In recent years popular culture has been all but overtaken by zombies, plagues, and ragged bands of survivors. In her latest book, Schweitzer looks closely at why these “outbreak narratives” have proliferated and explores how they both reflect and color Americans’ world view. Schweitzer, author of Cindy Sherman’s Office Killer and an adjunct professor at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, traces dystopian themes through journalism as well as films, books, and comics. As she focuses on the fears they channel, she moves from textual analysis to wider historical, institutional, and social contexts, linking these scenarios to globalization, neoliberalism, and a risk society, and showing how politics and medicine intersect with the media and representation. Schweitzer will be in conversation with Jonathan Allen, political reporter for NBC News digital and co-author of Shattered.
