Cultural Studies

"Culture is an instrument wielded by professors to manufacture professors." — Simone Weil

The Mandates of Magic: On Timeka N. Tounsel’s “Branding Black Womanhood”
What are the mandates of Black Girl Magic? Leigh-Michil George looks at the history of “Essence” magazine and the complicated personal politics of representation in an essay about Timeka N. Tounsel’s “Branding Black Womanhood: Media Citizenship from Black Power to Black Girl Magic.”
Leigh-Michil GeorgeNov 10, 2022
Flesh and Affect: On Alexander R. Galloway’s “Uncomputable”
Arjun Appadurai scans Alexander R. Galloway’s “Uncomputable: Play and Politics in the Long Digital Age.”
Arjun AppaduraiSep 18, 2022
- Cultural Studies
- Science & Technology
“Entrepreneurs in Bodily Capital”: On Lisa Uperesa’s “Gridiron Capital: How American Football Became a Samoan Game”
David Lipset reviews Lisa Uperesa’s anthropological study “Gridiron Capital: How American Football Became a Samoan Game.”
David LipsetSep 11, 2022
In Praise of the Arab Editor
Nile Green discovers Ahmed El Shamsy’s “Rediscovering the Islamic Classics: How Editors and Print Culture Transformed an Intellectual Tradition.”
Nile GreenAug 21, 2022
What Makes a Millennial?
Sarah Wasserman questions the defining boundaries and problematic categorizations carried by our culture's treatment of the label "millennial."
Sarah WassermanAug 18, 2022
On Baduy
Novelist Miguel Syjuco on the subversive concept of baduy in Philippine culture.
Miguel SyjucoAug 17, 2022
Does Classics Have a Future? On Sarah Derbew’s “Untangling Blackness in Greek Antiquity”
Najee Olya reviews Sarah Derbew’s “Untangling Blackness in Greek Antiquity.”
Najee OlyaAug 8, 2022
- Cultural Studies
- History
Mind-Boggling Lyrical Complexity: On Daniel Levin Becker’s “What’s Good: Notes on Rap and Language”
Aaron Peck reviews Daniel Levin Becker’s “What’s Good: Notes on Rap and Language.”
Aaron PeckAug 8, 2022
- Cultural Studies
- Music
L.A., LAtinx Style: A Conversation Between Natalia Molina, Juan De Lara, George J. Sánchez, and Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo
A panel at the 2022 LA Times Festival of Books addressed the past and future of Los Angeles’s Latinx neighborhoods.
George J. Sánchez, Juan De Lara, Natalia Molina, Pierrette Hondagneu-SoteloAug 5, 2022
“The Leprosy of the Soul in Our Time”: On the European Origins of the “Great Replacement” Theory
Richard Wolin excavates the roots of the right-wing conspiracy theory that liberal elites are trying to “replace” white Americans with nonwhites.
Richard WolinAug 4, 2022
- Cultural Studies
- Politics
Some Impersonal News
Social media has radically transformed pregnancy announcements, and our entire private lives.
Lauren Carroll HarrisMay 12, 2022
- Cultural Studies
We’ll Cede Our Rights to Make It Stop: A Conversation with Cathy O’Neil
Elizabeth DeWolf interviews mathematician Cathy O’Neil about her latest book on the shame industrial complex.
Elizabeth DeWolfApr 26, 2022
- Cultural Studies