Scams are a hot topic, both in the media and in our financial lives. The new scamminess is both a reaction to precarity and a deepening of it. This talk draws from Swartz’s recent research on scams and her longer-term research on cryptocurrency and money-as-communication, to reflect on various facets of the work that scams — and the idea of “scams” — do in the production of the future.

Lana Swartz is an associate professor of media studies and Shannon Mid-career Fellow at the University of Virginia. Most of her work is on money and other communication technologies. She studies social and cultural aspects of money to understand the future of financial technology, livelihoods, financial literacy, and consumer protection in the digital economy. She is author of New Money: How Payment Became Social Media (Yale 2020) and co-editor of Paid: Tales of Dongles, Checks, and Other Money Stuff (MIT Press 2017). In 2023, she released a major research report on the warning signs and ways forward for Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), which was conducted in collaboration with the MIT Digital Currency Initiative and funded by the Gates Foundation. She is currently writing a book about scams and conducting research on financial well-being in the digital economy. 

The Walt Fisher Lecture is held annually by USC Annenberg in honor of the late Professor Emeritus Walter R. Fisher.

A reception will be held prior to the lecture starting at 5 p.m. in the ASC Second Floor West Lobby.

This program is open to all eligible individuals. USC Annenberg operates all of its programs and activities consistent with the University’s Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor.