Labor Archives - Public Books https://www.publicbooks.org/tag/labor/ a magazine of ideas, arts, and scholarship Sat, 17 Jan 2026 02:10:53 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://www.publicbooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/cropped-favicon-2-300x300.png Labor Archives - Public Books https://www.publicbooks.org/tag/labor/ 32 32 “The Door’s Still Locked”: Fiction after Fascism https://www.publicbooks.org/the-doors-still-locked-fiction-after-fascism/ Wed, 11 Jun 2025 15:00:30 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=59896 “Labor” forces us to ask: Who has power? “Horror” forces us to ask: Who is the monster? And the combination of the two, “Labor-as-Horror,” tells us to beware the uncomfortable fractures in our otherwise ordinary work.

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]]> Time Well Spent: Beyond Success and Failure in Romancelandia and Academia https://www.publicbooks.org/time-well-spent-beyond-success-and-failure-in-romancelandia-and-academia/ Tue, 03 Jun 2025 15:00:32 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=59864 What is writing a romance for? What is this essay for? Is work all there is?

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]]> “It’s Just Scary”: Abuse and Power in College Football https://www.publicbooks.org/its-just-scary-abuse-and-power-in-college-football/ Wed, 26 Mar 2025 15:00:20 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=59242 “I was very much harassed and coerced by [Coach] and the staff for the better part of my time [in the program]. [Coach] would spread rumors to other members of the staff and players about me in an effort to get me freezed out.” This is what a recent former Power Four college football player—who […]

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]]> Kafala in the Time of the Flood https://www.publicbooks.org/kafala-in-the-time-of-the-flood/ Tue, 25 Mar 2025 15:00:05 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=59223 The opposite of Kafala is being alive.

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]]> Lori A. Flores on “Awaiting their Feast” https://www.publicbooks.org/lori-a-flores-on-awaiting-their-feast/ Wed, 19 Mar 2025 15:00:28 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=59252 You probably remember the picture of himself, both thumbs up, that Donald Trump posted on social media with the caption, “Best Taco Bowl.” It was his ode to Mexican food on Cinco de Mayo 2016. The picture was mocked relentlessly, and deservedly so. For Latinos, taco bowls aren’t really a thing. And even if they […]

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]]> “The World Didn’t Give It, but the World Can’t Take It Away”: Talking Black Joy and Black Freedom with Blair LM Kelley https://www.publicbooks.org/the-world-didnt-give-it-but-the-world-cant-take-it-away-talking-black-joy-and-black-freedom-with-blair-lm-kelley/ Mon, 16 Dec 2024 16:00:50 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=58522 “Joy is a uniquely interesting Black experience. We talk about joy a lot, we sing about joy.”

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]]> Dirt Bag Novels: Lydia Kiesling in Conversation with Megan Ward https://www.publicbooks.org/dirt-bag-novels-lydia-kiesling-in-conversation-with-megan-ward/ Fri, 11 Oct 2024 15:00:30 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=57713 “When I think about the novels that sort of shaped me as a younger reader, they're often books that I call the dirt bag novel, which is sort of a reformulation of the bildungsroman.”

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]]> “The Unique Magic That Happens When Two People Come Together”: Allison Pugh on Building a Society of Connection https://www.publicbooks.org/the-unique-magic-that-happens-when-two-people-come-together-allison-pugh-on-building-a-society-of-connection/ Tue, 25 Jun 2024 15:00:02 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=56739 “What we are doing by mechanizing encounters is bleeding out the unique and rather mysterious social outcome.”

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]]> In Defense of Imagination https://www.publicbooks.org/in-defense-of-imagination/ Wed, 27 Mar 2024 15:00:04 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=55590 West Virginia University's unprecedented cuts to its liberal arts programs sells the public a university tethered to market demands at the expense of imaginative expansion and intellectual curiosity.

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]]> Politics—Not Tech—Can Save Black Jobs from AI https://www.publicbooks.org/politics-not-tech-can-save-black-jobs-from-ai/ Thu, 22 Feb 2024 16:00:16 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=55341 Don’t plan to make individuals retrain for new jobs. Instead, build a society that upholds the lives of everyone.

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