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4th CRED Annual Lecture - Prof. Pushkala Prasad, 'The Discourse of the Islamic Veil in the Scandinavian Workplace'

24 November 2010 - 24 November 2011

Time: 6:00 - 7:00pm
Venue: David Sizer Lecture Theatre, Francis Bancroft Building, Mile End Campus

 

Abstract
The Islamic Veil (headscarf, burkha, chador) has become a culturally charged symbol of otherness in the West. The Discourse of the Veil trickles into a range of social domains including bureaucracies and workplaces with important implications for the inclusion and assimilation of minority groups. This lecture will trace this discourse in Scandinavia – connecting it to the Orientalism of the 19th Century and its expression on contemporary Danish and Swedish organizations. It will particularly focus on the role of fantasy and the phenomenon of hyperveiling within this discourse. The lecture will conclude with some reflections on the changing landscape of cultural identity in Scandinavia.

Biography
Pushkala Prasad, Ph.D is the Zankel Chair Professor of Management and Liberal Arts at Skidmore College, U.S.A. and Visiting Chair Professor of Corporate Social Responsibility at Lund University in Sweden. She has published widely in leading management journals including the Academy of Management Journal, Human Relations, Research in the Sociology of Organizations, MIS Quarterly,  Organizational Science and the Journal of Management Studies. Dr. Prasad is also the author of Crafting Qualitative Research and a co-editor of Managing the Organizational Melting Pot and the Handbook of Workplace Diversity.

Professor Prasad's scholarly interests are somewhat wide and have included the symbolism of technological change, workplace resistance, the practice of organizational ethnography, and diversity management. Her current research focuses on the acquisition of social legitimacy by “illegitimate” industries such as tobacco, beef, gun and legalized brothels, and the changing nature of religious discrimination in the West. Her research has systematically been supported by both governmental bodies and private foundations such as the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Jan Wallander Foundation, the Bank of Commerce of Sweden (Handelsbanken), the Alberta Energy Corporation, and the Swedish Quality of Worklife Foundation.

Dr. Prasad teaches courses in Diversity and Discrimination in the American Workplace, International Business and Faces of Capitalism.

The lecture will be followed by a reception in room 4.08 Francis Bancroft Building. 

If you would like to attend, please email: Ade Alele,  a.alele@qmul.ac.uk (020 7882 8577) or
Professor Geraldine Healy g.m.healy@qmul.ac.uk

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