Juliane Gamböck-Strätz is currently working as an academic assistant at the University of Mannheim and writing her dissertation thesis „Human Machines? Laboring Bodies in Late Capitalism.” She holds a Master of Education from the University of Potsdam as well as a Master of Arts from Clark University, Worcester, MA. In 2015, she was awarded a Fulbright scholarship. In 2017, her article “The Ordeal of Labor and the Birth of Robot Fiction” was published in Amerikastudien/American Studies. She has held presentations in Germany, the USA, Switzerland, and Austria. Her research interests include but are not limited to contemporary American literature and culture, body studies, and critical work studies. As a member of the network, she will investigate a project entitled “Laboring Bodies and Material Resistance to the Failures of Late Capitalism.”