Staff Profiles

Michael Dutton Phone: 8344 5268 Email: mrdutton@unimelb.edu.au Office: Medley Building Room 507

Background

Michael Dutton studied in both Australia and China. He came to Melbourne around 1990 from the University of Adelaide (Asian Studies). Before that, he taught at Griffith University in the School of Humanities.

Research

Research interests generally but not always revolve around China. Generally, my research is characterised by a very strong interest in contemporary social and cultural theory wed to a specific 'archive' called China. This has led me to investigate a range of rather disperate issues under that rubric. My current interests include an investigation of the politics of the gift, a study of the friend/enemy distinction, and an appreciation of the importance of everyday life and the politics that flow from that. Apart from that, I have a long standing interest in the political history of socialist policing and control in China. On a slightly different note, and along with my co- editors of the journal Postcolonial Studies I am currently researching and putting together a special issue on postcolonialism and the toilet which we hope to transform into a book.

The Paichusuo (the Chinese police station): how governments construct private lives.

Subjects Taught

• 1st year (with Phillip Darby): The World is an Amazing Place
• 2nd/3rd year: Chinese Politics and Society
• 2nd/3rd year: An/Other China: Theorising Everyday Life
• 4th year: Postcolonial Concerns, Postmodern Theory

Supervision

Supervise work on China, on postcolonial and postmodern politics and on everydayness/streetlife.

Recent Publications

Books

Streetlife China (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998).

Journal Articles

"Mango Mao: infections of the sacred," Public Culture, 16 (2) 2004, pp. 161-188.

"The Mao® industry," Current History, 103 (674) 2004, pp. 268-272.

'The end of the (mass) line? Chinese policing in the era of the contract', Social Justice. 27 (2000), pp. 61-105.

'An all-consuming nationalism', Current History. 98 (1999), pp. 276-281.

'Street scenes of subalternity', Social Text. 60 (1999), pp. 63-87.

Michael is also co-editor of the journal Postcolonial Studies.