Aim of the course

The purpose of this course is to critically investigate some of the key classics that constitute the foundation for many of the current perspectives in consumer research. Authors covered during the seminar include but is not restricted to Jean Baudrillard, Pierre Bourdieu, Mary Douglas, Michel Foucault, Anthony Giddens, Jürgen Habermas, Claude Lévi-Strauss, and Marshall Sahlins. The learning goals of the seminar are on the one hand to provide a basic academic education for doctoral candidates within some of the major founding texts behind the current work of consumer culture theorists. On the other hand, the goal is also to demonstrate the relevance of general and classical theory for the specific empirical projects and contexts of the doctoral students.

Therefore, the program includes three major types of tutoring:

1. Lecturing from the faculty on the canon of classics
2. Dialogues where faculty and students elaborate on the relationship between the bodies of theory covered and specific applications in contemporary consumer research
3. A number of one-to-one sessions where students sign up for a meeting with a particular faculty member for discussion of and advice for the student’s own project

The seminar covers classical works and authors within a multitude of disciplines such as sociology, anthropology, critical theory and philosophy.

Faculty

The invited faculty members for this seminar are Eric J. Arnould, University of Wyoming, Benoît Heilbrunn, ESCP-EAP Paris, Jeff B. Murray, University of Arkansas and Linda M. Scott, Oxford University. In addition, faculty will consist of Søren Askegaard, Matthias Bode, Dannie Kjeldgaard and Per Østergaard, all from University of Southern Denmark - Odense,

Location and dates

The seminar will take place at the campus of the University of Southern Denmark, whereas accommodation and dinners will be in downtown Odense. There will be bus transportation to and from campus on seminar days. The seminar will begin Monday, August 9th in the morning and end the night of Saturday August 14th , , 2008.  Thus we expect the students to arrive Sunday evening August 8th at the latest and leave August 15th at the earliest.

Other course information

The seminar will be held in English, and is 6 ECTS credits.  The number of students will be held at 25. The tuition for the seminar, which includes accommodation and meals, is 700 Euros. 

Seminar coordinator: Søren Askegaard, Professor of Marketing, Department of Marketing & Management, University of Southern Denmark - Odense, Campusvej 55, DK-5230  Odense M, Denmark.  E-mail: aske@sam.sdu.dk.  Tel: +45 65 50 32 55.  Fax: +45 66 15 51 29.

Seminar prerequisites

There are no particular prerequisites for Ph.D. students.  Selection will be made from among applicants on the basis of a letter of interest, which should address the student’s dissertation research interests and the fit of this seminar within their doctoral program or other research interests.  The letter of interest including research project presentation should be no longer than 1.000 words, and should be submitted to the seminar coordinator no later than May 15th 2010.

The students who are selected will be required to read the literature included in this program.  They will come to the seminar ready to make a brief presentation of their research project.  Each of the faculty-presented sessions will be based on a combination of lecturing and dialogue based on the readings and the lecture. At the end of the seminar, students will make another presentation that will indicate how the seminar has expanded and enriched their research project.  An important and by experience very valued part of the program, however, is a set of one-to-one interactive sessions with the faculty, where the student and one of the faculty members can meet and address particular questions and issues concerning the doctoral student’s own work.

To acquire the credits for the seminar, the student must deliver satisfactory presentations and participate actively and constructively in the seminar discussions as well as in the one-to-one sessions with faculty members. The group of faculty will meet at the end of the seminar to assess each of the students’ performance.