Catherine Liu (born 1964) is an American

cultural theorist Culture theory is the branch of comparative anthropology and semiotics (not to be confused with cultural sociology or cultural studies) that seeks to define the heuristic concept of culture in operational and/or scientific terms. Overview In t ...

and author whose areas of research include Sinophone cinema,

French literature French literature () generally speaking, is literature written in the French language, particularly by citizens of France; it may also refer to literature written by people living in France who speak traditional languages of France other than Fr ...

critical theory A critical theory is any approach to social philosophy that focuses on society and culture to reveal, critique and challenge power structures. With roots in sociology and literary criticism, it argues that social problems stem more from s ...

identity politics Identity politics is a political approach wherein people of a particular race, nationality, religion, gender, sexual orientation, social background, social class, or other identifying factors develop political agendas that are based upon thes ...

, and

visual arts The visual arts are Art#Forms, genres, media, and styles, art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics (art), ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as ...

. She is known for her critique of the

professional–managerial class The term professional–managerial class (PMC) refers to a social class within capitalism that, by controlling production processes through occupying a superior management position, is neither proletarian The proletariat (; ) is the social ...

Education and career

Liu earned a B.A. from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

and a Ph.D. from

CUNY Graduate Center The Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York (CUNY Graduate Center) is a public research institution and post-graduate university in New York City. Serving as the principal doctorate-granting institution of the ...

. She previously taught at the

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. T ...

and

Bard College Bard College is a private liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains, and is within the Hudson River Historic District—a National Historic Landmark. Founded in 18 ...

before accepting a position at the

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and p ...

. Liu is professor in the Departments of Film and Media Studies/Visual Studies, Comparative Literature and English at the

, where she also served as director of the UCI Humanities Center. As President of the Western Humanities Alliance, she edited a special issue of the ''Western Humanities Review'' (2016) on the topic of prestige. For several years she organized a project about urban history and planned communities.

Research

Her research and teaching focuses on the intellectual history and formation of cultural criticism, the history of the professional-managerial class, psychoanalytic theory, the political economy of cultural revolutions, and the work of the

Frankfurt School The Frankfurt School (german: Frankfurter Schule) is a school of social theory and critical philosophy associated with the Institute for Social Research, at Goethe University Frankfurt in 1929. Founded in the Weimar Republic (1918–1933), du ...

and

Walter Benjamin Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin (; ; 15 July 1892 – 26 September 1940) was a German Jewish philosopher, cultural critic and essayist. An eclectic thinker, combining elements of German idealism, Romanticism, Western Marxism, and Jewi ...

. She has also published on various topics in art criticism, museum history, and cultural politics. In 2000, she published ''Copying Machines: Taking Notes for the Automaton'' with the

University of Minnesota Press The University of Minnesota Press is a university press that is part of the University of Minnesota. It had annual revenues of just over $8 million in fiscal year 2018. Founded in 1925, the University of Minnesota Press is best known for its boo ...

''.'' In 2011, she published ''The American Idyll: Academic Anti-Elitism as Cultural Critique'' with the

University of Iowa Press The University of Iowa Press is a university press that is part of the University of Iowa. Established in 1969, thUniversity of Iowa Pressis an academic publisher of poetry, short fiction, and creative nonfiction. The UI Press is the only universi ...

which addresses the abuse of populist mistrust of elites and its relationship to anti-intellectualism in American cultural politics. Her most recent book published in 2021, ''Virtue Hoarders: The Case Against the Professional Managerial Class'', is a polemical call to reject making a virtue out of taste and consumption habits. She argues that the class stands in the way of social justice and economic redistribution by promoting meritocracy, philanthropy, and other self-serving operations as an individualist path to a better world. She is also co-editor of the 2007 book, ''The Dreams of Interpretation: A Century down the Royal Road'', a reexamination of the legacy of Freud.
Reviewed by *

Selected publications

* * * *

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Liu, Catherine Living people Yale University alumni City University of New York alumni University of California, Irvine faculty 21st-century American women writers 1964 births