"I urge Japanese readers to take another look at their elementary and middle school textbooks."
All Articles
Why Does Japanese Society Overlook Racism?
"The Japanese government’s official position denies the very existence of racial discrimination."
NEUT Magazine on Making Space for Social Discourse in Japan
"I want the world to know that there are people speaking up and trying to change society here."
“It Is Not How You Feel”: Batja Mesquita on How Different Cultures Experience Emotions
"We define ourselves more by certain emotions. I've never heard anybody say, 'I'm trying to get over my embarrassment and I feel so inauthentic.'"
“Black Genius Against the World”
In 1937, a newspaper trumpeted two speculative fiction stories—“Black Internationale” and “Black Empire”— as dramatically as if they were news.
Data Free Disney
Each day, 50,000 people enter Disney’s theme parks, along with their phones, purchases, locations, and photos. What happens to the data?
World Literature Comes Full Circle, 1522–2022
What can readers learn from five centuries of circumnavigation?
“Once It Is Written, It Is Forgotten”: Kate Zambreno on Hervé Guibert
“So I must begin again, when I only have months left to write it.”
Shoptalk: Overheard at ASA and ASTR 2022
In this special mega edition of Shoptalk, guess which performative utterance was said at which conference.
“We Plot to Undo the World”
Artist Simone Leigh curated a series of intellectual sermons directed by Black women who grieved, strategized, loved, and yearned for community.
Public Picks 2022
What were the books of 2022 that dazzled, challenged, and inspired us?
Homeland Security Theater
These new DHS-funded graphic novels want to train citizens to be critical readers of all kinds of information, except their own propaganda.
How To Scuttle A Public Broadcaster
On the 100th anniversary of the founding of the BBC, national public broadcasters across the world are still subject to constant spurious attacks.
Student-Centered Pedagogy’s Activist Roots
For at least 150 years, Black and feminist educators understood that how one is taught effects how one participates in society.
When Panama Came to Brooklyn
“For those Afro-Caribbean Panamanian who had lived through Panama’s Canal Zone apartheid, Brooklyn segregation probably came as no surprise.”
Jewish Havens: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
For centuries, the city’s Sephardim adhered to Jewish law within the community, but also had secular lives in the relatively lax Dutch state.
Reading after the University
If you want to support readers, the best hope will always be helping do away with economic compulsion and the division of labor.
“The Last Samurai,” Unread
“In a world where the imagined purpose of the novel is to entertain—not to teach or spark further inquiry—The Last Samurai dissents.”
“The Breath of Life”: Sheila Heti on Art, Loss, and Immortality
“Let it become the thing that leads you through your days for years on end—just allowing that problem to live in front of you and to guide you.”
Reading by Translating: Ann Goldstein Talks with Saskia Ziolkowski