Prof. Cressida J. Heyes: "Why We Talk About Sleep" Seminar title: Why We Talk About Sleep WiP Abstract: Through a series of academic articles and a popular podcast (“Sleep is the New Sex”), I have been exploring the cultural politics of sleep. During my time in Edinburgh I will be writing a monograph about this work, intended to have a popular audience. In this presentation I explain the motivating framework of the project, which identifies both “sleep-negative” and “sleep-positive” discourses as sharing certain beliefs about the need to minimize and manage sleep in order to meet goals of productivity, trading an elite masculinity against an ersatz feminist response. Rather than fetishizing productivity, we can think about creativity and sustainability as values that could drive a more critical perspective on sleeping and waking. Cressida J. Heyes is Professor and HM Tory Chair at the University of Alberta, Canada, where she is appointed in Political Science and Philosophy. She is the author of three books, including most recently Anaesthetics of Existence: Essays on Experience at the Edge (Duke University Press, 2020), which won the David Easton Award in political theory from the American Political Science Association. Her interests range across the politics of the body, feminist philosophy, and medical humanities. Find out more at cressidaheyes.com and sleepisthenewsex.ca. Join the meetingMeeting ID: 387 413 976 148 588Passcode: jk7Dn2rE Nov 04 2026 1:00pm - 2:00pm Prof. Cressida J. Heyes: "Why We Talk About Sleep" An IASH Work-in-Progress seminar, delivered by Professor Cressida J. Heyes (American Philosophical Association Fellow). IASH Seminar Room, first floor, 2 Hope Park Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9NW and online via Teams This article was published on Friday 30 October 2026
Prof. Cressida J. Heyes: "Why We Talk About Sleep" Seminar title: Why We Talk About Sleep WiP Abstract: Through a series of academic articles and a popular podcast (“Sleep is the New Sex”), I have been exploring the cultural politics of sleep. During my time in Edinburgh I will be writing a monograph about this work, intended to have a popular audience. In this presentation I explain the motivating framework of the project, which identifies both “sleep-negative” and “sleep-positive” discourses as sharing certain beliefs about the need to minimize and manage sleep in order to meet goals of productivity, trading an elite masculinity against an ersatz feminist response. Rather than fetishizing productivity, we can think about creativity and sustainability as values that could drive a more critical perspective on sleeping and waking. Cressida J. Heyes is Professor and HM Tory Chair at the University of Alberta, Canada, where she is appointed in Political Science and Philosophy. She is the author of three books, including most recently Anaesthetics of Existence: Essays on Experience at the Edge (Duke University Press, 2020), which won the David Easton Award in political theory from the American Political Science Association. Her interests range across the politics of the body, feminist philosophy, and medical humanities. Find out more at cressidaheyes.com and sleepisthenewsex.ca. Join the meetingMeeting ID: 387 413 976 148 588Passcode: jk7Dn2rE Nov 04 2026 1:00pm - 2:00pm Prof. Cressida J. Heyes: "Why We Talk About Sleep" An IASH Work-in-Progress seminar, delivered by Professor Cressida J. Heyes (American Philosophical Association Fellow). IASH Seminar Room, first floor, 2 Hope Park Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9NW and online via Teams This article was published on Friday 30 October 2026
Nov 04 2026 1:00pm - 2:00pm Prof. Cressida J. Heyes: "Why We Talk About Sleep" An IASH Work-in-Progress seminar, delivered by Professor Cressida J. Heyes (American Philosophical Association Fellow).
