Liz Kinnamon works at the intersection of Marxist feminism, attention studies, and critical theory. Their dissertation tracks the concept of "attention" since the mid-twentieth century from a materialist perspective, analyzing the degree to which "presence" is precluded or facilitated by styles of labor. As a part of this project, she reads second-wave feminism slantwise, suggesting that 60s and 70s radical feminism was not only experimental and indeterminate but that they developed revolutionary methods for bridging the personal (Freud) and the political (Marx). 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 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: trans and queer theory; psychoanalysis; intersectional feminist theory and epistemology; feminist history; affect; history and philosophy of science; historical materialism and Marxist studies; performance 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, Dissertation Proposal Development Fellowship, Social Science Research Council
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)