William Pietz


William Pietz is an intellectual historian and political activist. He is known for his scholarship related to the concept of fetishism.

Biography

Pietz completed an interdisciplinary Masters in Philosophy and Political Theory from the New School for Social Research, and his PhD in the History of Consciousness at the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1988. He taught at Pitzer College, the University of California at Santa Cruz and Georgetown University.

Fetishism

Pietz is most known for his account of the colonial origins of the concept of fetishism. It was the subject of his PhD and, notably, in a trilogy of articles on "The Problem of the Fetish."
His work in this area has been characterized as "brilliant" and "fundamental". Referring to his trilogy, David Graeber has characterised Pietz as "one of those rarest of people – an independent scholar whose ideas have had a profound effect on the academy".

Works