Cultural Studies

Ball Is Cry!! On Katie Heindl’s “Basketball Feelings”
Liz Wolfson profiles Katie Heindl, author of the sports Substack “Basketball Feelings.”...
Liz WolfsonJun 10
- Cultural Studies
- Sports
QAnon, a Compensatory Fantasy for a Nation in Decline: On Robert Guffey’s “Operation Mindfuck” and Mia Bloom and Sophia Moskalenko’s “Pastels and Pedophiles”
Jordan S. Carroll reviews Robert Guffey’s “Operation Mindfuck: QAnon and the Cult of Donald Trump” and Mia Bloom and Sophia Moskalenko’s “Pastels and Pedophiles: Inside the Mind of QAnon.”...
Jordan S. CarrollDec 31, 2022
- Cultural Studies
- Politics and Economics
How Do You Know What To Shoot?: On William Wyler and John Sturges’s “Thunderbolt”
On its 75th anniversary, Jason Resnikoff revisits the World War II documentary “Thunderbolt” and how it captures the relationship between filmmaking and war-making....
Jason ResnikoffDec 28, 2022
Open Season on Husbands: Female Revenge Movies of the Long 1990s
Isabelle Lang and Laura Valenza revisit the 1990s feminist revenge plot and its bearing on today’s domestic violence laws....
Isabelle Lang, Laura ValenzaNov 25, 2022
- Cultural Studies
- Film
Nada Que Ver: On Julián Cardona and Alice Leora Briggs’s “Abecedario de Juárez”
José Luis Benavides reviews “Abecedario de Juárez: An Illustrated Lexicon” by Julián Cardona and Alice Leora Briggs, with translations by Alice L. Driver....
José Luis BenavidesNov 21, 2022
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
- Cultural Studies
- Nonfiction
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....
Natalia Molina, Juan De Lara, George J. Sánchez, 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 and Economics
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
Cultural Dopes
The postmodernists had it right: all culture is the product of capitalism....
GD DessApr 8, 2022
- Cultural Studies
How Dictionaries Define Us: Margaret Boyle and Ilan Stavans in Conversation
What can dictionaries tell us about cultural crises and the politics of nationality?...
Ilan Stavans, Margaret BoyleMar 30, 2022
- Cultural Studies
Biohacking Pain: On Leigh Cowart’s “Hurts So Good: The Science and Culture of Pain on Purpose”
Why do some of us embrace — even pursue — painful experiences?...
Rhoda FengMar 10, 2022
- Cultural Studies
On Cat Pictures
The innate wildness of cats makes them rich fodder for internet memes....
Teow Lim GohJan 31, 2022
- Cultural Studies
The Jewish Decadence or the Decadence of Jews?
Natan M. Meir reviews the recently published book by Jonathan Freedman, “The Jewish Decadence: Jews and the Aesthetics of Modernity.”...
Natan M. MeirJan 25, 2022
- Cultural Studies
Imagining a More Habitable Present: On Grafton Tanner’s “The Hours Have Lost Their Clock: The Politics of Nostalgia”
Tanner’s new book examines how nostalgia circulates in our culture both innocuously and destructively....
Emmalea RussoDec 29, 2021
- Cultural Studies
Explicit and Confounding Books: On Christopher Hilliard’s “A Matter of Obscenity”
A lucid and engaging cultural history of censorship debates in Britain from 1857 to 1979....
Thomas J. SojkaDec 27, 2021
- Cultural Studies