On occasion of the exhibition The Storyteller at Parsons, The Sheila C. Johnson Design Center and the Vera List Center for Art and Politics are pleased to present a talk by Aleksandra Wagner. Grounded in her memory of a purchase of A Thousand and One Nights in the Serbian translation by Stanislav Vinaver, Wagner chooses the shortest month of a year, February, to tell stories about the acts of storytelling in education and in psychoanalysis. One story a night, one page each, shared on the night of March 3.

Aleksandra Wagner is an Assistant Professor of Sociology, Bachelor’s Program, The New School for General Studies, and a Member of the National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis. Wagner is the editor of our recent publication Considering Forgiveness.

The economic crisis has raised fundamental questions about how income is generated and what constitutes work that is both dignified and secure.  Is there such a thing as a “postindustrial economy” and what does that mean for working Americans? Can we prosper without a vital manufacturing base?  Is the global free market a fatally compromised myth, and if so, what is the alternative?

Bookforum, in conjunction with the Vera List Center for Art and Politics, presents a discussion to question how work has changed, how it will be defined in the coming years, and how it can be fairly rewarded in an era of changing standards. After years of business deregulation, American workers have little or no representation. The government serves business at the highest levels, covering debt and protecting shareholders while the labor unions vanish, disparaged as anachronistic in the new corporate culture, leaving American workers without security or benefits.  As Americans come to resemble their counterparts in those countries where we’ve exported so many jobs, must the workers of the world unite? Or are they doomed to compete? How will the government’s efforts to renew the American economy translate into jobs, and will those jobs be secure? What standards will apply for people seeking “green” employment and who are the employers? And can America hope to reinvent its economy without an overhaul of its educational system, particularly in math and science? Assuming the answer is no, what will sustain us in the meantime? American culture remains one of our greatest exports. New York and Los Angeles depend on it. But can we live solely on art and music, fashion and film? Is that possible without the support of a wealthy and confident public? Without Wall Street’s excess, can New York continue to employ its many thousands of people working in the arts?

Presented as part of the Vera List Center’s 2009/2010 program cycle “Speculating on Change.”