Papers by Adam Dylan Hefty
Adam Dylan Hefty Labor and Lamentation: A Genealogy of Acedia, Alienated Labor, and Depressed Aff... more Adam Dylan Hefty Labor and Lamentation: A Genealogy of Acedia, Alienated Labor, and Depressed Affects The increasing importance of symbolic and emotional forms of labor in capitalism and the democratic profusion of mood disorders such as depression are major dynamics of the social life of late modernity in the US. These elements of human life are treated as separate in our received, cultural categories, but Without the feedback and support of my advisor, Barbara Epstein, this dissertation would not exist in anything like its current form. She entered into the intellectual world of my project on its own terms even when some of its theoretical frameworks clashed with her outlook. What emerged was a conversation about the topics which pushed me to articulate my ideas in a clearer and more grounded fashion. She also looked out for my progress as a graduate student with consistent care and concern. I feel deep gratitude for this intellectual partnership. Robert Meister taught me to think about acedia philosophically in relation to contemporary political dynamics. Taking his seminar and working for his class as a teaching assistant was a formative, inspiring intellectual experience that allowed me to conceive a key part of the initial trajectory of this project. He also helped me to think about the broad historical and theoretical vicissitudes of alienation. Working with David Hoy was critical for my attempt at a sustained, somewhat heterodox use of Foucauldian methodology and concepts in my dissertation. I came to value deeply his generosity of engagement and feedback. I'd also like to thank Angela Davis for her comments on the early, qualifying exam version of this project. vi Many friends and colleagues took an interest in my work; conversations with them inspired me to keep going and to articulate my thoughts for other people. It's impossible to name all of the people who contributed in this way, but Lissette
PhaenEx, Dec 2014
Contemporary diagnostic categories and various modes of treatment of mood disorders contribute to... more Contemporary diagnostic categories and various modes of treatment of mood disorders contribute to the development of a managed form of selfhood in contemporary society, particularly as articulated with management in the workplace. This produces a new iteration of the normal in relation to psychopathology; instead of the normal as an absence of disorder or distress, normalcy becomes the private management, often stemming from an external or internalized social injunction, of symptoms through various available techniques of self-care. I support this claim through an analysis of the development of the category of the mood disorder under DSM-III and the functioning of common contemporary treatments such as antidepressant medications, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and alternative techniques such as mindfulness meditation. A new social problematic emerges, in part out of this convergence, in which the notion of mood becomes generalized and an object of vigilance. Everyone has moods; we always have moods; and moods are in principle always subject to the need of being managed.
PhaenEx, 2014
Contemporary diagnostic categories and various modes of treatment of mood disorders contribute to... more Contemporary diagnostic categories and various modes of treatment of mood disorders contribute to the development of a managed form of selfhood in contemporary society, particularly as articulated with management in the workplace. This produces a new iteration of the normal in relation to psychopathology; instead of the normal as an absence of disorder or distress, normalcy becomes the private management, often stemming from an external or internalized social injunction, of symptoms through various available techniques of self-care. I support this claim through an analysis of the development of the category of the mood disorder under DSM-III and the functioning of common contemporary treatments such as antidepressant medications, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and alternative techniques such as mindfulness meditation. A new social problematic emerges, in part out of this convergence, in which the notion of mood becomes generalized and an object of vigilance. Everyone has moods; we al...
Reviews by Adam Dylan Hefty
Idyllic Visions of the Past and/or the Death Drive? Right-Wing Responses to a Crisis of Futurity: A review of Mathias Nilges, Right-Wing Culture in Contemporary Capitalism: Regression and Hope in a Time Without Future
Postmodern Culture, 2020
Right-Wing Culture in Contemporary Capitalism: Regression and Hope in a Time Without Future, by M... more Right-Wing Culture in Contemporary Capitalism: Regression and Hope in a Time Without Future, by Mathias Nilges, offers a powerful conceptual map of the temporality of contemporary capitalism and helpfully unpacks of a critical, utopian mode of engagement with this moment following in the tradition of Ernst Bloch. Nilges's treatment of indigenous speculative fiction provides a useful example of this utopianism in our moment. However, in treating contemporary right-wing culture, we need to be attentive to competing drives within the culture and political movements. Unlike romantic anti-capitalism, the death drive and endless, conspiratorial "research" that creates an alternate reality do not lend themselves to the same sort of Blochian "undoing from within" Nilges explains here.
