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Research Fellow. National University of Singapore, Asia Research Institute (ARI), "Asian Urbanisms Cluster", since 17 May 2010.
Born into a twentieth century Munich, I always loved exploring faraway lands. My various homes included China where I lived for more than five years and completed a graduate programme at Johns Hopkins University's Nanjing Center during 2001-2002. Following a most generous offer to spend a few years in sunny California, I moved to the United States in fall 2003 to commence a Ph.D. programme at University of Southern California's (USC) Department of Geography. I found Los Angeles to be a fascinating place for anyone with an enduring sense of dislocation and an interest in the complex struggles within which diverse cultures and networks are produced. At USC, I studied under eminent geographers Michael Dear (who became my doctoral adviser) and Jennifer Wolch, communications scholar Manuel Castells, political scientist Stanley Rosen, and historian John Wills Jr., to name a few. Graduate school was bliss: Not only was I paid for reading books on the beach and jot down my thoughts, I also got to meet and learn from some of the most nimble and cultivated scholarly minds alive. Three years into the programme, having grown increasingly averse to the disastrous effects of disciplinary and other blinders on academic knowledge production, I decided to elope from the ivory towers and do some 'real' and 'meaningful' empirical research. I had set my mind on engaging issues around the development of an Internet culture and civil sphere in China, and left L.A. in October 2006 to spend the next 18 months conducting ethnographicish fieldwork in Beijing and Shanghai. Slowly I zoomed in on the concrete and emplaced voices and aspirations that operate through, and in turn configure, the Chinese-language blogosphere. One result of this intellectual engagement was a Ph.D. dissertation with the wordy title In November 2008, freshly graduated, I jumped on a plane to Singapore to take up a Postdoc position in the "Open Cluster" at ARI, a university-level research institute at the National University of Singapore (NUS). One and a half years later, I have been 'upgraded' to Research Fellow, and am now a member of ARI's "Asian Urbanisms Cluster". A research and logistics hub for explorations of Asia as well as an enchanting city in its own right, Singapore might well be home for quite some time to come.
My research interests include social theory, cultural-political and urban geographies, and studies pertaining to social activism, the Internet, and Asia. In particular, I strive to understand the relationship between our virtual and physical worlds and related multidirectional processes of social development. Such processes include issues around free thinking and expression, the intentional production of shared meanings, and the ways in which such mental or vocal aspirations and actions stimulate visible (and measurable) societal change. In a nutshell, I am fascinated by ongoing creative imaginings of what 'political action' means in our Information Age and how people continue to create and re-create meaningful institutions and social movements in their quest to make the world a better place.
At ARI, I have been working on journal articles, putting together a co-edited volume on the Chinese Internet, and revising my thesis into a publishable monograph. In addition to these ongoing writing projects, I am developing a new and exciting collaborative research project that adds a comparative urban perspective to global Internet and new media studies. It is titled Environmental Activism and the Internet in Asia, and I have created a website dedicated to it. Please don't hesitate to contact me if you would like further information or are interested in collaborating!
GEOG-120 Geopolitics, Spring 2006. GEOG-100 Los Angeles and the American Dream, Fall 2005. As a teaching assistant at USC Geography, I gained invaluable experience leading undergraduate discussion sections for both geography majors and non-majors. In addition to classroom instruction, I advised students on appropriate research topics and edited and evaluated their work. I also had the opportunity to conduct a series of guest lectures, on topics ranging from social theory and economic globalisation to contemporary geopolitical issues pertinent to Asia and beyond. I believe that good teachers have the ability to inspire. To do so, they serve concurrently in multiple roles: as educator, storyteller, adviser, guide, facilitator, advocate, critic, role model, and friend. For academia to convey and meet the challenges of a 21st century world in an interactive learning environment, we need teachers who are committed to the conscientious integration of research and teaching --innovators capable of nurturing critical thinking both among their students and themselves.
