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William Pietz
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William Pietz
William Pietz (born 1951) is an intellectual historian and political activist. He is known for his scholarship related to the concept of fetishism.
Pietz completed an interdisciplinary Masters in Philosophy and Political Theory from the New School for Social Research, and his PhD in the History of Consciousness at the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1988. He taught at Pitzer College, the University of California at Santa Cruz and Georgetown University.
Pietz is best known for his account of the colonial origins of the concept of fetishism. It was the subject of his dissertation as well as a series of articles for the journal Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics, entitled "The Problem of the Fetish." A collection of Pietz's fetishism essays, including previously unavailable material, was published under that title by University of Chicago Press in 2022.
His work in this area has been characterized as "brilliant" and "fundamental". Referring to his trilogy, David Graeber has characterised Pietz as "one of those rarest of people – an independent scholar whose ideas have had a profound effect on the academy".
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William Pietz
William Pietz (born 1951) is an intellectual historian and political activist. He is known for his scholarship related to the concept of fetishism.
Pietz completed an interdisciplinary Masters in Philosophy and Political Theory from the New School for Social Research, and his PhD in the History of Consciousness at the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1988. He taught at Pitzer College, the University of California at Santa Cruz and Georgetown University.
Pietz is best known for his account of the colonial origins of the concept of fetishism. It was the subject of his dissertation as well as a series of articles for the journal Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics, entitled "The Problem of the Fetish." A collection of Pietz's fetishism essays, including previously unavailable material, was published under that title by University of Chicago Press in 2022.
His work in this area has been characterized as "brilliant" and "fundamental". Referring to his trilogy, David Graeber has characterised Pietz as "one of those rarest of people – an independent scholar whose ideas have had a profound effect on the academy".