Collaborative, Online Work by Adam Dylan Hefty
Humanities/Work
Humanities/Work, 2015
A collaborative, online publication featuring scholarly, contemporary, and critical interventions... more A collaborative, online publication featuring scholarly, contemporary, and critical interventions from our 2013-14 research/working group at UC Humanities Research Institute, for which I served as managing editor and a contributor.
Adam Hefty, Lilly Irani, Amy Lee, John Marx, Glen Mimura, Jeff Sacks, Preeti Sharma, Sylvia Tiwon, Authors
Adam Hefty, Lilly Irani, Amy Lee, John Marx, Glen Mimura, Jeff Sacks, Preeti Sharma, Sylvia Tiwon, Authors
Conference Presentations by Adam Dylan Hefty
Extended Abstract: Online Critical Thinking Pedagogy in an "Engineering-Heavy" Humanities Classroom in Saudi Arabia
2021 IEEE International Professional Communication Conference (ProComm)
I decided to take the conference organizers up on their invitation to share a thought-piece or pr... more I decided to take the conference organizers up on their invitation to share a thought-piece or provocation rather than a finished, referenced conference paper. That's what I have for you today. What I want to do is to take a brief look at the historical moment in which we find ourselves asking these questions, to walk around the notions of interdisciplinarity and disciplinarity, considering the valences of the discipline at the heart of them, and to consider the viability and possibility of a research agenda that doesn't start from a relationship with the question of discipline or disciplines -one that considers a broader range of institutional locations than the disciplinary question would typically entertain. This is supposed to be a conference about "Interdisciplinary work in a time of crisis." I believe Surya is going to challenge the notion of crisis, as I am complicating the notions of interdisciplinarity and disciplinarity; it wouldn't be a conference in the humanities if we didn't thoroughly trouble the basic terms of the conference before the end of the first panel. I don't want to go into great detail about the notion of crisis, but I do want to make a couple of observations about characterizing the conjuncture for the purposes of this conference. "Crisis" seems to have an affective dimension; it's a word that suggests that we are feeling extreme anxiety and are right to do so. We might take it as suggesting a "What Is To Be Done question,"
Teaching Documents by Adam Dylan Hefty
This course covers labor history, from the Civil War through the 1980s, and current problems havi... more This course covers labor history, from the Civil War through the 1980s, and current problems having to do with the structure, culture, and organization of working life in the US. We will be paying special attention to ways that work is structured by race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class strata, and region, and the implications this has for workers’ self-organization. The course will also be attentive to the relationship between the ways capitalism organizes workers and work and the way workers organize themselves.
The primary organizational vehicle for workers’ self-organization is the union, and a lot of this course will deal with the history, struggles, and organizing of US unions. We’ll also look at non-traditional workers’ organizations such as workers’ centers, consider relationships between students and workers, and discuss areas of work which are particularly important to contemporary capitalism, several of which pose a challenge for traditional models of worker organization. We’ll think about unfree and domestic labor, which are often accorded a marginal status compared to that of formal, paid labor. The course will examine critiques of unions which have been particularly sharp in the past few years, especially with respect to public sector workers and teachers unions, and how those workers have responded. We will consider the impact of globalization on work and labor movements.
The primary organizational vehicle for workers’ self-organization is the union, and a lot of this course will deal with the history, struggles, and organizing of US unions. We’ll also look at non-traditional workers’ organizations such as workers’ centers, consider relationships between students and workers, and discuss areas of work which are particularly important to contemporary capitalism, several of which pose a challenge for traditional models of worker organization. We’ll think about unfree and domestic labor, which are often accorded a marginal status compared to that of formal, paid labor. The course will examine critiques of unions which have been particularly sharp in the past few years, especially with respect to public sector workers and teachers unions, and how those workers have responded. We will consider the impact of globalization on work and labor movements.
This course deals with the relationship between human action and social practices – praxis – and ... more This course deals with the relationship between human action and social practices – praxis – and philosophical modes of reflection. Traditional Euro-American philosophy often makes philosophical reflection the “king” and ultimate end of political practice. A certain kind of radical reaction to this has criticized the project of philosophy, implying that human liberation requires an “end” of philosophy, and (as Gramsci argues) theory is merely a “handmaid” or “accessory” to practice. This course suggests a different route: philosophical reflection that arises from a methodological prioritization of practice. What would it mean to take praxis as the Archimedean point for philosophy in the present historical moment?
