Born Under a Bad Sign

In the broadest terms: late capitalism; ideology; semiotics; Marxist cultural studies; postmodernity; critical social theory; media studies; production/consumption; political economy of culture/signs. To be a tad more specific, I'm focusing on discourses (specifically advertising) of late capitalism and neoliberal ideology. For example, I'm working on/finishing up an article with my undergraduate advisor that looks at two recent brand campaigns that emerged during the recession. We analyze articulations and constitution of value and, more importantly, contextualize these discourses within the current state of global capitalism. Probably sounds vague, but I can explain more later. What about you, what are your research interests?

As in research interests or what I studied for undergrad?

Perfect thread to push me to register. All of the programs to which I'm applying fall under these terms; yet, because the nascency of these programs in the US, I am trying to create my own American Studies/Cultural Studies/Critical Theory programs out of existing and well-established departments in addition to applying to a few interdisciplinary departments. The following is a tentative, but slowly becoming exhaustive, list of schools, beginning with programs with these terms in their titles, followed by my own attempts at interdisciplinarity: NYU -- American Studies Brown -- American Civilization Minnesota -- American Studies (with Graduate Minor in Comparative Studies in Discourses/Cultural Studies) Chicago -- Sociology (with interest in Interdisciplinary Initiative in the Center for the Study of Communication and Society) Northwestern -- Sociology (clustered with Critical Theory certificate program) Berkeley -- Sociology (with Designated Emphasis in Critical Theory) UCLA -- Sociology (with Certificate in Experimental Critical Theory) CUNY -- Sociology (with Certificate in American Studies) Potential additions to above list: Michigan -- American Culture GWU -- American Studies What about you, arglooblaha? I'm curious to know what others with these interdisciplinary interests are doing.