Perpetual War
Perpetual War Text by Katherine T. McCaffrey. Photos by Bonnie Donohue. Vieques Island, Puerto Rico, is home to 107 abandoned military bunkers, a legacy of the U.S. naval presence on the island. Designed to contain ammunition and high explosives, the bunkers were constructed during the build up to WWII, when the German threat to the […]
The Nexus of Collaboration: Negotiating African American History and Public Interest in Southwest Virginia
On a hazy June afternoon in 2003, we stood on a bluff overlooking the New River in Whitethorne, Virginia with members of the newly formed Kentland Historic Revitalization Committee. The group had convened to curb a record of benign neglect in the historic district of Kentland Farm, the agricultural research station of Virginia Polytechnic Institute […]
What Did Malinowski Eat in Papua?
One hundred years ago (June 27, 1915 to be precise), Bronislaw Malinowski arrived in the Trobriand Islands of eastern Papua New Guinea to begin the fieldwork that would become legendary and shape his whole career, ultimately revolutionizing British social anthropology. He was 31 years old, a brilliant polyglot born of Polish gentry. He was highly […]
Oradour-sur-Glane: Remembering Terror
A Visual Essay. Text and photos by Álvaro Minguito Palomares Oradour-sur-Glane is a symbol of the misfortunes of the Nation. It is important to preserve this memory, so that a similar tragedy never repeats itself. —Charles de Gaulle speech in Oradour-sur-Glane, March 1945 On June 10, 1944, only four days after Allied troops disembarked in […]
Sebastian Junger’s The Last Patrol, A Dialogue
War does not simply shape, shepherd, and injure bodies, or mold and undermine psyches in a unidirectional fashion. Through countless contradictory and incomplete processes, war excites bodies, cultivates capacities, gives value to things, provokes subjective interpretations of surprising behaviors, and forms connections. —Kenneth T. MacLeish, Making War at Fort Hood The first things I noticed […]
The Promising Predicament of the Keystone XL Pipeline
Politics makes visible that which had no reason to be seen. —Jacques Rancière Whether ultimately approved or not, the Keystone XL Pipeline offers a telling window into the contemporary politics of fossil fuels in North America. Although oil pipelines have been around for a century, they have long been neglected in scholarship and public debate. […]
The Endless Bus Trip: a Visual Essay
The Endless Bus Trip is a visual essay about Korean and Chinese immigrants living in Flushing, Queens, who ride casino buses as a way of life. Twice a day, immigrants wait at unmarked bus stops along the crowded downtown streets to buy $15 bus tickets from New York City to the Sands Casino and Resort […]
NAFTA’s Highway of Death
Books and Arts: Reviews of Books, Articles, the Arts, and More! Shaylih Muehlmann. 2014. When I Wear My Alligator Boots: Narco-Culture in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands. Oakland: University of California Press. Anna Ochoa O’Leary, Colin M. Deeds and Scott Whiteford, eds. 2013. Uncharted Terrains: New Directions in Border Research Methodology, Ethics, and Practice. Tucson: University of […]
Trademarking Racism: Pseudo-Indian Symbols and the Business of Professional Sports
In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, a novel by the Spokane author Sherman Alexie, a basketball player at an all-White high school is the persistent target of racist slurs. “Chief” and “Tonto,” he is called, “Squaw boy” and “Redskin.” He also experiences the indignity of sharing the court with a caricature of […]
uncommon sense: There’s More to Uganda
In a small village in eastern Uganda, I sat on the porch of my host’s home. A retired head teacher, he has a rumbling, stentorian voice that commands authority. As we sipped tea, he looked over at me and asked: “Is it true that in your country it is legal for a man to go […]