Daniel Wu

Graduate Student in Sociology

Biographical Note

In my campus and community experiences in inner city Los Angeles, I have heard stories of dreaming, struggle, and innovation - stories where individuals and communities from all backgrounds, despite a multitude of barriers and differences across age, education, health, race, and language, take responsibility for not only their own opportunity, but also their neighbors, communities, and nation. These are the same stories my parents told me in their struggles as immigrants in the pursuit of the American Dream - a Dream that has great legacy, yet has served some while excluding others. My central question is: “Why and how do marginalized communities effectively respond to forms of violence and domination, especially to reflexively critique, re-imagine, and transform embedded systems of meaning, relationships, and narratives (like the American Dream)?" My major topical interest is on the management and imagination of metropolitan space. The dominant narrative of the American Dream has been to focus on suburban development, inter-urban competition, and jurisdictional fragmentation. This form of development has tremendous implications on sustainability, the equitable allocation of resources, and growth. What alternatives that have reimagined regional space and democracy have been implemented and how did these happen? Besides exploring these sometimes too intense questions, Dan loves bicycing in the city, tennis, writing short stories, and photography (flickr.com/wu12345)

08/31/2011

Research Interests

Urban/regional, cultural, political, comparative, and historical sociology, identity, social movements

Contact

617-496-5794 (FAX)

563 William James Hall
33 Kirkland Street
Cambridge, MA 02138