Margaret Farrar
Professor
Areas of Expertise
- Margaret E Farrar
- Ph.D
- Is a political theorist with a focus on contemporary and democratic theory
- As well as gender politics. Her primary interest lies in exploring the politics at the intersection of place
- Identity
- And memory. Dr. Farrar is dedicated to thinking and writing about these complex interactions
- Contributing significantly to the field
Areas of Expertise
- I'm a political theorist by training
- with emphases on contemporary and democratic theory
- and gender politics. My primary interest is thinking and writing about the politics at the intersection of place
- identity
- and memory.
Research Interests
My most recent book (co-authored with anthropologist Adam Kaul) asks the question: How do we make places, and make places our own? \\*Becoming Utopia* is the story of what happens when a small, Midwestern community negotiates the contradictory impulses of 21st century place-making: nostalgia for the past undercut by complex origin stories of displacement and colonialism, historic preservation and disruptive new technologies, ecological sustainability as enacted by multinational corporations, commitment to localism in a context of omnipresent globalization. Each of these contradictions poses a set of existential questions for small communities across the U.S. Through ethnographic and textual analyses, we explore the purpose and challenge of creating place-based sites for cultural memory; the difficulty of untangling dissonant heritages from our understandings of the past; the profound impact that purportedly “low impact” technologies can have on the life of place; and the ways in which “local” and “global” stories are interpolated and amalgamated at every moment.
Education
B.A. in Political Science, The College of WoosterPh. D. in Political Science, The Pennsylvania State University
Courses Taught
Introduction to Political ThoughtIntroduction to Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies
Politics and Conspiracy
Justice, Gender, and the Law
Civil Rights and Liberties
