Christopher Newfield is a professor in the English Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He received his PhD in American literature from Cornell University in 1988, and his central interests include: American culture after 1830, with particular attention to fiction since 1940; race; sexuality; affect; crime; California; and corporate culture. Professor Newfield is currently at work on two projects: The Empowerment Wars, which explores the literature, management theory, and everyday life of cubicle dwellers in corporate America; and Starting Up, Starting Over, an eyewitness account of the underside of the "New Economy" in Southern California. He is the author of Unmaking the Public University: The 40-Year Assault on the Middle Class (Harvard UP, 2008) and other books, and runs the Remaking the University blog.