Cotten Seiler, 2025–26

Cotten Seiler, professor of American studies at Dickinson College, is a cultural historian interested in racialization, infrastructure, and political economy. He is the author of the books White Care: The Impact of Race on American Infrastructure (University of Chicago Press, 2026) and Republic of Drivers: A Cultural History of Automobility in America (University of Chicago Press, 2008), and numerous articles, and editor of Transfers: Interdisciplinary Journal of Mobility Studies. He resides in Baltimore with his wife Claire and their two dogs Cecil and Cassius.

Selected Publications

• Seiler, Cotten. White Care: The Impact of Race on American Infrastructure. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2026. Forthcoming.
• Seiler, Cotten. “The Origins of White Care.” Social Text 38, no. 1 (February/March 2020): 17–38.
• Seiler, Cotten. “Welcoming China to Modernity: U.S. Fantasies of Chinese Automobility.” Public Culture 24, no. 2 (Spring 2012): 357–84.
• Seiler, Cotten. Republic of Drivers: A Cultural History of Automobility in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008.
• Seiler, Cotten. “‘So That We as a Race Might Have Something Authentic to Travel By’: African-American Automobility and Cold-War Liberalism.” American Quarterly 58, no. 4 (December 2006): 1091–116.