About this Event
Please join us on Sunday October 11 at 3PM EST at Artbook @ MoMA PS1 Bookstore for the release of Catherine Liu’s Traumatized: The New Politics of Public Suffering, published by Verso.
What happens when an idea born of genuine suffering is weaponized as a tool of social control? Traumatized is the story of how shell shock became PTSD, how Oprah turned pain into profit, and how "authenticity" became the ultimate brand. It is a history of surveillance capitalism's greatest coup: convincing us that wounds define us and that accommodating each other's trauma is more important than challenging the powerful.
Catherine Liu delivers an unflinching diagnosis of our current crisis, rooted as it is in the collapse of liberal politics, the ascendance of performance fragility, and the rise of emotional display as a surrogate for political action. Sharp, provocative, and urgently necessary, Traumatized argues that we must reject a politics of permanent victimhood since it destroys solidarity and leaves us defenseless against the systems that cause real harm.
Verso, 2026 | Hardcover | 192 pages | $24.95
Catherine Liu is professor in the Departments of Film and Media Studies/Visual Studies, Comparative Literature and English at the University of California, Irvine, where she also served as director of the UCI Humanities Center. She is the author of Copying Machines: Taking Notes for the Automaton, The American Idyll: Academic Anti-Elitism as Cultural Critique, and Virtue Hoarders: The Case Against the Professional Managerial Class. Liu is the founder and director of the Palm Springs School for Social Research, an educational and research-focused think tank and platform for intellectual and creative engagement with history, culture, and politics.
Michael Cavadias is an actor/writer and performer. Film and TV credits include Wonder Boys, Girls, and Difficult People. Theatre credits include Ahohni’s “She Who Saw Beautiful Things” at The Kitchen and “A Bright Room Called Day,” currently running in Brooklyn. Michael’s character, Claywoman, was originally created at Blacklips Performance Cult in the 90s and developed at Mabou Mines. “The Mystery of Claywoman” was presented at The New Museum, The Wild Project, Town Hall, Abrons Art Center and Howl Festival. “Conversations with Claywoman” was featured at The Meltdown Festival in London and continues regularly at the Parkside Lounge in New York City. Michael's newest projects include “Cancellation Island," a fictional podcast co-written by John Cameron Mitchell, the short film “You Should Feel Better” (part of the Chapo Trap House anthology “Chunks”) and a new play “The Janiken Dansen Show,” premiering at “Participant Inc.” in December.
Event venue & nearby stays
Artbook @ Moma PS1 Bookstore, 22-25 Jackson Avenue, Queens, United States
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