Yari Lanci

Dr Yari Lanci is an Assistant Professor in Sociology (Sociology and Criminology) at the School of Law, Politics and Sociology, University of Sussex, where he joined in August 2023. He holds a PhD in Sociology from Goldsmiths, University of London (2022), an MA in Social and Cultural Theory (Goldsmiths, 2011), and a BA in Anglophone Literatures and New Media Theory from the University of Naples - L'Orientale (2009). He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA, 2024), recognizing his teaching excellence.

His research focuses on the role of time in capitalist power, exploring how temporality shapes exploitable subjectivities, labor precarity, and unpaid work. Drawing from Marx, Foucault, and contemporary critical theory, he investigates the temporal governance of labor and resistance through concepts like laziness and speculative fiction. His work bridges social theory, political philosophy, and cultural analysis, with a particular interest in science fiction as a diagnostic tool for contemporary capitalism.

The recent publications reflect a consistent engagement with themes of temporality, labor, and subjectivity under capitalism. Articles such as 'Stairway to heaven' and 'Subverting capital’s temporality' analyze the cultural and political dimensions of time in neoliberal society, while his chapter on Philip K. Dick explores biopolitical temporality in speculative fiction. His book review of Beaumont’s 'The Spectre of Utopia' and engagement with Derridean spectrality further demonstrate his interdisciplinary approach. Collectively, his work reveals a deep commitment to critical theory, Marxist analysis, and the philosophical interrogation of labor and time.

• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA), 2024

Dr Lanci supervises PhD projects in social and political thought, critical theory, Marxism, sociology of work, and cultural theory. He has supervised undergraduate and postgraduate research, including Elizabeth Stevens’ project on 'Sonic Hauntology'. He teaches core sociology modules and is developing new courses on capitalism and work, and speculative fiction as a diagnostic lens. He has also translated works on degrowth and Marxism, including Emanuele Leonardi’s forthcoming monograph 'Labour-Nature-Value'.