Photo credit: Mustafah Abdulaziz / New Statesman

Curriculum Vitae

Aaron Benanav


pdf  for download

EMPLOYMENT

Syracuse University, 2022-
Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology
Core Faculty, Autonomous Systems Policy Institute
Affiliate Faculty, Department of History
Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs

Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, 2020-2022
Post-Doctoral Researcher
Academic Coordinator of the Research Unit “Re-Allocation”
for the Excellenzcluster SCRIPTS: Contestations of the Liberal Script

University of Chicago, 2016-2020
Harper-Scmidt Fellow in the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts
Collegiate Assistant Professor, Social Sciences
Affiliate Faculty, Department of History

EDUCATION

PUBLICATIONS

Book Projects

Journal Articles

Edited Volumes

  • “Crisis and Immiseration: Critical Theory Today” (with John Clegg), in The SAGE Handbook of Frankfurt School Critical Theory, eds. Werner Bonefeld, et. al., New York, Sage Publications, 2018, pp. 1629-48.

  • “Misery and Debt: On the Logic and History of Surplus Populations and Surplus Capital” (with John Clegg), in Contemporary Marxist Theory: A Reader, eds. Andrew Pendakis, et. al., New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2014, pp. 585-608.

Other Print Publications

Online Publications

Interviews

Editor

HONORS AND AWARDS

  • 2021 SCRIPTS Grant, “A Global History of Unemployment” (€18,000)

  • 2021 SCRIPTS Grant, “The Essential Worker” (€5,000)

  • 2017 University of Chicago Feminist Forum Professor Award

  • 2016-20 University of Chicago Society of Fellows Harper-Schmidt Fellowship

  • 2013-14 UCLA Graduate Division Dissertation Year Fellowship

  • 2012-13 UCLA History Department Pre-Dissertation Year Fellowship

  • 2008 History Department Comprehensive Exams passed “with distinction”

  • 2007 & 2008 UCLA Graduate Division Graduate Summer Research Mentorship

INVITED TALKS

  • “Introducing Post-Scarcity Economics,” The Algorithmic Road to Socialism? A Workshop on Digital Technologies and Postcapitalist Imaginaries, English Department, Christian-Albrechts-Universität, Kiel, Germany, 6/3/22.

  • “New Directions in the Study of Work” (invited panelist), Department of Sociology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, 4/8/22.

  • “El futuro del trabajo: nuevas tecnologías, informalidad y reproducción social” (invited panelist), ¿Hacia dónde va el trabajo? Informalidad, digitalización y reproducción social en América Latina, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales de la Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina, 4/7/22.

  • “Theory in Crisis Seminar – Post-scarcity economics: the Foundations of Life after Capitalism,” University of London Institute in Paris, France, 2/18/22.

  • “Automation, the End of Work, and a New Tomorrow?” Critical Studies Programme, Sandberg Instituut, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1/13-14/22.

  • “Automation and the End of Work?” Bern University of the Arts, 12/1/21.

  • “Automation and the Future of Work in the Global Economy,” Past Futures of Work (I) Conference, Working Futures, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, 10/29/21.

  • “Automation and the Future of Work in the Pandemic Economy,” People, Organisations and Work Institute, De Montfort University (UK), 10/20/21.

  • “Automation and the Future of Work” (keynote), The Digitalization of the World of Work Conference, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (Germany), 10/13/21.

  • “Automation and the Future of Work in the Pandemic Economy,” Centre for Digital Cultures, Leuphana University (Germany), 6/8/21.

  • “Automation and the End of Work?” Digital Futures at Work Research Centre, Sussex University (UK), 5/19/21.

  • “Automation and the Future of Work,” Digitalization and Automation in Contemporary Capitalism Series, a joint project of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Federal University of Ceará, and the Unisinos University (Brazil), 4/30/21.

  • “Post-scarcity economics,” Kolloquium Technologie, Gesellschaft, politische Ökonomie, Humboldt University of Berlin (Germany), 4/28/21.

  • “Cambio tecnológico y derecho: automatización del trabajo e inteligencia artificial,” Law and Society Seminar, Colegio de Mexico, 4/21/21.

  • “Automation and the Future of Work,” Rhodes Center, Brown University, 3/26/21.

  • “Automation and the end of work? Labor market dynamics between innovation and Stagnation,” Department of Sociology, Syracuse University, 2/26/21.

