Academic capitalism and professional reproduction at the conference

Abstract

Characteristics of the November 2006 Race, Ethnicity, and Place conference in San Marcos, Texas, are discussed in order to (a) interrogate the problematic nature of academic capitalism at academic meetings, where decisions about corporate sponsorship and key speakers often go unchallenged, and (b) analyze aspects of professional reproduction at the site of the conference. This commentary argues that academic capitalism often allows corporate interests to convey messages that are at odds with geography's critical tradition, and that benign acceptance of such messages by senior members teaches early-stage researchers to be uncritical of the corporatization of academia.