Booksmith and UC Press present a 6-part series of virtual events focused on urgent societal issues, broadcasting every Monday at 11am PST. This fourth event in the series features Erin Hatton discussing her book Coerced: Work Under Threat of Punishment.

This is a free event, but RSVP is required.

What do prisoner laborers, graduate students, welfare workers, and college athletes have in common? According to sociologist Erin Hatton, they are all part of a growing workforce of coerced laborers.

Coerced explores this world of coerced labor through an unexpected and compelling comparison of these four groups of workers, for whom a different definition of "employment" reigns supreme—one where workplace protections do not apply and employers wield expansive punitive power, far beyond the ability to hire and fire. Because such arrangements are common across the economy, Hatton argues that coercion—as well as precarity—is a defining feature of work in America today.

Theoretically forceful yet vivid and gripping to read, Coerced compels the reader to reevaluate contemporary dynamics of work, pushing beyond concepts like "career" and "gig work." Through this bold analysis, Hatton offers a trenchant window into this world of work from the perspective of those who toil within it—and who are developing the tools needed to push back against it.

Erin Hatton is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University at Buffalo. 

UC Press Now: Urgent Conversations hosted by Booksmith

• 8/3: A. Naomi Paik / Bans, Walls, Raids, Sanctuary: Understanding U.S. Immigration for the Twenty-First Century
• 8/10: Federico Finchelstein / A Brief History of Fascist Lies
• 8/17: Aya Gruber / The Feminist War on Crime: The Unexpected Role of Women's Liberation in Mass Incarceration
• 8/24: Erin Hatton / Coerced: Work Under Threat of Punishment
• 8/31: Sarah Jaquette Ray / A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety: How to Keep Your Cool on a Warming Planet
• 9/7: Joe Trotter / Workers on Arrival: Black Labor in the Making of America

This event is free and all ages, but RSVP is required.

To have Coerced sent to your door, order here or add the book to your cart when you register.