Bio:
Wesley Shumar’s research is focused on the commodification of culture, the cultural production of value, the transformation of space, time, and communicative interaction through digital technologies, and the social and interactive processes of learning.
His work on higher education has focused on the cultural and spatial transformation of American universities within an increasingly consumerist economy.
The work on higher education recently has turned to the role of the university in the production of value in society.
His work on learning focuses on the ways the internet and digital technologies can enhance learning interactions.
Recently, he has explored the craft beer economy and its production of alternative forms of value.
He is Co-PI on the EnCoMPASS Project, a 4-year National Science Foundation (NSF) funded project. The project promotes an authentic teacher professional development community through an NSF developed software tool and a unique curriculum design.
He is also Co-PI on the Open pace Project, a 5-year NSF funded project. The project is a computing eduction project focused on the use of Humanitarian Free and Open-Source Software (HFOSS) in university education to promote social good.
He is co-author of Producting and Consuming the Craft Beer Movement, as part of the Routledge Critical Beverage Studies Series, 2023.
He is author of College for Sale: A Critique of the Commodification of Higher Education, Falmer Press, 1997 and Inside Mathforum.org: Analysis of an Online Mathematics Education Community, Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2017. He is co-editor of Structure and Agency in the Neoliberal University, Routledge/Falmer, 2008 and Building Virtual Communities: Learning and Change in Cyberspace, published by Cambridge University Press, 2002. His forthcoming book is Producing and Consuming the Craft Beer Movement, As part of the Routledge Critical Beverage Studies Series.