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OU Professor Examining Relationship Between Urban Spaces and Globalization
< < Back toAn Ohio University professor is using her experience as a performer to examine how city spaces are being influenced by globalization.
Marina Peterson, an associate professor of performance studies at Ohio University, recently released two books on the subject.
“Its main concern is with understanding what contemporary public life looks like today, in a context in which many public services and public spaces are becoming privatized and to really investigate what this means and what this looks like,” she said.
In researching for her book Sound, Space and the City: Performance in Downtown Los Angeles, Peterson examined the city's efforts to bring an audience of different cultures together and even drew on her own talents as a cellist.
“My research included working with the organizers, playing cello in a hip hop orchestra, talking to audience members, and doing archival research on the history of the planning and development of these concerts and the space they take place in,” she said.
In her other book, Global Downtowns, Peterson examined how globalization has affected the design and development of downtowns in cities worldwide.
Peterson is currently researching the link between large cities and rural Appalachian towns.