Recent media appearances (selected)

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"Is AI Coming for Your Job?" Sept. 1.  The Bunker podcast (UK).

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"Allison Pugh on Why Human Interaction Is Good for Us.". July 25: "Nine to Noon" with Kathryn Ryan, RNZ (New Zealand Public Radio).

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​"The Economy Needs Workers Who Can Really Connect."  July 9: "Think" with Krys Boyd, KERA, Dallas/Fort Worth.

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"'The Unique Magic That Happens When Two People Come Together': Allison Pugh on Building a Society of Connection." Public Books. ​June 25, 2024.

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"Being Human Now: Work." March 1, 2024: "Spark" with Nora Young, Canadian Broadcasting Company radio show.

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"The world wants your kids to buy stuff. Here’s how to help them be less materialistic." Vox, December 2024

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"Working conditions: Human Jobs." With Good Reason radio show, June 2023. 

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"Automated technology isn't going anywhere — and it's changing society" USA Today, August 2017

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2025 speaking appearances (selected)

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April 17:  "The Last Human Job." Public lecture, Oregon Humanities Center.

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January 31: “The Last Human Job: The Social Stakes of Automating Recognition.” Sciences Po, Paris, France.

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2024 speaking appearances (selected)​
 

November 4:  Panel, Future of Economic Sociology. Princeton University Dept of Sociology, 3 p.m.

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November 3:  With Shamus Khan! Book brunch, Princeton public library, Princeton NJ 11 AM

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October 23: With Nick Hatzis, MD!  Family Action Network, Chicago, 7 p.m.​

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October 22: Culture and Social Analysis Workshop, Harvard University, Cambridge MA, 12 p.m.

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October 16:  Book panel, with commentators Mona Sloane (UVa) and Guillermina Altomonte (NYU),  Institute for Public Knowledge, NYU, NYC, 5:30 p.m.​

 

October 5: Moonraker Books, Langley (Whidbey Island), WA​​

 

October 4: Elliott Bay Book Company, Seattle, WA​

 

October 2: With Alex Hanna!  Mrs. Dalloway's Literary and Garden Arts, Berkeley, CA.​

 

​October 1: With Marianne Cooper! Book Passage bookstore, San Francisco, CA, 5:30 p.m.​

 

September 30: At the Commonwealth Club, San Francisco, CA.

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July 17: Full Circle Bookstore, Oklahoma City, OK, 6:30 p.m.​

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July 9: With Barry Zuckerman, MD! Payomet Performing Arts Center, Truro, MA, 7 p.m.
 

June 27-29: Limerick, Ireland.  “Book salon” on The Last Human Job, Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics meetings. 

June 17: With Mani Mokalla, MD!  Magers & Quinn Booksellers, Minneapolis, MN, 7 p.m.

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June 8:  With Nancy Bekavac! Politics and Prose Bookstore, Union market, Washington DC, 5 p.m.​

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June 4:  With Deborah Copaken! The Corner Bookstore, NYC, 6 p.m.

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May 30: New Dominion Bookshop, Charlottesville VA, 7 p.m.

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May 24: With Carolyn Hax!  Porter Square Books, Cambridge MA, 7 p.m.

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May 1: Organizational Behavior group, Stanford Graduate School of Business.

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April 22: Austin, TX.  Department of Sociology, University of Texas, Austin.

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Past speaking engagements (selected keynotes and invited presentations):

International

2023. Invited participant, “Consultation on AI: Threats and Opportunities.”  St. George’s House, Windsor Castle, UK. October 19-20.

