About

Michael Druffel (he/him/his) is an Ohio native who is happy to return to the Buckeye state after working and studying in New York City for ten years. Michael got his PhD in English at the Graduate Center, CUNY (‘23). His dissertation, titled Emancipatory and Retributive Labor, explores how abolitionists in the US and Caribbean appropriated capitalist definitions of labor to emphasize the agency of the enslaved and how enslavers attempted to redefine labor to deny enslaved people’s humanity. Michael’s scholarship has been published or forthcoming in The Nautilus, Structured Equality, and Writing Things Worth Reading. He’s taught literature and writing courses in both the CUNY system and Columbia University on topics such as abolition, medical humanities, and urban studies since 2014. Michael also worked in writing and communication centers at the Graduate Center, CUNY, Baruch College, and the Columbia School of Social Work.