The homepage for the Trump International Hotel New York features the slogan “Subtlety is not our strength, Indulgence is.” The slogan nicely characterizes the values of the Trump era. How…
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Contemporaries Essays, Critique in the Trump Era
Contemporaries Essays, Critique in the Trump Era
Hall of Presidents
Niki knew better, but he couldn’t help himself. He reached over the fuzzy velvet rope to touch the president’s hand. Niki’s thin brown fingers (his nails sparkly green) contrasted with…
Contemporaries Essays, Critique in the Trump Era
The Statue and the Veil: Postcritique in the Age of Trump
After the white nationalist demonstrations in Charlottesville, Donald Trump notoriously equivocated over the ethics of the protestors, claiming he was “not putting anybody on a moral plane,” as “there were…
Contemporaries Essays, Critique in the Trump Era
Trump’s Catastrophism, and the Left’s
Donald Trump is our catastrophist-in-chief. On the campaign trail, he portrayed America in crisis, a waning empire on the brink of collapse. He characterized ObamaCare as a “total disaster” and…
Contemporaries Essays, Critique in the Trump Era
Critique in the Trump Era
The presidency of Donald Trump has yielded a daily glut of information and misinformation. Alongside the undermining of truth itself and the devaluation of expertise, this glut challenges traditional forms…
Issue 1: Deindustrialization and the New Cultures of Work, Peer Reviewed Articles
Painful Repetition: Service Work and The Rise of the Restaurant Novel
Since the 1970s, the composition of the working class in the United States has changed dramatically. Service work now dominates the labor market. The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that…
Issue 1: Deindustrialization and the New Cultures of Work, Peer Reviewed Articles
Philippine Reproductive Fiction and Crises of Social Reproduction
The quietest, most docile worker could, behind her apron or her uniform, be sharpening a blade. —Mia Alvar, “The Miracle Worker”1 On July 19th, 1994, Sarah Balabagan, a fourteen-year-old overseas…
Issue 1: Deindustrialization and the New Cultures of Work, Peer Reviewed Articles
American Graphic Design in the 1990s: Deindustrialization and the Death of the Author
This essay offers an account of one profession’s attempt to come to terms with the meaning of work in a context of economic and technological flux. Bound from the beginning…
Issue 1: Deindustrialization and the New Cultures of Work, Peer Reviewed Articles
Issue 1: Deindustrialization and the New Cultures of Work, Peer Reviewed Articles
TV and Tipworkification
Contemporary TV demonstrates a conspicuous interest in two related kinds of employment: tipwork (waiting tables, bartending, making espressos) and the more recent form of work termed “gigwork” (temporary, project-based freelance…