Year: 2025-2026
Research Team Type: Student-led
Team leads: Ajung Ryoo, PhD student, Department of Anthropology
The question at the heart of this research team is: how can global capitalism — a system propped up by logistics and technology — be made comprehensible? On the one hand, these systems are ideologically presented as historically inevitable and necessary. On the other, capitalism appears unintelligible, ambiguous, nonsensical, labyrinthine; it presents itself in different languages, shapes and mediums, and it seems impossible to grasp or battle such a shapeshifting force. Therefore, instead of attempting the impossible project of mapping out capitalism into a holistic picture, the team attempts to locate or assemble the shifting openings, cracks, chokepoints, spillages, or leaks, which undo and warp the demarcated boundaries between bodies, nations, and capital that are continuously enforced by colonial, ideological, and corporate empires. In short, they will attend to palpable, embodied experiences in specifically situated conditions to make intelligible the ever-evolving, multi-headed figure of global capitalism and logistical networks that shape our lives with overwhelming force.