Labor Studies Brown Bag Lunch, Fall 2014:

Selling Your Self in the United States

Prof. Ilana Gershon,

Dept. of Communication and Culture

In the contemporary U.S. workplace, corporate personhood is increasingly becoming the metaphor structuring how job seekers are supposed to present themselves as employable.  And if one takes oneself to be a business, one should also take oneself to be an entity that requires a brand.  Some ethnographic questions arise when job seekers try to embody corporate personhood in this way. How does one transform oneself into a brand? What are the obstacles that people encounter when they try to adopt a form of corporate personhood? And on a practical (and unanswerable) level, how does one foster relationships or networks that will lead to a job, not just circulation of information about one’s brand identity?  This talk explores how self-branding becomes yet another obstacle in the challenge so many Americans face these days – getting a job in the digital age.
 

When:  Sept. 25, 12:00 – 1:15 pm

Where: Indiana Memorial Union, Persimmon Room

Please bring your lunch and join us for a lively discussion.  For information / visitor parking permits, call 812-855-9084. The Labor Studies Department is at 1900 East 10th St., Eigenmann 1029, Bloomington, IN 47406.  http://www.labor.iu.edu