Gabriel Winant

Gabriel Winant is one of the Academy's 2018-2019 Visiting Scholars.

Ph.D. in History, Yale University, 2018
Crucible of Care: Economic Change and Inequality in Postwar Pittsburgh
This dissertation provides a new origin story for contemporary inequality in the United States. Using Pittsburgh as a case study, I show how the social dislocation of factory job loss spawned new, unequal labor markets. As factories closed, cities like Pittsburgh became sicker and older very rapidly. While other forms of consumption suffered, the use of health care boomed. Although the health care industry enjoyed unparalleled public support, health care work bore the stigmas characteristic of care work. As employment in health care boomed across the Rust Belt, its economic marginality—underscored by race and gender—became the norm.