Members' List with Areas of Interest

The Consumer Studies Research Network (CSRN) has now grown to over 400 members. For members who want to be listed publicly we provide the contact information and short description of research interests. We also linked personal or institutional home pages or other websites (if available) to the individual member's profile. This feature is available by clicking on the member's name.
Note to CSRN members:
If you don't see your name on the list, or if the information about you is incorrect or outdated, please send us an email that we can add you or update your record. Thank you.

Zsuzsanna Vargha (zv2003@columbia.edu), Columbia University, is writing her dissertation on how salespeople and "technologies of persuasion" cooperate to produce markets in banking, comparing the use of simple sales scripts with the use of the software Customer Relationship Management (CRM), both aimed to personalize mass financial products during interactions between bank representatives and customers.  www.columbia.edu/~zv2003/

Thomas Volscho (thomas.volscho@uconn.edu), University of Connecticut, studies radical political economy and is working on a Neo-Marxist theory of consumer society that emphasizes the dialectics of interests between workers and consumers.

Faye Linda Wachs (flwachs@csupomona.edu), Cal Poly Pomona, studies the body in consumer culture and recently began exploring the relationship between electoral politics and consumer culture.

Melanie Wallendorf (mwallendorf@eller.arizona.edu), University of Arizona, is currently fascinated by the ways people change social structures drawing from consumption as a toolkit, particularly by constructing new ideologies through close conversation with similarly situated others, by modifying traditions to serve their new purposes, and by questioning their everyday practices in the company of others.

Jeff Wang (jeffwang@cityu.edu.hk), City University of Hong Kong, studies consumption behavior in China and current works on topics such as online gaming, Feng Shui, group purchase, and Chinese medicine.

Randi Wærdahl (randi.wardahl@sosgeo.uio.no) University of Oslo, Norway. Studies the effects that globalization, commercialization and rapid social and economical change has on childhood, children and families in urban China. http://www.iss.uio.no/instituttet/ansatte/randiw-eng.xml

Diane Watts-Roy (diane@wattsroy.com), Boston College, studies the intersection between consumer culture and aging, with a focus on the use of human enhancement technologies and practices which are associated with extending the lifespan and/or delaying bodily aging. 

Michelle Weinberger (m-weinberger@northwestern.edu), Northwestern University (Medill School) examines how consumers create, accumulate, and deploy cultural knowledge through consumption practices and the role of the marketplace in that dynamic process.
http://www.medill.northwestern.edu/faculty/imcfulltime.aspx?id=135709

Amelia Rosenberg Weinreb (amelia@bgu.ac.il), Postdoctoral Fellow at Blaustein Institute for Desert Research, Ben Gurion University (Israel), is a cultural anthropologist who studies the links between citizenship and consumption, particularly in Cuba and Costa Rica, and, most recently, in Israel's Negev Desert.

Lois West (westl@fiu.edu), Florida International University,  is researching kids and their experience in Wannado City (in Florida), the first role-playing theme park in the U.S.

Frederick Wherry (ffwherry@umich.edu), University of Michigan, conducts qualitative/comparative field studies in international (Thailand and Costa Rica) and domestic (Philadelphia) settings to investigate how the demand for goods and the opportunities for market participation depend on social processes.

Elizabeth Wissinger (ewissinger@bmcc.cuny.edu , BMCC/CUNY, studies the fashion modeling industry and the images it creates not only as a means to understanding relations between power structures and consumerism, but also as a barometer of changing notions of personhood.

Michael J. Yaksich (myaksich@hra.com) Honda R & D Americas, Inc.

Sharon Zukin (szukin@gc.cuny.edu), Brooklyn College and City University of New York Graduate Center, writes about cities, shopping, and consumer culture, focusing of different types of shopping experience from chain stores and branded stores to new boutiques and cafes.

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