Biography
Broadly construed, my work deals with the political economy of cultural production, focusing on the 20th and 21st century United States. I am interested in how economic relationships influence what kinds of culture gets produced and consumed, as well as the conflict and inequality inherent to these relationships. Recently, I have begun thinking about how quantitative methods can help us map the institutions that govern cultural production. I am currently at work on a quantitative study of book deals in the American publishing industry that explores contemporary literature's "star system" and considers which authors, genres, and styles can command the highest advances.
I am also interested in digital culture more broadly. In this vein, an article of mine about simulations of labor in contemporary videogames was published in Theory and Event as part of a special issue on the culture of secular stagnation.
- BA English, University of Utah, 2015
- MA English, University of Chicago, 2017