Lily Scherlis

 

Lily Scherlis researches the relationship between personality and labor conditions since 1945. The ways we talk about personality—as a collection of traits, a skillset, or a financial security—change in tandem with institutions, pop culture, and technology. “Personality” is like a hot potato—a nebulous idea that develops as it gets passed back and forth between psychotherapy, experimental psychology, management theory, and the culture industry, being constantly transformed by social conditions and new technologies. Her research often involves ethnography.

Lily's writing has appeared in n+1, Harper's, The Guardian, The Drift, Parapraxis, Post45 Contemporaries, and more. Her forthcoming nonfiction book, People Skills, is under contract with Liveright/W.W. Norton. Her work in video art and performance has been featured in programming at the Renaissance Society, daadgalerie, and Smart Museum of Art. From 2020–2023 she was the Nonfiction Editor at Chicago Review, and continues to teach the practice of literary and cultural criticism. Her work can be found at lilyscherlis.com.

• "Experiences in Groups," n+1
• “Boundary Issues,” Parapraxis Magazine
• “Space and Time,” performance lecture at daadgalerie
• Ordinary Unhappiness podcast episode