Black Stars in the European City
During his time at IFK, James Donald plans to concentrate on two aspects of metropolitan life. The first is a historical study of vernacular cosmopolitanism, exploring the reception of Josephine Baker and Paul Robeson in Paris, London, Vienna, and Berlin in the 1920s and 1930s. He is equally interested in the way that the two performers were to a large extent "invented" by intellectuals, and in their popular success. This project will enable James Donald to examine the cultural significance of song and dance as well as film, and to question the emphasis on (implicitly national) identity in much recent Cultural Studies.The second project will examine the urban location and consequences of the creative and cultural industries. How significant is their economic impact? How are local industries networked to global corporations? What are the spatial consequences of these economic developments?
Professor of Media at Curtin University of Technology, Western Australia
U.a. Sentimental Education: Schooling, Popular Culture and the Regulation of Liberty (1992); Imagining the Modern City (1999); with Mark Balnaves and Stephanie Hemelryk Donald: Penguin Atlas of Media and Information (2002)