2019. Keynote speaker. “Real Work in the Virtual World” conference. Helsinki, Finland, August.
2016.  “Understanding Inequality: Children, Consumer Culture and Compassion.”  Keynote address.  Child and Teen Consumption Conference.  Aalborg, Denmark, April.
2013.  Keynote speaker and Jackson Memorial Lecture, “The Hidden Injuries of Childhood Inequalities.”  At the “Childhood and Diversity – Multiple childhoods?” conference of the International Association of Francophone Sociologists – Research Committee on the Sociology of Childhood, and the Canadian Sociological Association, Halifax, Nova Scotia.  June.
2013.  "Gender and the Emotional Geographies of Insecurity:  Managing the Unrequited Contract at Work and at Home."  Lecture to the Social Sciences Faculty, University of the Ruhr, Bochum, Germany.  June.
2013.  "The Coral Society: Reframing the Choice between Family Stability and Family Diversity."  Migra! Network, University of the Ruhr, Bochum, Germany.  June.
2013.  "The 'Common Sense' of Insecurity:  Cultural Strategies at Work."  University Rhein-Waal, Kleve, Germany, June; Faculty of Gender and Work, University of Bielefeld, Germany, July; Hans Böckler Foundation, Dusseldorf, Germany, July.

National Presentations on Connnective Labor
2022.  ​Panel devoted to concept of "connective labor" at the annual meetings of the American Anthropological Association, Seattle, WA. November. 

2022. “The Stratification of Human Contact: The Present and Future of Connective Labor.” Sociology Department Distinguished Seminar series. University of British Columbia.  Sept 6.

2022.  Sociology Department Colloquium.  University of Pennsylvania.  April.
2021.  “Connective Labor as Meaning-Making: Recognition, Emotions, and Cultural Resonance.”  Department of Sociology culture workshop series, University of California, Santa Barbara, April.
2020.  “The Meaning Makers: Connective Labor, Automation and the Stratification of Human Contact.” Department of Sociology colloquium series. University of Southern California, February.
2019.  “Meaning, Machines and the Future of Connective Labor.” IAS Thursdays, Institute for Advanced Study, University of Minnesota.  November.
2018.  “Frameworks for an Inclusive Future of AI in Healthcare.” AI in Medicine: Inclusion & Equity (AiMIE) Symposium, Department of Medicine, Stanford University.
2018.  “The Automation of Connective Labor: On Shame, Inequality and AI.” Sociology Colloquium.  The New School for Social Research.  March 5.
​2017.  "Systematizing Human Connection: Contemporary Relationship Work."  Presidential Panel, Eastern Sociological Society (ESS) meetings, Philadelphia, February.
2017.  “Systematizing Human Connection: Contemporary Relationship Work.”  SCANCOR: Scandinavian Consortium for Organizational Research.  Stanford University Graduate School of Education.  May 8.
2017.  “Relational Work and Technology.”  Microsoft Research New England. Cambridge, MA.  April. 

National Presentations on Qualitative Methods

2022. “Culture, Contradiction and Resonance:  The Uses of Qualitative Methods for Work-Family Scholarship.”  Special Symposium “Insights from Qualitative Methods Practices in Work-Family Scholarship.” Work Family Researchers Network (WFRN) Biennial Conference.  New York, June.  

2022.  Ethnography Workshop.  Northwestern University.  February.
2020.  Invited Presenter. ASA webinar "Qualitative and Quarantined: Techniques and Ethics of Online Interview Research."  September.
2018.  “Beyond the ‘Trust Me’ Fallacy: Value, Rigor and Resonance in Qualitative Methods.”  Gender and Sexuality Workshop, Department of Sociology, University of Michigan. Ann Arbor, MI, October.
2014.  “The Paradox of Voice:  What We Can Do with What People Tell Us.”  ASA Presidential Panel, "Methodological Disagreements: Comparing the Value of Qualitative Interviews and Participant-Observation." San Francisco, August.

National Presentations on Care and Families
2022.  Panelist, “The Sociology of the Family: Taking Stock of the Field and Imagining the Future.”  Organized by Kristen Schilt, University of Chicago on the 50th anniversary of the “Changing Women in a Changing Society” issue of the American Journal of Sociology. Zoom webinar, November 14.  
2022.  Expert Panelist. “Technological Futures of Care.”  Scholars-in-Dialogue session. Carework Virtual Symposium on “Moving Past Emergency Responses: Care as Essential Infrastructure.” March 3.