<h4>Walter Benn Michaels has just completed a new book, The Beauty of a Social Problem; Photography, Autonomy and Political Economy, forthcoming in Spring 2015 from the University of Chicago Press. He is the author of The Trouble with Diversity: How We Learned to Love Identity and Ignore Inequality, The Shape of the Signifier: 1967 to the End of History, Our America: Nativism, Modernism, and Pluralism, and The Gold Standard and the Logic of Naturalism.</h4>

Walter Benn Michaels

Is Life Worth Living?

"You can't ignore politics, no matter how much you'd like to." — Molly Ivins

Politics

"Never be afraid to sit awhile and think." — Lorraine Hansberry

Philosophy &amp; Critical Theory

50 Shades of Libertarian Love

"As far as I'm concerned, being any gender is a drag." — Patti Smith

Gender &amp; Sexuality

What Was African American Literature?

Black and White

"Writing only leads to more writing." — Colette

Literary Criticism

<h4>Erica Edwards&nbsp;has written about African American narrative, American popular culture, and the contemporary history of black politics and black social movements in&nbsp;American Quarterly,&nbsp;American Literary History,&nbsp;Women &amp; Performance,&nbsp;Callaloo, and elsewhere. Her book,&nbsp;Charisma and The Fictions of Black Leadership&nbsp;is forthcoming from University of Minnesota Press. She teaches at the University of California, Riverside.</h4>

Erica Edwards

What Was African American Literature? A Symposium

Walter Benn Michaels has just completed a new book, The Beauty of a Social Problem; Photography, Autonomy and Political Economy, forthcoming in Spring 2015 from the University of Chicago Press. He is the author of The Trouble with Diversity: How We Learned to Love Identity and Ignore Inequality, The Shape of the Signifier: 1967 to the End of History, Our America: Nativism, Modernism, and Pluralism, and The Gold Standard and the Logic of Naturalism.