“There are many ways to think about globalization,” John Cinnamon told an audience at Miami Hamilton Downtown Sept. 18, “The point is to recognize the broad connections that exist both across the planet and locally.” 

Cinnamon, a Miami Hamilton anthropologist, drew on examples from Africa, China and southwest Ohio, to describe the ways people’s lives are ever more intimately tied together in spite of geographical distance.  He showed, for example, how events in places as dispersed as Gabon, in equatorial Africa, and China, could be connected.

The talk, entitled “What Is Globalization?” kicked off a series of Friday noontime talks on global-local relations being held this semester in downtown Hamilton. The series, organized by Cinnamon with support from Miami Hamilton Dean Daniel E. Hall, is designed to “begin a conversation with community members about current dimensions of globalization,” Cinnamon said. The series also serves as a contribution to Miami’s bicentennial series of events.

Hamilton Downtown is a storefront space at 221 High Street designed to increase Miami’s civic engagement with the wider community. The space hosts more than 100 events a year, from poetry readings to film showings to its “Egghead Café”, in which Miami professors offer thought-provoking informal discussions with Hamilton residents.