ARC: Connections: ELMAR: Posting

---

Ph.D. Seminar
Brands and Their Global Impacts
University of Texas-Pan American (UTPA)

Site: UTPA, Edinburg, Texas
Date: June 14-20, 2010
Faculty: Adam Arvidsson, University of Milano, Italy
Dominique Bouchet, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark Nikhilesh Dholakia, University of Rhode Island, USA
A. Fuat Firat, University of Texas-Pan American, USA
Celia Lury, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK
Alladi Venkatesh, University of California, Irvine, USA

Objective of the Seminar

Brands are no longer simply markers of ownership or identifiers of manufacturers. They signify multiple relationships and provide means of communication for an ever growing set of purposes. They have major global impacts. The purpose of this seminar is to unravel the mysteries behind this surge of importance of brands in recent history and understand the effects that brands have across cultures.

Seminar Outline

All students accepted to join the seminar and registered will be sent a readings list about 2 months prior to the start date (June 14, 2010). They are expected to come to the seminar having read the material.

On the first day of the seminar, students will make a brief (15 minutes) presentation of their research project and receive feedback from the faculty and other students. The following days will include presentations and exercises led by the seminar faculty and guest scholars. During each day of the seminar, students are encouraged to make appointments with faculty for one-on-one discussions of their research interests. Students can also expect to be engaged in one-on-ones and group discussions with other students during breaks, at meals, and during the evenings. On the last day of the seminar, each student will make a presentation on how their research project is modified based on the inspirations from the seminar and receive feedback (followed by a gala dinner party). Two months after the seminar, each student will turn in a paper to be read by at least two of the faculty members. The paper will be related to the student’s research project and can be a research proposal or research paper, or a conceptual piece (this will be discussed in more detail at the seminar).

Seminar Coordinator

A. Fuat Firat
Department of Marketing, College of Business Administration
University of Texas-Pan American
1201 West University Drive, Edinburg, Texas, USA
Tel: +1 956 381 2092; Fax: +1 956 381 2085; e-mail: firatf@utpa.edu

Faculty Profiles

Adam Arvidsson teaches sociology at the University of Milano, Italy and does research on reputation economies with the Copenhagen Business School. He works on brands (Brands. Meaning and Value in Media Culture, London; Routledge 2006), ‘creative’ labor and industries, and the link between information technology and new social and economic forms in general (The Ethical Economy. Business and Society in the 21st Century, forthcoming with Columbia University Press in 2010).

Dominique Bouchet is Chair Professor of International Marketing at the Department of Marketing and Management at the University of Southern Denmark – Odense. His main research interests cover social change and cultural differences. He is the author or co-author of more than 30 books and 100 articles published in ten languages. He was presented with the Danish Business Association’s Prize for marketing research in 1992. He has received the Erdogan Kumcu best paper award in 2005, was made Knight of the Palm Academic Order by the French Prime Minister in 1992, and Knight of the National Order of Merit by the French President in 2005 for his contribution to European cross cultural understanding. In 2007 Bouchet was awarded the “researcher’s prize” for “Transcending Research” from the Danish Union of Professors and Researchers within the fields of Humanities, Sciences, & Social Sciences.

Nikhilesh Dholakia is Professor of Marketing and International Business at the University of Rhode Island (URI), and a Fellow of caQtus collaborative formed at the University of Texas – Pan American (UTPA). His research deals with globalization, technology, innovation, market processes, and consumer culture. His books include Consuming People: From Political Economy to Theaters of Consumption. He has been a co-winner of the Charles Slater award for the Journal of Macromarketing, and has chaired doctoral dissertations that won the MSI/Clayton and ACR/Sheth Foundation awards. He holds a B.Tech from Indian Institute of Technology at Delhi, an MBA from Indian Institute of Management at Ahmedabad, and a Ph.D. from the Kellogg School at Northwestern University.

A. Fuat Firat is Professor of Marketing at the University of Texas-Pan American. His research interests cover areas such as macro consumer behavior and macromarketing; postmodern culture; transmodern marketing strategies; gender and consumption; brand theory; marketing and development; and interorganizational relations. His has won the Journal of Macromarketing Charles Slater Award for best article with co-author N. Dholakia, and the Journal of Consumer Research best article award with co-author A. Venkatesh. He has published several books including Consuming People: From Political Economy to Theaters of Consumption, co-authored by N. Dholakia, and is the founding editor of Consumption, Markets & Culture.

Celia Lury is Professor, Sociology Department at Goldsmiths, University of London. Her two main areas of research interest are sociology of culture and feminist theory. She has edited and authored a number of books. Among others, her books include Brands: the Logos of the Global Cultural Economy (2004), Consumer Culture (1996), and Global Culture Industry: The Mediation of Things (with S. Lash, 2007). She continues to be interested in brands and branding and finds them illuminating objects to think with as well as problematic objects to live with/out. Her recent work on a series of funded empirical research projects, exploring contemporary developments in the culture industry with a special focus on changing cultural forms will inform the book, co-edited with N. Wakeford, Inventive Methods (Forthcoming).

Alladi Venkatesh is Professor of Management and Computer Science, and Associate Director, CRITO (Center for Research on Information Technology) University of California, Irvine, USA. His research interests include community-based technologies and Cross-Cultural Research and Global Sign Systems. His research focuses on the networked home and how consumers and households are adapting to new technologies of information and communication. He is currently an investigator on a multi-year project (Project POINT) funded by the NSF which examines IT impact on the individual in various settings, home, work-place, community and schools. His recent papers have examined the institutional histories of markets and their global configuration. His scholarly publications have appeared in Communications of the ACM, Journal of Consumer Research, Management Science, The Information Society, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Macromarketing, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Journal of Product Innovation and Management, Telecommunications Policy, Journal of Economic Psychology.

Application Process

Applicants are asked to send a 750-1200 word letter of interest indicating their interests for their dissertation research or research otherwise planned, and the fit of this seminar within their doctoral program. This letter of interest can be accompanied with a letter from the applicant’s dissertation committee chair or a member of the dissertation committee. All submissions must be e-mailed to firatf@utpa.edu by the application deadline (February 15, 2010). Acceptance decisions will be made by March 1, 2010. There will be a fee of 1,500 USD that will cover accommodations for the days of June 13-20, inclusive, all meals for the seminar dates of June 14-20, and transportation between the airport and the seminar site.

Site Information

University of Texas-Pan American:
http://www.utpa.edu/

College of Business Administration:
https://portal.utpa.edu/portal/page/portal/utpa_main/daa_home/coba_home

Wellness and Recreational Sports Center:
http://dos.utpa.edu/intramurals/main.htm

City of McAllen:
http://www.mcallen.net/

---