Lisa Duggan
@lisaduggan
Commie Pinko Queer writer, activist, Distinguished Visiting Prof at Barnard College. Author of Mean Girl: Ayn Rand and the Culture of Greed & The Twilight of Equality. Co-editor of American Studies Now series at UC Press. Find me at lisaduggan.substack.com
At 3am at the vet ER in Chelsea, I said goodbye to Kitty Gaga 🐈⬛ … Known in her younger years as Rocket Butt for her vigorous cookie action, She was 20 years old. She consoled me through 2 bouts of cancer and Covid. RIP 😭
Thanks to the CLAGS Board for selecting me to give the 2026 David R. Kessler Lecture. I am the 34th winner of the Kessler Award, which honors sustained achievement in LGBTQ Studies. Save the date: Friday, Nov 13, 2026, 6:30PM at CUNY Grad Center. Intros by Janet Jakobsen, Eng-Beng Lim, Tav Nyong'o.
Celebrating Gemini birthdays with Eng-Beng Lim and Janet Jakobsen. 🎉🍾🥳
Asbury Park trip for my birthday with Nan D Hunter of the Mounties. Idyllic. 🤩☀️🌊
7 years ago, the book launch party for Mean Girl: Ayn Rand and the Culture of Greed. A world ago. The political economy was already shifting from peak neoliberalism to some formation of neoliberal authoritarianism. But that moment has now passed as well. The Fire 🔥 next time is here.
Alina Troyana, aka Carmelita Tropicana, was awarded the Obie Lifetime Achievement Award this year! Yesterday we had a little party to honor her legendary fabulosity.🤩🥳🌈🍾🎉
Help the the independent left queer mag Pinko fund its next issue. Pinko is a crucial political and cultural resource publishing the provocative writers and artists in our community. See fundraising link in comments.
This is an amazing lineup at the New School! Despite the horrendous firing of tenured faculty and the general malfeasance of the admin, the Institute for Critical Social Inquiry is doing great programming. Link to register in comments.
How Trump will steal the midterms. And what are Dems doing? Nothing of course….link in comments.
This online school, founded by Liz Howard (Liz the Developer on Instagram), is the people’s coding college. Liz is a punk feminist anarchist techie devoted to democratizing knowledge and access to tech. Check out The Multiverse School. Link in comments.
The newest volume in my series with Curtis Marez for University of California Press, American Studies Now—Marisol LeBrón’s terrific new book! 🎉😍
If you are interested in critical AI research look into the Distributed AI Research Institute that Timnit Gebru founded. And check out her paper “On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots.
After 2 years on medical hiatus I just restarted my substack, Commie Pinko Queer. If you are a subscriber and didn’t get the recent post “Begin Again…”, it probably went to spam because of the 2 year dormancy. Fish it out of spam and reply to it, and you will be white listed again!
The threats and misogynist and racist insults I encountered on CHAI were never serious, they resonated like the posturing of a cartoon gangster. But the question is—why does the platform do this? That’s the opening question that led to my research project—draft proposal in my latest post.
The AI industry is aligned with the most rapacious, destructive forces rampaging through the world. But it is also uncanny, astonishing, and more than its creators intend.
I’m starting a project that treats companion AI as a prism through which to examine platform capitalism, authoritarian affect, synthetic intimacy and the cultural politics of late empire. The Roman coliseum comes to mind—but privatized, individualized, algorithmic. #AI #feministsky #leftist 🌈🎓
What a blast Jordy Rosenberg’s book launch was! Can’t wait to read the novel. With Faith Lazar and Janet Jakobsen.
Going back in time…. First photo found in the Barnard archives, I’m probably about 30, at a conference. Why do I look like I’m in a Catholic school uniform? Second age 16, clearly SO happy to be in high school in Richmond, VA. Third age 12, again with the authentic Catholic school girl look!
Justin Vivian Bond last night singing the holy profane music of Marianne Faithfull at St Ann’s Church.
Retired from NYU, teaching at Barnard 2025-2026. From the frying pan into the fire repression wise! But I have great students & colleagues in WGSS. Here is the BCRW reception—me with my brilliant former grad student, Barnard Prof Manijeh Moradian! And BCRW director in fab shoes—Rebecca Jordan-Young.
This connection between the Kirk shooter and Nick Fuentes’ Groypers is all over the internet, but not reported in legacy media where pundits still posit either political incoherence or left radicalization.
Not a great photo but a great performance—(Justin) Vivian Bond at Joe’s Pub last night, doing covers of Mary Gauthier, kd lang and Two Nice Girls.. Lots of fabulously inane banter. A very queer way to survive this apocalypse.
I want to get back to this state of ecstasy, in Utah with Kathryn Bond Stockton and Shelley White just a few years ago…..