At the Blog
On Monday, Sameer Ashar explained how the kafala system offers a powerful lens for understanding recent Trump administration efforts to make migrant workers more vulnerable to state and employer power.
On Wednesday, Luke Herrine reviewed Little Bosses Everywhere, a history of multilevel marketing. As the GOP coalition has increasingly become a vehicle for grifting, he argues, any post-MAGA reconstruction has to go after commercial fraud and deception.
And on Thursday, the Association of Law and Political Economy invited proposals for its second annual meeting, to be held on June 9-10, 2027, in Boston, MA.
In LPE Land
Calling all law students: a group of NYU LPE students is excited to announce the Transition Legal Working Group, a collaborative research project tackling the practical question of what steps a socialist political movement should take, once it wins power, to transition from capitalism to socialism in the United States? Find out more here, and sign up for the introductory Zoom call – taking place on Tuesday, 9/15, at 8:00 PM – here.
Pre-order alert: LPE’s own Sabeel Rahman has a new forthcoming book, Remaking the State: A New Blueprint for American Democracy.
Cool job alert: The Political Economy Program at the University of California, Berkeley seeks a tenure-track assistant professor for a position 50% in Political Economy and 50% in a related discipline.
Cool job alert #2: The Department of Government at Cornell invites applications for a faculty position in American (US) Politics, focusing on Public Law, with those working at the intersection of law and political economy especially well-suited.
On the Dig, Astra Taylor interviews David Wallace-Wells, Madison Condon, and Moira Birss about how insurance companies profit off climate catastrophe.
Late summer feeling a little too hot? Don’t miss the Roosevelt Institute’s recent report on building durable climate policy.
In Dissent, Sandeep Vaheesan and Claire Kelloway argue that any affordability agenda must challenge corporate pricing power, not worker power.
In Academe, Veena Dubal explains how the Trump administration’s assault on immigrant students and scholars exposes the fragility of conditional belonging and the need for solidarity.
In the Nation and Dissent, Gabriel Winant and Alex Press each review Noam Scheiber’s Mutiny: The Rise and Revolt of the College-Educated Working Class.
For those studying labor law and social movement lawyering, Alvin Velazquez has a new paper: Using Business Law to Build Labor Power.
The UNESCO Chair on Health, Race, and Human Rights invites scholars, legal practitioners, judges, policymakers, public health professionals, and civil society organisations to submit abstracts for the inaugural UNESCO Global Congress on Health, Race and Human Rights, taking place in San José, Costa Rica, from 1–3 February 2027.
