Geopolicy expert to speak in Eugene
Neil Smith, professor of anthropology and geography at the City University of New York Graduate Center, will give a speech entitled “Lost Geographies and Failed Globalizations: From Versailles to Iraq” at the Eugene Hilton Conference Center on Thursday. His visit kicks off the winter term portion of the Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics “The Changing Geopolitical Order” lecture series.
“We are living through a new and dangerous imperialism that Americans have the responsibility to challenge,” Smith said in promotional materials for the event.
Smith’s research looks closely at how seemingly distant political climates are connected in various ways.
“We will explore the origins of this new empire over the last century and especially highlight the largely unacknowledged political geography of its creation,” he added.
Smith’s past research has focused on globalization and homelessness, cyberculture and the flow of goods and materials, and environmental change and the future of nation states. Smith — also a published author of numerous books, his most recent work being “American Empire: Roosevelt’s Geographer and the Prelude to Globalization” — is a leading expert on geopolicy. The event is free and open to the public.

— Beau Eastes