Associate Professor of Sociology, Middlebury College
Linus Owens thinks, writes, and teaches about movements, places, and the conflicts that bring them together and push them apart. In past work, he has brought these interests together in exploring how anarchists organize online and the place-making and storytelling practices of squatters in Amsterdam. He always seems to be teaching new classes, leaving a long list of former classes in his wake; these include courses on social theory, social movements, disasters, cities, globalization, the environment, tourism, visual methods, and even a class on performance and the body.
His books include both academic – "Cracking Under Pressure: Narrating Decline in the Amsterdam Squatters’ Movement" (Amsterdam University Press & Penn State University Press, 2009) – and popular – "Lost in the Supermarket: An Indie Rock Cookbook" (Soft Skull Press, 2008).
At the moment, he is working on several new projects, including a cultural history of Halloween and emerging adulthood, and researching the complicating ways that activists incorporate travel, movement, and space into their protest tactics.
Still, he remains true to his academic and political roots, as a founding member of a European syndicate of researchers working on and with squatting movements.
Why has Halloween become so popular among adults?
Oct 28, 2018 11:49 am UTC| Insights & Views Life
Halloween used to be kid stuff. To quit dressing up was an important rite of passage. It meant you were one step closer to becoming an adult. Not anymore. Today adults have become avid Halloween revelers, especially...
Johannesburg in a time of darkness: Ivan Vladislavić’s new memoir reminds us of the city’s fragility
Economist Chris Richardson on an ‘ugly’ inflation result and the coming budget
The Mattei Plan: why Giorgia Meloni is looking to Africa
Labour can afford to be far more ambitious with its economic policies – voters are on board
Sudan: civil war stretches into a second year with no end in sight