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Home > People > Faculty : George L Henderson

George Henderson

612-625-4085
Geography 414 SocSci

Department Affiliations

Narrative

I am a social-cultural, historical, and economic geographer interested in the diverse manifestations of capitalism and popular movements to move beyond capitalism. I see as equally important the 'material' processes through which capitalism makes places and the 'meaning making' processes through capitalist places come into being. Marx's admonition that capitalism is always in the process of becoming other to itself seems to me as relevant to the 19th century as to the 21st. Additionally, I have strong interests in the history and teaching of geographic thought. I teach in that area, as well as in urban geography, social-cultural geography, and geographical political economy. My regional focus is on the United States. Specific research projects have addressed the political and cultural economy of agriculture in late 19th-c. California; the politics of food banking in the United States; and landscape and literature. I am currently working on a short book on Marx's theory of value, an anthology of contemporary geographic thought (with Dr. Marv Waterstone, U of Arizona), an anthology on economic diversity (with Drs. Tracey Deutsch and Karen Ho, Dept. of History and Anthropology respectively, U of Minn-TC.), and a documentary comic book on geography.


Specialties

  • political economy
  • social and cultural theory
  • California

Educational Background

  • Ph.D.: Geography, University of California-Berkeley, Berkeley, California, 1992.

Publications

  • Value: the many-headed Hydra: Henderson, George Lawlor, Antipode, 36 445-69, 2004.
  • Free food, the local production of worth, and the circuit of decommodification: a value theory of the surplus: Henderson, George Lawlor, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 22 485-512, 2004.
  • California and the Fictions of Capital. Henderson, George Lawlor, Oxford University Press, Author, 1999 (repr 2003).
  • South of the North, North of the South: Spatial Practice in The Chaneysville Incident. Henderson, George Lawlor, Keep Your Head To the Sky: Cosmology, Ethics and the Making of African American Home Ground, University Press of Virginia, 1998.
  • What (else) we talk about when we talk about landscape: Henderson, George Lawlor, University of California Press, Everyday America: Cultural Landscape Studies After JB Jackson, 2003.
  • Nature and Fictitious Capital: The Historical Geography of an Agrarian Question. Henderson, George Lawlor, Antipode, 30(2), pp. 73-118, 1998.

Research Activities

  • The End(s) of Geographic Thought: An edited book (with Dr. Marv Waterstone) that describes contemporary geography through its political commitments (forthcoming, Routledge).
  • The Point of Geography: A Graphic Introduction: An illustrated guide to the discipline of geography for adult and college age beginners, (forthcoming Temple)
  • Value Beyond Value: This is a short book project to be begun in Spring 2007 on the political meanings of Marx's labor theory of value.
  • The Diverse Economies Reader: Co-edited with Profs. Tracey Deutsch and Karen Ho, this is an 'in progress' anthology seeking to undo conventional ideas of 'markets.'
  • Founding Member, Research Collaborative on "Markets in Time": Faculty research / discussion group on the heterogenous nature of economies. Funded by IAS and IGS, University of Minnesota, 2003 - present
  • Marxism and Environmental Geography: Chapter in preparation for Noel Castree et al., Companion to Environmental Geography (Blackwell)

Professional Activities

  • Member, Committe on the Press, University of Minnesota Press: Editorial peer review of new book proposals , 2004 - present
  • Section (co)editor, Cultural Geogaphies in Practice, "Cultural Geographies": Solicit and review manuscripts for special section of the journal devoted to research practices, interpretive essays, and art reviews. , 2006 - present
  • Editorial Board Member, "Antipode": Review manuscripts; plan (with other board members) new directions for the journal. , 1998 - 2006
  • Co-Organizer of Conference, "After the 90's: A Conference on Finance and Fallout in the New Economy": With Drs. Tracey Deutsch (History) and Karen Ho (Anthropology), organized and planned conference on the social consequences of economic policy. , May 9 - 10, 2003

Outreach Activities

  • Advisory Board Member: "People's Geography Project": Taking critical and radical geography into the public sphere: www.peoplesgeography.org, 1999 - present

Awards

  • Meridian Book Award for Outstanding Scholarly Work in Geography, Association of American Geographers, 2000, for California and the Fictions of Capital
  • Faculty Residential Fellow, Institute of Advanced Study, University of Minnesota, January - May, 2007

Courses Taught

  • UNDERGRADUATE: "Cities, Citizens, and Communities," "Modes of Geographic Inquiry," "Geography and Social Justice"
  • GRADUATE: "Problems in Geographic Thought," "Spaces and Times of Capitalism," "Marx and the Geographers"
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