Journal papers : academic Marolt, P. (with Michael J. Dear, et al.), 2008. Critical Responses to the Los Angeles School of Urbanism. Urban Geography 29 (2), pp. 101-112
Books : authored Marolt, P.: Scent of Freedom: China's Bloggers Making Space for Action (working title; manuscript in preparation) Books : edited Marolt, P. (co-edited with David K. Herold): On-line Society in China: Creating, celebrating, and instrumentalising the online carnival. (forthcoming 2010; Routledge). Journal papers : academic Tba. Books : sections Marolt, P.: Grassroots agency in a civil sphere? Re-thinking Internet Control in China. In: Herold, D. K. and Marolt, P.: On-line Society in China: Carnival and Politics - online liberties and offline harmony in today's China. Routledge (forthcoming 2010). Marolt, P. (with David K. Herold): Netizens and Citizens, Cyberspace and Modern China. In: Herold, D. K. and Marolt, P.: On-line Society in China: Carnival and Politics - online liberties and offline harmony in today's China. Routledge (forthcoming 2010). Books : reviews (selected) Marolt, P.: Guobin Yang, The Power of the Internet in China: Citizen Activism Online [book review]. International Journal of Communication 2010 (4), pp. 804-807 [PDF]
6th Annual Chinese Internet Research Conference (CIRC), Hong Kong, June 2008. "Crossing the River by Groping for Stones: from free expression to shared meanings to collective political action in China’s blogosphere" 3rd Chinese Blogger Conference (CnBloggerCon), Beijing, November 2007. "Xifang xuezhe yan zhong de Zhongguo bokejie ji tamen weishenme cuo le" (China’s Blogosphere in the Eyes of Western Research, and Why They are Wrong) 4th Annual Chinese Internet Research Conference (CIRC), Singapore, July 2006. "Thriving Cultural Production: Identity Formation in a Chinese Online Community" Association of American Geographers (AAG), Chicago, March 2006. "Virtual Communities and Identity Formation in China"
NUS Academic Research Grant, June-July 2010. ARI (NUS). Two-Year Research Fellowship, May 2010-2012. ARI (NUS). One-Year Postdoctoral Fellowship, November 2009-2010. ARI (NUS). One-Year Postdoctoral Fellowship, November 2008-2009. USC College. Final Summer Dissertation Fellowship (US$5,000), 2008. U.S.-China Institute @ USC. Summer Fieldwork Grant (US$3,833), 2007. USC Geography. Auxiliary Grant for Dissertation Research in China (US$2,000), 2006-2007. USC College. Advanced Year Fellowship, 2006-2007. USC College. Academic Year Teaching Assistantship, 2005-2006. USC College. Urban & Global Summer Fellowship (US$5,000), 2005. USC College. Urban & Global Research Fellowship, 2004-2005. USC College. Strategic Theme Summer Supplement (US$2,000), 2004. USC College. Urban & Global Thematic First Year Fellowship, 2003-2004.
First Prize in Student Paper Competition, Chinese Internet Research Conference, 2006. Third Prize in Bilingual Essay Competition, Johns-Hopkins University, Nanjing Center, 2002.
Journal Referee Environment and Planning D: Society & Space, since 2009. Geografiska Annaler B: Human Geography, since 2007. Committee Memberships at ARI Steering Committee, since 2009. Newsletter and Outreach Committee, since 2009. Editorial Committee (Working Paper Series), since 2009. Asia Graduate Forum Committee, since 2008.
Association for Asian Studies (AAS), since 2005. Association of American Geographers (AAG), 2004-2008. Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, visiting scholar, 2006-2007.
Please contact me for further information. |
My favourite pastime activities include exploratory trips into the world outside my little writer’s retreat (my office), reading and writing nonacademic things, and daydreaming about past, present, and future.
I particularly enjoy nature walks with my wife Sophia, and observing the monkeys and monitor lizards while the shafts of sunlight pass through the layers of primary rainforest in Singapore's 
