Matthew Flisfeder

Matthew Flisfeder is an Associate Professor in the Cultural Studies program at the University of Winnipeg, where he teaches critical theory, rhetoric, and digital culture. His research interrogates the intersections of ideology, media, and contemporary capitalism through frameworks derived from Lacanian psychoanalysis and Hegelian dialectics.

His academic credentials include:

• PhD (2010) from the Joint Graduate Programme in Communication and Culture (Toronto Metropolitan University and York University)
• MA (2005) from the same program
• Honours BA (2003) in Fine Arts Cultural Studies and Communication Studies (York University)

Flisfeder's scholarship centers on critical analyses of digital culture, particularly the ideological operations of social media platforms and algorithmic systems. He develops concepts like 'algorithmic desire' and the 'hysterical sublime' to critique posthumanist and new materialist theories, arguing for renewed dialectical humanism to address climate crisis and AI-driven displacement of agency. His work frequently engages Slavoj Žižek's theories while examining populist rhetoric, antisemitism, and cyberpunk aesthetics in contemporary media.

His publication trajectory reveals three dominant trends: (1) Systematic application of Žižekian/Lacanian frameworks to digital culture since 2017; (2) Increasing focus on the 'hysterical sublime' as a critical tool against posthumanism (2021-2025); (3) Expansion into antisemitism studies and Jewish question analyses within socialist theory (2023-2024). This evolution demonstrates his commitment to adapting critical theory for emergent capitalist contradictions in the Capitalocene era.

Flisfeder is the author of four major monographs: Algorithmic Desire: Toward a New Structuralist Theory of Social Media (2021), Postmodern Theory and Blade Runner (2017), The Symbolic, the Sublime, and Slavoj Žižek’s Theory of Film (2012), and co-editor of Žižek and Media Studies: A Reader (2014). His current project 'The Hysterical Sublime' extends this work through dialectical humanism to confront anthropogenic climate change and technological displacement of human agency.