The colloquium is a free lecture series featuring
faculty research in the College of Liberal Arts.

Spring 2012 Schedule

Andrew Buck, Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminal Justice Studies

“The Corporate Networks and Symbolic Capital of British Business Leaders, 2003-2006”

Friday, March 16, 2012, 3:30pm in Kleymeyer Hall (LA 0101)

Why do business elites face so little scrutiny about the direction of corporations before a crisis? I draw on data from The Times’ annual ranking of British corporate leaders in the years preceding the 2008 financial crisis to address this question. I argue the lack of scrutiny of corporate leaders is partly related to the structure of their corporate networks and the symbolic capital of their personal attributes. The network analysis reveals the structure of corporate networks is homogenous and hierarchical. The cohesive and top-down corporate networks imply business leaders lack diverse networks that are crucial to accountability. I also find business leaders with an English nationality, Oxbridge education and solid connection to royalty are central in important corporate networks. The network centrality of British ruling class symbols suggests corporate leaders become influential partly because they possess high levels of symbolic capital that induce others to recognize their authority.

Sarah Bielski, Department of Art

“An Artist's Talk”

Friday, April 13, 2012, 3:30pm in Kleymeyer Hall (LA 0101)

My current work aims to confront sports as a cultural metaphor for sex. I am interested in the goal-seeking nature of both sports and sex. Perhaps through sports, we are simply mimicking the effort of procreation. In the sporting arena, however, the private act becomes a public spectacle reinforced by cheering crowds, company endorsements and fame. These paintings explore the still male-dominated nature of this industry. They reverse this domination by locating the sporting event in the very private space of women’s undergarments. The paintings use and explore the dichotomies such as concealing/revealing, public/private and macro/micro as a way to reframe our cultural obsessions with both sports and sex.

For additional information, contact:
Andrew Buck
Email: adbuck
812-461-5343