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Cultural Studies

Politics as Identity: A Conversation with Tobias Carroll
Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy talks with Tobias Carroll about his new book, “Political Sign.”...
Oana Godeanu-KenworthyFeb 8, 2021
- Cultural Studies
- Politics and Economics
Pointing Out the Elephant: On Sean Griffin’s “The Liturgical Past in Byzantium and Early Rus”
Simon Franklin praises “The Liturgical Past in Byzantium and Early Rus” by Sean Griffin....
Simon FranklinFeb 6, 2021
Still Arab
Reflections on the 10th anniversary of the Arab uprisings: language, identity, and the politics of despair....
Rayan FakhouryJan 29, 2021
What If We Saved Ourselves?
Brian Lin maps out the terrain of racial struggle in the literary world....
Brian LinJan 25, 2021
Travelogue of the Exodus
Charles Dunst reviews Anne Goldman's "Stargazing in the Atomic Age," her search for modern Jewish identity....
Charles DunstJan 15, 2021
Vernacular Pornography
Is sexual folk art a democratic repository of human creativity?...
Houman BarekatDec 22, 2020
The Fallacy of American Studies: A Conversation
On xenolinguaphobia and the provincialism of American Studies....
Ilan Stavans, Steven G. KellmanDec 19, 2020
A Democratic Medium?
A lively, handsome new book about the evolution of photographic styles and practices....
George Philip LeBourdaisDec 19, 2020
“Toxic” Relationships in the Affective Age
What memoirs by Melissa Febos, Carmen Maria Machado, and Alisson Wood can tell us about our affective age....
Gila AshtorDec 17, 2020
- Cultural Studies
- Memoir
The Dream of the Swimming Pool
James Delbourgo considers the ways we've looked at swimming pools over the years....
James DelbourgoDec 14, 2020
Toward a Saner Psychedelia
Ido Hartogsohn’s new book explores the impact of LSD on postwar American society and culture....
Matthew BondDec 12, 2020
- Cultural Studies
- Science & Technology
The Talented Ms. Calloway
What can Caroline Calloway tell us about media culture, the self-branding industry, gig work, and a growing army of hungry creatives vying for attention?...
Sarah BrouilletteDec 10, 2020
- Cultural Studies
Meritocracy and Battle Royale
What online games can tell us about our culture of cutthroat competition and rampant inequality....
Brendan MackieDec 10, 2020
- Cultural Studies
- Politics and Economics
Performance Anxiety: How Cold War Men’s Adventure Magazines Shaped Soldiers’ (Mis)Understandings of the Vietnam War
Cheap magazine stories may have fueled the way we fought the Vietnam War....
Nicholas UtzigDec 5, 2020
The Myth of Mestizaje
A celebrated Mexican anthropologist explodes one of his nation’s founding myths....
Federico Navarrete, Ellen JonesNov 27, 2020
The Undying Half-Life of Yiddish
Two books explore the indelible imprint of Yiddish on modern politics and popular culture....
Marc CaplanNov 23, 2020
A Modest Proposal for Building the Future
Alex Pang thinks he should hate Lee Vinsel and Andrew Russell’s book “The Innovation Delusion.” Instead, he wholeheartedly agrees with their main points....
Alex Soojung-Kim PangNov 23, 2020
- Cultural Studies
- Science & Technology
Hard Times: Martin Hägglund’s “This Life” and the Pomodoro Technique
What makes the Pomodoro Technique difficult to criticize is not simply that we need PT-like scaffolds in the realm of freedom....
Alexa HazelNov 21, 2020
- Cultural Studies
- Philosophy
Quantified Life: An Interview with Sun-ha Hong
Emily Watlington interviews Sun-ha Hong about our data fantasies....
Emily WatlingtonOct 26, 2020
A Grim Purgatory: On Greg Jenner’s History of Celebrity
Aida Amoako considers celebrity through Greg Jenner’s history of fame, “Dead Famous: An Unexpected History of Celebrity from Bronze Age to Silver Screen.”...
Aida AmoakoOct 21, 2020
- Cultural Studies
- History
Stanley Crouch, Radical Pragmatist
The death of Stanley Crouch leaves America’s intellectual culture less interesting, less imaginative, and, above all else, less artful....
David MasciotraOct 18, 2020
“American Psycho,” “American Beauty,” “American Pie”: White Male Rage at the Turn of the Millennium
Chelsea Davis puts three films from 2000 in context with the institutionalized support of white, male rage and “aggrieved entitlement.”...
Chelsea DavisOct 14, 2020
The Great Unread: On William Deresiewicz’s “The Death of the Artist”
Robert Diab on William Deresiewicz’s new book, “The Death of the Artist: How Creators Are Struggling to Survive in the Age of Billionaires and Big Tech.”...
Robert DiabOct 13, 2020
- Art
- Cultural Studies
“Retreat” and the Sick World
Madeline Lane-McKinley reviews "Retreat: How the Counterculture Invented Wellness," the recently published book by Matthew Ingram....
Madeline Lane-McKinleyOct 11, 2020
- Cultural Studies
- Politics and Economics