The particular term “philosophy of praxis” came to greatest prominence with its use by Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci. Writing in prison in Mussolini’s Italy, he used this term to write about Marxism without arousing too much notice from the prison censors. This term, like many of Gramsci’s terms, had a multi-faceted agenda. He also uses it to indicate the idea of political praxis as a starting place for philosophical reflection as well as providing a rationale for engagement with and critique of traditional philosophical texts.
We’ll use Gramsci as a guide of sorts in this course. If we are on a Dantean journey – whether towards the light or towards the darkness you may say by the end of the course – then Gramsci will be “our Virgil” as we unpack relationships between Marxian theory and various precursors and more recent interlocutors. First, we’ll look at the relationship between theory and praxis in the philosophical tradition which made redefining this question so central for Marx: Aristotle, Hegel, and Feuerbach. Then, we’ll look at some theoretical and political projects since Marx which have agreed with Marx that human liberation or freedom was tied up with transforming the traditional theory / practice relationship: early British Cultural Studies, certain kinds of feminist theory and practice, radical pedagogy, and American Pragmatism.
Finally, we’ll look at a few very different takes on the questions central to this course: the way in which the Frankfurt School’s historicism finally led to an attempt to re-erect the barrier between theory and praxis, Hannah Arendt’s notion of the vita activa, Foucault’s interest in the multiplicity of practices rather than a singular praxis, as sites for both analysis and political engagement, and analytic philosophy of action.
The particular term “philosophy of praxis” came to greatest prominence with its use by Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci. Writing in prison in Mussolini’s Italy, he used this term to write about Marxism without arousing too much notice from the prison censors. This term, like many of Gramsci’s terms, had a multi-faceted agenda. He also uses it to indicate the idea of political praxis as a starting place for philosophical reflection as well as providing a rationale for engagement with and critique of traditional philosophical texts.
We’ll use Gramsci as a guide of sorts in this course. If we are on a Dantean journey – whether towards the light or towards the darkness you may say by the end of the course – then Gramsci will be “our Virgil” as we unpack relationships between Marxian theory and various precursors and more recent interlocutors. First, we’ll look at the relationship between theory and praxis in the philosophical tradition which made redefining this question so central for Marx: Aristotle, Hegel, and Feuerbach. Then, we’ll look at some theoretical and political projects since Marx which have agreed with Marx that human liberation or freedom was tied up with transforming the traditional theory / practice relationship: early British Cultural Studies, certain kinds of feminist theory and practice, radical pedagogy, and American Pragmatism.
Finally, we’ll look at a few very different takes on the questions central to this course: the way in which the Frankfurt School’s historicism finally led to an attempt to re-erect the barrier between theory and praxis, Hannah Arendt’s notion of the vita activa, Foucault’s interest in the multiplicity of practices rather than a singular praxis, as sites for both analysis and political engagement, and analytic philosophy of action.
Articles in Political Journals by Adam Dylan Hefty
Against the Current, 2019
I examine the current conjuncture of right-wing nationalist politics and the climate crisis. Nati... more I examine the current conjuncture of right-wing nationalist politics and the climate crisis. Nationalist rhetoric around climate is currently evolving from simple denialism to arguments for containing and controlling resources in the face of changes which are already happening Nationalist politics and climate crisis create a feedback loop with each other over time, each making the other more difficult to solve.
The Anarres Project for Collective Futures, 2017
The case against fearmongering regarding Trump's first week shock and awe campaign
Solidarity Webzine, Nov 13, 2012
How have recent progressive, third-party candidates for president done in comparison to candidate... more How have recent progressive, third-party candidates for president done in comparison to candidates in previous eras of US history?
Solidarity Webzine, Nov 9, 2011
A review of various debates surrounding Occupy Oakland and the November 2011 Oakland General Strike
Upping the Anti, 2010
Debates about the California student movement and occupations from fall 2010
Against the Current, 2010
Preview of fall 2010 national day of action to defend public education and relationship with 2009... more Preview of fall 2010 national day of action to defend public education and relationship with 2009-10 movement
Against the Current, Apr 2010
Analysis of possible next steps for the 2009-10 California student movement
Against the Current, Mar 2010
A movement to defend public education is born in California during the 2009-10 school year. It co... more A movement to defend public education is born in California during the 2009-10 school year. It confronts questions of analysis, movement-building, strategy, and tactics.