The question of why our research matters has become increasingly urgent in current times when the value of academic knowledge in general, and the Humanities in particular, is being challenged. While there is nothing wrong with explaining the significance of our work, such a demand is often framed in terms of demonstratable societal relevance and measurable impact. In this year’s ASCA Theory Seminar, we will explore the different ways in which our research holds importance (and to whom) and how this importance can be articulated. As in previous years, each session will be moderated by a group of PhD candidates who will relate the assigned literature to their own research. This year, the assigned literature will be supplied by ASCA members, sharing examples of their own research alongside a “classic text” that has been foundational to their work. 

October 1, 2025: Introductory session led by Jaap Kooijman - BG2, 008

November 5, 2025: Spatial Humanities / Urban Cultural Studies with Carolyn Birdsall - OMHP C117

• Harvey, David. “The Right to the City.” New Left Review 53 (2008): 23–40. Repr. in The City Reader. London: Routledge, 2020. 281-289.
• Soja, Edward. "The City and Spatial Justice." Justice spatiale/Spatial justice 1.1 (2009): 1-5.
• Nunes, Paulo, and Carolyn Birdsall. "Curating the Urban Music Festival: Festivalisation, the ‘Shuffle’ Logic, and Digitally-shaped Music Consumption." European Journal of Cultural Studies 25.2 (2022): 679-702. https://doi.org/10.1177/13675494211008646.

Optional reading/viewing:

• Peck, Jamie. "Recreative City: Amsterdam, Vehicular Ideas and the Adaptive Spaces of Creativity Policy." International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 36.3 (2012): 462-485.
• Creativity and the Capitalist City (2012, dir. Tino Buchholz), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PsDoMOrTpw

December 3, 2025: Rethinking Consumption with Tommy Tse - OMHP C117

• Baudrillard, Jean. The Consumer Society: Myths and Structures. London: Sage, 1998. First published in French, 1970. Chapter 5, “Towards a Theory of Consumption.” https://sk.sagepub.com/book/mono/the-consumer-society-myths-and-structures-revised-edition/toc
• Ritzer, George. Enchanting a Disenchanted World: Continuity and Change in the Cathedrals of Consumption. 3rded. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2009. Chapter 3, “Social Theory and the New Means of Consumption.” https://sk.sagepub.com/book/mono/enchanting-a-disenchanted-world-3e/chpt/social-theory-the-new-means-consumption
• Tse, Tommy, and Johanna von Pezold. “Memories Reminisced, Reconciled, Renewed: Hong Kong Male Consumers’ Wardrobes and Their Search for a Congruent Self.” Journal of Consumer Culture 23, no. 4 (2023): 841–859. https://doi.org/10.1177/14695405221149098
• Tse, Tommy, Yin Zhang, and Nanne van Noord. “China as Data Coloniser? Rethinking Cultural Production, Cultural Mediation, and Consumer Agency on Kenyan and Chinese E-Commerce Platforms.” International Journal of Cultural Studies, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1177/13678779241292077

February 11, 2026 with Esther Peeren

Readings and topic t.b.a.

March 11, 2026 The Small Voices of History: Re/Animating the Subjects of History with Sanjukta Sunderason:

• We will open with a poem!: Mahmoud Darwish, “If I were Another.” 
• (On Stakes of Historical Research) Edward Said, “Professionals and Amateurs”, in Representations of the Intellectual, the Reith Lectures (New York, Vintage Books, 1994) (18 pages)
• (On Subaltern Studies and Histories from Below) Ranajit Guha, “Subaltern Studies: Projects of Our Time and Their Convergence”, lecture given to Latin American Subaltern Studies Collective, October 1996 (14 pages)
• (On Living Archives and Decoloniality in Historical Methods) Sanjukta Sunderason and Aditi Chandra, “Living Archives and Decolonial Potentialities – Re/Animating the Subjects of History (Parts 1 & 2)”, Third Text Forum 2023 (see the full collection on http://www.thirdtext.org/living-archives)

April 15, 2026 with Daniel Loick: Surplus People of the World

Suggested readings:

• Ian Shaw, Marv Waterstone, „A Planet of Surplus Life: Building Worlds Beyond Capitalism“, in: Antipode Vol. 53, No. 6 (2021), pp. 1787-1806
• Vanessa E. Thompson, "Surplus People of the World, Unite!", in Sara Campbell et al (eds), Border Abolition Now, London: Pluto, pp. 36-53
• Daniel Loick, "Surplus, Struggle, and the Mystery of Political Subjectivation", (unpublished English translation, from my recent book "Die Überlegenheit der Unterlegenen")