Alex Khasnabish is co-author with Max Haiven of a new book called The Radical Imagination: Social Movement Research in the Age of Austerity (2014, Zed Books). In this workshop, geared to graduate students (though undergraduates are welcome to attend), Alex will discuss what he views as three main problems in the academic study of social movements: one is theoretical (the ideas that motivate the research), the next is methodological (the process of the research), and the final one is ethical (what research is for and whom it serves).

A sociocultural anthropologist by training, Alex's research interests include culture, power, and resistance; globalization, transnational activism, global justice, and social movements; democracy and political philosophy; political histories, political ecologies, political imagination, and narratives of sociopolitical struggle and transformation; and anti-capitalism, anarchism, and grassroots alternative-building.

His work has focused upon the reasons for and consequences of the resonance of Zapatismo – the political philosophy of the Zapatista movement located in Chiapas, Mexico – upon diverse communities of political activists in Mexico, Canada, and the United States. Currently, he is focused on the radical imagination and its relationship to movements for radical socio-political transformation.

Sponsored by the Center for the Study of Europe in collaboration with the Latin American Studies Program. Open to BU community and others with a research interest in social movements.