Jesse Ramirez

I’m an Americanist interested in popular culture, utopianism, digital media and technology, the future of work, ethnic studies, and critical theory.

I was born and raised in San José, California. My first texts were my father’s tattoos or “placas”: east side, madre, tropicana varrio locos.

After earning my PhD from Yale University’s Program in American Studies in late 2013, I moved to a suburb of Munich, Germany, with my wife and two daughters. I like to pretend that I can channel the spirit of Ernst Bloch, who wrote The Spirit of Utopia while meditating on the Alps in a nearby town.

From 2013-2015, I crossed the Weißwurstäquator (the “white sausage border” that culturally separates Bavaria from the rest of Germany) to lecture in the Institute of English and American Studies at Frankfurt University. In 2016 I became Assistant Professor (Assistenzprofessor) of American Studies in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of St Gallen, Switzerland.

In addition to finishing up a book on apocalyptic science fiction (“Un-American Dreams”), I’m doing preliminary research and writing for a book on automation (“What is Automation? A Cultural History of the Present in Six Technologies”). You can follow me on twitter and ~~academia.edu~~.