influential research boasts multiple published works that have been translated into 21 languages. Her current project, When Territory exits Existing Framings, is currently under contract with Harvard University Press.
The lecture will be held at UQ on Monday, 28 November 2011, from 9.30am till 11am, in the Terrace Room, Sir Llew Edwards Building (14), St Lucia Campus.
Media: Lynda Cheshire: l.cheshire@uq.edu.au or (07) 3365 2383
