Monday Oct 12, 2026
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
POWERHOUSE Arena
28 Adams Street (Corner of Adams & Water Street across from the Archway)
Brooklyn , NY
11201
About the Book.
How trauma became a weapon in the culture wars, by the acclaimed author of Virtue Hoarders
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.
About the Author.
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.
Claire Stapleton is the author of Don’t Be Evil, a memoir about work, power, and political awakening. The book traces her 12 years at Google, from a career in communications and marketing to co-organizing the Google Walkout in 2018, when 20,000 employees protested the company’s mishandling of sexual harassment. Claire writes an existential advice column for tech workers on Substack. She lives with her family in Brooklyn.