Michal Osterweil
Teaching Professor
Director of Internships
Phone: 919.962.8483
Fax: 919.962.8485
Office: 2208 Fedex Global Education Center
BA University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2001 (Cultural Studies)
MA University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2004 (Anthropology, with Graduate Certificate in Cultural Studies)
PhD University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2010 (Political Science)
Michal Osterweil’s research focuses on contemporary social movements and their knowledge production. Her dissertation focused on the theoretical-practice and political imaginaries of the Italian “Global Justice Movement” and related transnational networks, in particular those affiliated with Zapatismo. She has also published on World and Regional Social Forums, as well as other actors active in contemporary anti-capitalist movements. She is interested in the “new political imaginary” being developed at the intersection of the Counter-Summits, World Social Forum and Zapatista movements.
In addition to her research, Dr. Osterweil is committed to cultivating new knowledge production practices in the university community and beyond. She has been involved with UNC’s Social Movement Working Group since its inception, as well as various research/working groups in the University Program in Cultural Studies, and is dedicated to involving her students (as well as neighbors and friends) in inter- and transdisciplinary projects aimed at solving social and political ills of our day.
Dr. Osterweil lives in Carrboro, where she is involved in various community projects including the Carrboro Greenspace and the Carrboro Community garden. Beyond the local area, Professor Osterweil is involved in an Inter‐University Consortium on the Americas in Comparative and Transnational Perspective, entitled Social Movements and 21st Century Cultural‐Political Transformations (www.umass.edu/civsoc). She is also a founding member and editor of Turbulence: Ideas for Movement.
Recent Publication
“Rethinking Public Anthropology through epistemic politics and theoretical practice,” Cultural Anthropology, Vol 28. Issue 4 (2013), 598–620. (associated interview)