“This is America” Reviewed
Introduction by Rylan Higgins On May 5, 2018, when actor and musical artist Donald Glover released “This is America” under his musical performance name Childish Gambino, it garnered an astonishing amount of attention. Soon after its release, the powerful and, for some, controversial music video became a global sensation. Its impact was especially explosive in […]
Surveilling Trump: A Call to Action
Trump Watch For better or worse, many people across the globe pay close attention to the Unites States. To be sure, it’s a juggernaut. Some observers consider it — and for good reason — the most powerful country on earth. Social scientists, meanwhile, recognize that it is a nation-state and a society with great internal […]
Ethnography on Trial
“[Ethnography] is the most appropriate research approach for increasing understanding of the range of sociocultural effects of the multifaceted and evolving Deepwater Horizon disaster on the people and communities of coastal Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.” Diane Austin Rebuttal to BP Round 2 Reports, September 26, 2014 It is fitting that this article is being published […]
When State Replaces God
Following every international or domestic terrorism act committed by a Muslim, the American-Muslim community divides under political pressure on the issue of whether or not Muslims should take collective responsibility and communally condemn the acts of a few individuals. On one hand is a group of Muslim activists and organizations who condemn and account for […]
Not for Sale: How WWII Artifacts Mobilized Japanese-Americans Online
On March 5, 2015, Eve M. Kahn’s “Newsworthy Notes” in the Antiques section of the New York Times included an announcement for a local auction alongside two short articles, “Remembering Ragtime” and “Go raise a glass” [1]. “Art of Internment Camps Will Head to Auction” was the first public announcement that the Rago auction house […]
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 […]
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 […]
Targeting the Gun Question: The “Culture War” in Scope
A lineup of hot-button issues has plagued the political life of the United States for decades, at least since the 1970s: abortion, sexualities, religion, evolution, censorship, recreational drugs, guns. An odd list on the face of it, but supposedly, the nation’s population divides into one of two camps over each issue, or so sociologist James […]