Skip to main content

Professor, Literary Arts and Social Justice Studies

Pictured is Dwight Hines, Ph.D., assistant professor of global cultural studies.
Contact Information

Education

  • Bachelor of Arts, University of Wyoming
  • Master of Arts, Louisiana State University
  • Master of Arts, University of California, Santa Barbara
  • Doctor of Philosophy, University of California, Santa Barbara

Courses Taught

  • Introduction to Global Cultural Studies
  • Modern World Systems
  • Modernity, Colonialism and Capitalism
  • Global Political Ecology
  • Soccer/Football in Global Perspective

Background

J. Dwight Hines, Ph.D., began his journey to Point Park University on the wind-swept, high-plains of the Thunder Basin, as the son, grandson, great-grandson of Wyoming sheep ranchers. Following a childhood education in animal husbandry, a B.A. in international studies in Laramie, Wyo. and post-graduate stops in Mexico, Spain, Slovakia, France, California, Colorado and Alabama, he completed his M.A. and Ph.D. in cultural anthropology in Baton Rouge, La., and Santa Barbara, Calif., respectively. Along the way he learned to drive a commercial dump truck, guide class-V whitewater, work concrete, and surf "SoCal" winter swells.

Through global cultural studies classes, such as "Modernity, Colonialism, Capitalism," "Modern World Systems," and "Global Political Ecology," Hines seeks to share with Point Park University students an appreciation of the character of global political-economy and the relevance of it to their lives.

Hines' research focuses on the process of rural gentrification — i.e. the colonization of the rural United States by ex-urban members of the post-industrial middle-class (PIMC) — and its role in the creation of the so-called "New" American West. His ongoing ethnographic analysis in Montana and Wyoming describes the shifting political-ecology of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) as the result of the rise of a post-industrial regime of production/consumption.

Curriculum Vitae

Selected Publications

Articles

  • "The Post-Industrial Regime of Production/Consumption and the Rural Gentrification of the New West Archipelago," Antipode, 44(1): 74-97, 2012. Full article here.
  • "In Pursuit of Experience: The Post-Industrial Gentrification of the Rural American West," Ethnography, 11(2): 285-308, 2010. Full article here.
  • "Rural Gentrification as Permanent Tourism: The Creation of the 'New' West Archipelago as Post-Industrial Class-Cultural Space," Environment & Planning D: Society & Space, 28(3): 509-525, 2010. Full article here.
  • "The Persistent Frontier and the Rural Gentrification of the Rocky Mountain West," Journal of the West, 46(1): 63-73, 2007. Full article here.
Chapters
  • "Chapter Six: The Postindustrialization of Class-Cultural Space in the New West Archipelago," in The Politics of Space and Place: Exclusion, Resistance and Alternatives, Chiara Certomà, Nicola Clewer, and Doug Elsey, eds. Cambridge Scholarly Press, forthcoming, 2012.
  • "The Rural West as Frontier: A Myth for Modern America," Beyond the Myth, The American Literary West Series, David Rio, Amaia Ibarraran, Martin Simonson, eds. BM Portal Editions, 2011.

Selected Presentations

  • "On Water, Wolves and Whiteness: An Integrative Analysis of the Rural Gentrification of the 'New' West," presented at The Rural West: Toward a Regional Approach to Common Issues conference in Ogden, Utah, October 12-14.
  • "Lattes are for Drinking, Water is for Fighting: Toward a Political Ecology of the 'New' American West," presented at the Society for Applied Anthropology/ Political Ecology Society 72nd Annual Meeting in Baltimore, Md., March 27-31, 2012.
  • "Crying Wolf: The Class-Cultural Implications of Canis Lupus Re-Introduction in the 'New' American West," presented at the Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting in New York, N.Y., Feb. 24-28, 2012.
  • "The Horse Whisperer as Neoliberal Roadmap to the 'New' American West" presented at the Western Literary Association Annual Meeting in Missoula, Mont., Oct. 5-8, 2011.
  • "A Myth for Modern America: The Idea and Images of the 'New' West Frontier to the Post-Industrial Middle Class," presented at the International Conference on American West: Beyond the Myth, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Alava, Spain, Oct. 7-8, 2010.
  • "This Land is Bigger than it Looks:' Yellowstone as Inter/National Commons," presented at the North American Regional Meeting of the International Association for the Study of the Commons, Arizona State University in Tempe, Ariz., Sept. 30 - Oct. 3, 2010.
  • "Landscapes of Production and Landscapes of Consumption: Rural Gentrification and the Postindustrialization of the American West," presented at the Fourth International Interdisciplinary Conference: The Politics of Space and Place at the Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics and Ethics in University of Brighton, in Brighton, U.K., Sept. 16-18, 2009.

Professional Memberships

  • American Anthropological Association
  • Association of American Geographers
  • Society for Applied Anthropology
  • Political Ecology Society

Point Park Features