“Vocation/Profession”

A Discussion and Workshop with Dan Sinykin

Assistant Professor of English, Emory University

Editor, Contemporaries at Post45

Friday, Nov. 20, 2:00  – 4:00 PM

In the past decade or so, we have seen the rise to prominence of invigorating, public-facing and academic-adjacent venues such as, among others, the LA Review of Books, Public Books, n+1, The Baffler, Jacobin, and the short-lived but influential Commune. This flourishing of public venues to which scholars have been vital presents us with an opportunity to rethink our roles as public intellectuals. As academics, we have been facing profound hurdles to our profession for a long time now. As for newer generations of scholars, many of us feel very strongly that academia may no longer offer the best path to do our work. SCT@UF thus seeks to envision new ways of maintaining a fidelity to our scholarly “vocations” while acknowledging the constraints, limitations, and prohibitions of “our profession,” but also the newer possibilities and causes for hope opened up by these newer venues and conversations.

Dan Sinykin will join the SCT@UF for two events. On Friday, November 20, Sinykin will discuss his forthcoming book, The Conglomerate Era (Columbia UP), in conjunction with his public writing. Beginning in the late 1970s, authors worried that conglomerate pressure to prioritize the bottom line would end good books. What if, like other arts, books could be subsidized by grants and private philanthropy? Over the next twenty-five years, nonprofit publishing transformed the US literary landscape and made space for ethnic literatures, translations, and literary experimentation. Sinykin shows how these two ways of structuring publishers’ finances created a split within literature, yielding two distinct modes of American writing after 1980, which moreover would have profound significance for the rise of multiculturalism.

On Saturday, November 21, Dr. Sinykin will host a workshop for those interested in public facing writing. We believe these new professional avenues open up further opportunities to pursue our vocation as scholars of critical theory. Dr. Sinykin will discuss both theoretical and practical concerns involved in translating our scholarship for different audiences.

Both events are open to all graduate students, faculty, and other members of our communities. To join the discussion, RSVP here.

Participants are invited to read beforehand Dr. Sinykin and Edwin Roland’s “Against Conglomeration: Nonprofits and American Literature after 1980” and Sinykin’s “How Capitalism Changed American Literature” at Public Books.

For more information, please contact Mitch R. Murray at m.murray@ufl.edu

Dan Sinykin is assistant professor of English at Emory University. His first book, American Literature and the Long Downturn, was published in 2020 by Oxford University Press. The Conglomerate Era is under contract at Columbia University Press. Sinykin is also editor of contemporaries at Post45 and a prolific public writer. His work appears in Los Angeles Review of Books, Public Books, Dissent, Avidly, Guernica, Salon, and other venues.

This event is made possible by the support of the Working Group for the Study of Critical Theory, the Department of English, and the Marston-Milbauer Eminent Scholar.

For further information on the Working Group for the Study of Critical Theory (SCT@UF) and opportunities for involvement in future events, see our website at https://sct.english.ufl.edu