Name: Total Market American | Book Party
Start: 2025-10-23T18:00:00-04:00
End: 2025-10-23T20:00:00-04:00
Location: Abrons Arts Center

Join Marcel Rosa-Salas & friends for the launch of Total Market American, a bold look at race, data, and advertising in the U.S.
About this Event

Join Marcel Rosa-Salas to celebrate the publication of (Duke University Press). Drawing on ethnographic research inside ad agency workplaces and events, Total Market American dissects the practices and infrastructure ad agencies use to sort people into racial categories and reveals how the industry repackages old assumptions under the banner of inclusion.

with special guests
• Arlene Dávila — Professor of Anthropology and American Studies, New York University
• Victor Peterson II — Assistant Professor of Humanities & Social Sciences, The Cooper Union
• Briana Mendez — Cultural Strategist

***Remarks followed by refreshments and music! ***

About the Book
In Total Market American, Marcel Rosa-Salas examines how U.S. advertising organizes and monetizes racial difference. Rosa-Salas documents what she calls Racial Information Systems: The people, practices, and technologies that institutionalize race as a predictive tool, including by treating the “general market” as implicitly white. Rosa-Salas shows how these strategies sustain white normativity and reassert systems of racial hiearchy by algorithm.

About the Author
Marcel Rosa-Salas is a cultural anthropologist from Brooklyn, NY whose work explores the intersections of race, consumer culture, and media. She is the author of Total Market American: Race, Data, and Advertising (Duke University Press, 2025) and co-editor of The Nameplate: Jewelry, Culture, and Identity (Penguin Random House, 2023). Learn more about what she's up to at marcelrosasalas.com

Seating
Seating is available.

Accessibility
Abrons Arts Center is an ADA-compliant venue. The event space is accessible via elevator. If you prefer accessible seating, please ask an Abrons staff member upon arrival for directions and assistance.

Health & Safety
N95 masks are required and will be provided at the door. Masking helps keep our celebration more accessible for everyone. The venue will also feature HEPA filtration and other clean-air measures like Far UVC (222nm).