Stanford Humanities Center
Join us in welcoming Johanna Drucker (2008–09 SHC Fellow) to our Inside the Center series to celebrate the publication of her latest book, Affluvia: The toxic off-gassing of affluent culture.
This book addresses the simple question of how much environmental impact is generated by ten minutes of an ordinary morning routine in which coffee gets made and cats get fed. By looking at the connections between seemingly banal patterns of contemporary life and the global systems to which they are connected, this study creates a vivid, dramatic narrative—with shocking implications for understanding every aspect of our (generally unexamined) daily activity.
“Let the world now discover what the American Academy of Arts and Letters and legions of loyal readers have known for years: The writer and visual artist Johanna Drucker is a polymath's polymath. —David Kipen, former NEA literature director
About the Speaker
Johanna Drucker is Distinguished Professor and Breslauer Professor Emerita in the Department of Information Studies at UCLA. She is internationally known for her work in the history of graphic design, typography, experimental poetry, contemporary art, and digital humanities. Her recent book publications include Visualization and Interpretation (MIT Press, 2020), Iliazd: Meta-biography of a Modernist (Hopkins, 2022), and Inventing the Alphabet (University of Chicago Press, 2022). Her artist’s books are represented in museum and library special collections throughout North America and Europe. Affluvia was punished in 2025 by The Bridge.
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