Valerie Forman

Valerie Forman is an Associate Professor at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study, New York University. Her research and teaching intersect literature, economic history, and political theory, with a focus on labor, trade, migration, slavery, and capitalism in early modern contexts. She has authored Tragicomic Redemptions: Global Economics and the Early Modern English Stage (2008), which explores links between theatre innovation and the emergence of global capitalism. Recent work addresses US-Mexico border dynamics, NYC migrants, and abolitionist practices tied to immigration detention and mutual aid.

• Education:
• B.S., Economics, University of Pennsylvania, 1986
• M.A., English, University of California, Berkeley, 1989
• Ph.D., Literature, University of California, Santa Cruz, 2000

Her current project, Developing New Worlds: Property, Freedom, and Productivity in the Early Modern Caribbean, examines Caribbean trade, slavery, and cultural relations. Advocacy efforts include organizing around immigration detention and border-related injustices.