Rachael Mulvihill

Ph.D. Student

Area of Study

PhD in Literary and Cultural Studies

Bio

Rachael V. Mulvihill is a PhD Candidate in the Literary and Cultural Studies program at Carnegie Mellon University. Her research examines utopian and dystopian representations of capitalism across contemporary fiction, film, and media. Her dissertation, "Neoliberal Numbness: Affect in Contemporary Fiction, Film, and Media" examines how everyday life, saturated by algorithmically curated media, economic insecurity, and continuous connection, functions as the primary medium through which capitalism’s crises are lived. In response, contemporary fiction, film, and academic criticism have begun to mirror this condition through what she calls “neoliberal numbness.”

Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in LABOR: Studies in Working-Class History and Lateral: Journal of the Cultural Studies Association. She is a HASTAC Scholars Fellow for Humanities, Art, Science, and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory Program, and a Graduate Teaching Fellow for the Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence and Education. She was awarded the 2026 Howard L. Ellin Presidential Teaching Fellowship, the 2026 Dietrich College Graduate Student Teaching Award, and the 2025 Department of English Graduate Student Teaching Award for her engaging classroom exercises and professional contributions to Dietrich College’s educational opportunities.

To date, she has taught fourteen undergraduate courses across three universities, ranging from private R1s to public state schools. Her previous professional experience as a paralegal complements her scholarly focus, allowing her to examine the intersections of labor from multiple literary, cultural, and institutional perspectives.

Education

M.A. in English Literature with a Certificate in Creative Writing, SUNY Brockport

B.A. in Creative Writing, SUNY Brockport

A.A.S. in Paralegal Studies, Finger Lakes Community College

Research

Contemporary American literature, film and media studies, affect theory, neoliberalism, Marxism, cultural studies, dystopian fiction, speculative fiction

Publications

“The Cost of Compliance: Unpacking Worker Identity in Severance,” LABOR: Studies in Working-Class History. Forthcoming Fall 2025.

“Review for Marx for Cats by Leight Claire La Berge (Duke University Press).” Lateral: Journal of the Cultural Studies Association, May 2025.

[Podcast with Tabitha Arnold] “Is Severance a Show About Unions?,” Labor Heritage Power Hour from WPFW 89.3FM. 3 April 2025.