Aaron is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Global Development at Cornell University. His first book, Automation and the Future of Work, appeared with Verso in 2020 and has been translated into 10 languages. Aaron’s writing has been featured in the Nation, Guardian, New Statesman, Boston Review, and New Left Review. His research interests include technological change, unemployment, economic development, critical theory, and alternative economic systems. Currently, he is working on two book projects. One concerns the idea of a “post-scarcity” economics. The other examines the global history of unemployment. Before he joined Cornell University, Benanav was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Syracuse University. He holds a PhD in History from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a BA in History from the University of Chicago. Aaron serves on the editorial board of the New Left Review and is a senior editor at International Labor and Working Class History.

At THE NEW INSTITUTE, Aaron is involved in the program Beyond Capitalism: War Economy and Democratic Planning in the Academic Year 2024/25.

September 2024 – June 2025