Liz Kinnamon works at the intersection of Marxist feminism, attention studies, and critical theory. Their dissertation, "Playing Attention: Marxism, Feminism, and the Politics of Presence," tracks the concept of attention from a materialist perspective to push back against presentist and technologically deterministic views of the so-called attention crisis in the US. The project looks at a variety of attention techniques from Silicon Valley mindfulness to second wave feminist Consciousness Raising to Pauline Oliveros' experimental sound exercises. The first publication from their dissertation reads the Silicon Valley mindfulness movement alongside Foucault's Care of the Self, and is featured in the special issue of Women & Performance "Living Labor: Marxism and Performance Studies." 

They are currently working to publish, with Carol Giardina, The Consciousness-Raising Correspondence, 1968-69, a collection of letters written between founding members of Women's Liberation when the movement was first cohering in the United States. The letters show the effervescent thinking, connection, and effort involved in developing some of the movement's basic theories — from "the personal is poltiical" to the practice of Consciousness Raising.

Their next book project is a history of second-wave feminist Consciousness Raising.

They are the former managing editor of Feminist Formations—the founding journal of the National Women’s Studies Association—an advisory board member of Women & Performance: a journal of feminist theory, an editorial board member of Les Figues Press, and a member of the Monique Wittig scholarship committee. They are also a member of the community-based Women's Studies Advisory Council (WOSAC). 

Research Interests: Gender and sexuality studies; the history of racial capitalism; psychoanalysis; trans, queer, and feminist theory; attention and perception; Marxism; Science and Technology Studies; performance studies; affect theory; social movements

Selected Fellowships and Awards:
2019-2020, Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship
2019-2020, AAUW Dissertation Completion Fellowship (Declined)

2019, Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Fellowship in Women's Studies 

2018, Social and Behavioral Sciences Dissertation Grant, University of Arizona
2018, Mary Lily research grant, Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture, Duke University
2016, Social Science Research Council Dissertation Proposal Development Fellowship
2016, Confluencenter for Creative Inquiry, Graduate Fellowship

 

Attention Under Repair: Asceticism from Self-Care to Care of the Self, Women & Performance: a journal of feminist theory (January 2017)