  • “Automation and the Future of Work,” Critical Theory Center, Humboldt University of Berlin (Germany), 1/20/21.

  • “COVID-19 and Workplace Automation,” Globalization, Work and Production Research Group, Berlin Social Sciences Center (Germany), 1/13/21.

  • “The History of Automation and the Future of Work,” Department of Sociology, University of California, Berkeley, 9/28/2020.

  • “Automation and the Future of Work in the Global Pandemic Economy,” Fall Colloquium Series, University of Texas at Austin, 9/21/2020.

  • “Labor faces the Automation Question,” Political Science Colloquium, University of Delaware, 2/28/2020.

  • “The End of Unemployment? Economic Indicators and the Search for Social Stability” Business, Government, and International Economy Unit, Harvard Business School, 1/30/2020.

  • “The Global History of Unemployment: Adventures of an Economic Concept,” Center for Liberal Arts, Webster Vienna Private University, 3/25/19.

  • “A Critical History of Unemployment: From Marx to Modern Times,” Hispanic and Portuguese Studies Department, University of Pennsylvania, 11/17/17.

  • “A Global History of Unemployment: The Historical Adventures of an Economic Concept,” Critical Social Theory at McGill, McGill University, 11/6/17.

  • “Automation and the Future of Work,” Radical Futures Series, International Institute for Research and Education in Amsterdam, NL, 9/7/17.

  • “Demography and Dispossession: Explaining the Growth of the Global Informal Proletariat,” International Institute for Social History in Amsterdam, NL, 9/5/17.

  • “The End of Unemployment? The ILO Confronts the Global Jobs Deficit, 1945-1995,” Grass Humanities Institute, Johns Hopkins University, 4/26/17.

  • “Too Many People or Too Few Jobs: A Critique of Political Demography after 1950,” The Institute for Humanities Research, UC Santa Cruz, 2/17/2016.

  • “A World without Work: The Global Jobs Crisis in Historical Perspective,” Global Studies Department, UC Santa Barbara, 1/19/16.

SELECTED PRESENTATIONS

  • “Automation and the Future of Work,” Culturitical, Hansa48 Social Center, 6/2/22.

  • “Socialist Investment, Dynamic Planning, and the Politics of Human Need,” Socialism Futures, European University Institute, Florence, Italy, 5/26/22.

  • “Roundtable: Keynes and Keynesianism Reconsidered,” University of Chicago Paris Center, France, 5/7/22.

  • “Unemployment, Automation, and Post-Scarcity Economics,” Work, Economy and Social Policy Club, Hertie School, Berlin, 2/10/22.

  • “Covid-19 and Its Afterlives: The Future of Work,” with Aaron Benanav and Grace Blakely, NYU Skirball Center in collaboration with N+1 and Verso, 1/13/22.

  • “Automatisierung und die Zukunft der Arbeit,” Die Vierte Sache, Volksbühne Roter Salon, with the support of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, Berlin, 12/17/21.

  • “Geht Uns die Arbeit Aus?” Kosmopolitics hosted by Wochenzeitung, Zürich, 11/29/21.

  • “Futuring the Liberal Script #4: Automation and the Future of Work,” SCRIPTS Berlin, 10/18/21.

  • “Automation, the End of Work, and a New Tomorrow?” Unsound Festival 2021: Deep Authentic (Poland), 10/15/21. 

  • “Automation, the End of Work, and a New Tomorrow?” (keynote), Terrestrial Forum: Horizons of Change, Ministry of Space (Serbia), 8/26/21.

  • “Post-Scarcity Economics,” Transmediale Summer Camp: For Refusal, 7/7/21.

  • “Beyond the Future of Work” (keynote panel), Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice, University of Texas at Austin, 5/24/21.

  • “Reimagining Futures of Work” (keynote panel), sponsored by Nordic Talks, Hanken School of Economics, Helsinki, 4/28/21.

  • “Technology, Automation, and Socialist Strategy” (panel discussion), Online Speaker Series, Science & Society, 4/3/21.

  • “The Pandemic Economy & the Future of Work,” Covid Capitalism Series, School of
    Labor and Urban Studies, City University of New York, 11/19/20.

  • “A discussion about Automation and the Future of Work, with Katrina Forrester and Tim Barker, N+1, 10/15/20.

