DeFleur Distinguished Lecture: Brooke Duffy

The creator economy is often heralded as an entrepreneurial promised land for self-enterprising entertainers and cultural intermediaries. Yet this narrative obscures the precarious—even perilous—realities of platform-dependent labor. In a market where algorithms arbitrate success, creators face the looming threat of invisibility. But they face the risks of hypervisibility, too—from burnout and cultural appropriation to trolling and harassment. After examining creators’ experiences with this “visibility bind,” Dr. Duffy will show how they both contest and strategically exploit platforms’ visibility regimes. Reception to follow at 4:30, Room 209.