Drawing on her two recent books, Peculiar Satisfaction: Thomas Jefferson and the Mastery of Subjects (Fordham University Press, 2025) and Surveillance in an Empire of Liberty: Why Thomas Jefferson Matters in Our Information Age (Bloomsbury, 2026), Adler examines Thomas Jefferson’s role in the development of libraries, archives, museums, and systems of information and labor management. Her work traces how these practices were shaped by the intertwined histories of racialization, capital, state power, and surveillance, and considers what Jefferson’s legacy can tell us about information technologies, data, and surveillance today.
Books will be available for sale at the event by the UVA Bookstore.
Co-sponsored by the UVA Library