  • “Welfare, Labor, Re-Allocation,” SCRIPTS: Contestations of the Liberal Script, Opening Conference, Freie Universität, Berlin, Germany, 2/8/20.

  • “The Green New Deal and the Future of Work in America,” Center for Work and Democracy, Arizona State University, 11/1/19.

  • “Abundance is a Social Relation,” Speculative Design: Post-Petroleum Utopias, 3CT, University of Chicago, 5/31/19.

  • “In What Sense is the End of Work a New Beginning?”, Capitalism and Social Theory: A Conference in Memory of Moishe Postone, University of Chicago, 4/12/19.

  • “The History of Automation and the Future of Work,” 
History of Capitalism Workshop, University of Chicago, 11/15/18.

  • “Production and Profit in an Overcrowded World Economy,” Social Science History Conference, 11/10/19.

  • “The Logic of Gender: Social Reproduction in the Global Economy,”
Tong Saam Social Center, Hong Kong, HK, 10/26/18.

  • “The Construction of a Globally Operational Concept of Unemployment at the UN,” International History Workshop, Columbia University, 9/26/19.

  • “Automation and the Future of Work,” Society of Fellows Workshop, University of Chicago, 6/1/18.

  • “Demography and Dispossession: Explaining the Growth of the Global Informal Proletariat,” Social Science History Conference, 11/4/17.

  • “Unemployment on the World-Scale,” History of Capitalism Workshop, University of Chicago, 10/10/17.

  • “The ILO and the End of Unemployment,” Society of Fellows Workshop, The University of Chicago, 4/17/17.

  • “Demography and Dispossession,” Social Theory Workshop, The University of Chicago, 11/10/16.

  • “Dimensions of the Present Crisis” (opening plenary), Second Annual Historical Materialism Conference, New York, NY, 1/14/16.

  • “Deindustrialization in a Global Perspective,” Seventh Annual Historical Materialism Conference, New York, NY, 4/25/2015.

  • “The New Global Revolutions,” The Center for Social Theory & Comparative History, UCLA, 4/15/13.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Assistant Professor, Sociology Department, Syracuse University, 2022-

  • Sociological Theory (Fall 2022), instructor of record.

Collegiate Asst. Professor, Social Sciences, University of Chicago, 2016-2020

  • A Global History of Unemployment (Spring 2018), instructor of record.

  • Power, Identity, Resistance (Fall, Winter, Spring, 2016-2020), instructor of record.

Lecturer, History Department, University of California, Los Angeles, 2016

  • World History since 1760 (Spring 2016), instructor of record.

University of California, Santa Cruz, 2011-2015
Lecturer, College Nine

  • International and Global Issues (Fall 2011-2015), instructor of record.

University of California, Los Angeles, 2008-2009
Teaching Fellow, History Department

  • A Science of the Subject? Psychoanalysis and Social Theory (Spring 2009), instructor of record.

  • History of Modern Thought (Fall 2008 & Winter 2009), teaching assistant.

University of California, Los Angeles, 2007-2008
Teaching Assistant, History Department

  • Social Knowledge and Social Power (Winter 2008).

  • Introduction to Western Civilization, Ancient Civilizations to A.D. 843 (Fall 2007).

University of California, Los Angeles, 2007-2008
Teaching Assistant, German Department

  • Figures who Changed the World (Winter 2007 & Spring 2008).

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

  • Resident Head, Stony Island House, The University of Chicago, 2019-2020

  • Co-Chair, Society of Fellows, The University of Chicago, 2017-18

  • Faculty Advisor, Social Theory Workshop, The University of Chicago, 2017-18

  • Administrator, UCLA Center for Social Theory and History, 2015-2016

  • Member, Committee to Revise Core Curriculum, UCSC, College Nine, 2015

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

  • American Sociological Association

  • Social Science History Association

THESES SUPERVISED

  • Christian Montagu, Freie Universität, “On the Political Prospects of UBI - A Sociological Approach,” MA Thesis Advisor

  • Patrick Madden, UC Santa Cruz, “The Concept of Population in Anglo-Scottish Political Economic Thought: Origins, Ideology, and Critique,” PhD Thesis Committee Member

  • Keaton Boyle, UChicago MAPSS Program, “Selling Privacy: Competing Digital Privacy Concepts in Big Tech,” MA Thesis Advisor

LANGUAGES

  • Spanish (reading)

  • French (reading)

  • German (reading)