This talk, like the book from which it is drawn, calls into question the imperative of economic growth, tracing the unintended consequences of escalating consumption.  Using a series of linked cases of successful economic growth (water, roads, and cattle in Botswana), it shows how insatiable growth, predicated on consumption, will inevitably overwhelm, a process Dr. Livingston terms self-devouring growth.

If you have trouble viewing above images, you may view this album directly on Flickr.

Julie Livingston is Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis and History at New York University. She is the author of the forthcoming Self-devouring growth: a planetary parable told from Southern Africa (Duke University Press), Improvising Medicine: An African Oncology Ward in an Emerging Cancer Epidemic (Duke University Press), Debility and the Moral Imagination in Botswana (Indiana University Press), and numerous articles and essays and edited volumes and special journal issues. Livingston is the recipient of the Victor Turner Prize for Ethnographic Writing, the Royal Anthropological Institute’s Wellcome Medal, and the American Association for the History of Medicine’s William Welch Medal. In 2013 she was named a MacArthur fellow.

The Center for Cultural Studies hosts a weekly Wednesday colloquium featuring work by faculty and visitors. The sessions consist of a 40-45 minute presentation followed by discussion. We gather at noon, with presentations beginning at 12:15 PM. Participants are encouraged to bring their own lunches; the Center provides coffee, tea, and cookies.

All Center for Cultural Studies events are free and open to the public. Staff assistance is provided by the Humanities Institute.