True/Slant » Contributor Profile

Follow Me

Laurie Essig

Class Warfare

My Stats

Followers:	221
Contributor since:	December 2008
Location:	Montreal, QC & Burlington, VT

About Me

I'm an academic who does not believe in abstract knowledge. Like Marx, I think the point isn't just to describe the world, but to change it. Unlike Marx I don't have Engels sending me my monthly rent. So I have a day job teaching sociology at Middlebury College. In my real life, I'm a fighter (taekwondo) and a writer

(Salon, Legal Affairs, NPR's "All Things Considered") and now this blog. My second book, American Plastic: Boob Jobs, Credit Cards, and the Spirit of Our Time, is a critique of neoliberal capitalism through cosmetic surgery. American Plastic will be published by Beacon in 2010.

Professional

I'm Known For...

making the "normal" bizarre and the "bizarre" normal. I teach a class on heterosexuality that makes things like dating and weddings something worth investigating. I also teach a class on freakishness where bearded ladies and conjoined twins are not worth investigating, but the audience that pays to see them is.

My Current Project

is American Plastic. I began it 3 years ago, when cosmetic surgery was rising exponentially, all of it financed by high interest credit. It was kinda like sub-prime mortgages for working-class women's bodies.

My Greatest Achievement

I suppose the whole career thing- phd from Columbia, job at Middlebury College-teaching there is a privilege, seriously. But really, it's being a mother, a teacher, and a friend. Oh, that and once I won nationals in taekwondo sparring.

My Biggest Regret

is that I haven't published my novel... yet.

I Truly Respect

my children, WEB Dubois, my students, my friends, my teachers, people who insist that we keep our eye on the money, and people who insist that war cannot ever bring peace.