Category
Essays
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Law, Written in Spray Paint
“Paying attention to the temporary markings etched onto the asphalt, we are afforded a glimpse into the otherwise hidden world that lies below the city’s surface.”
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The Encyclopedia Project, or How to Know in the Age of AI
In an age when AI regurgitates the blather of meaningless content, seeking its audience in the attention marketplace, it’s a small wonder that it is hard to tell what is really real anymore.
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Finding Sanctuary in Art
A single mural in San Francisco’s Mission District honors Latinx victims of police violence both at the US border and in US cities.
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From Suspect to Perpetrator: How History Shaped the Modern U.S. Border Patrol Agent
I was a modern agent of the state.
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Containment and Care in the Sonoran Desert
Prevention through deterrence did not prevent or deter migration. Instead, it corralled migration, hid it from view, and made it deadly.
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On the Edges of Fascism and Other Unsettling Possibilities
“Borders generate more human possibilities: citizens standing for the rights of noncitizens, finding them refuge, seeking them sanctuary, pushing at the margins of the state and its sovereignty.”
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The Border Patrol and Asylum Exclusion
Border Patrol has regularly abused its authority and mistreated immigrants and asylum seekers in countless ways. Yet its role as the frontline force in asylum exclusion has only grown.
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America’s Medicalized Borders: Past, Present, and Possible Future
“Only by building new models of collective health that are driven by solidarity, rather than fear, do we stand a chance of defeating today’s medical nativists.”
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The 100-Year-Old Racist Law that Broke America’s Immigration System
The Chinese and Asiatic exclusion laws of the 19th and early 20th century paved the way for the Immigration Act of 1924.
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The Border Is the Crisis: Reflections on the Centenary of the Immigration Act of 1924
One hundred years have passed since the passage of the Johnson-Reed Act and the creation of the Border Patrol. But the undercurrents that mobilized both never went away and are resurging with renewed fervor.
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“Things Happen, As They Do in War”: From Chaucer’s Siege of Troy to the Siege of Gaza
“Troilus and Criseyde” is not often regarded as war poetry. But in 2024, it’s impossible not to see the truth at the poem’s core: it’s a work about a city under siege.
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An Open Letter to Harvard: Concerning Protest & Palestine
A group of disciplined students implore Harvard to demonstrate ethical forbearance and drop all of the dubious charges leveled against students who nonviolently protested for Palestine.
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Between the Book Club and BookTok: Community Reading in Montreal
Page Break, a weekly hour of silent reading hosted by Montreal’s De Stiil bookstore, reveals broad generational differences in forms of literary community.
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In Defense of Imagination
West Virginia University’s unprecedented cuts to its liberal arts programs sells the public a university tethered to market demands at the expense of imaginative expansion and intellectual curiosity.
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Pieces of the Past at the Doctors House: Glendale, California
The house may appear as a mere physical artifact, but it contains larger stories of American migration and growth, reckonings with exclusion, and the advent of new technologies.
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The Multiplication of Monsters: Misinformation from Gutenberg to QAnon
Throughout history the introduction of new technologies has increased the circulation and acceptance of rumors and disinformation.
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Women’s Land and Language: Huntington, Vermont
In the physical space of HOWL, a feminist and separatist living community, discussion of feminist ideas takes on urgency when confronted with the immediate practicalities of daily living.
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Shoptalk: Overheard at ASA 2023 or MLA 2024?
This edition of Shoptalk asks: Can you guess which of the following was overheard at ASA 2023 and which was overheard at MLA 2024?
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Politics—Not Tech—Can Save Black Jobs from AI
Don’t plan to make individuals retrain for new jobs. Instead, build a society that upholds the lives of everyone.
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Making Fascism Work for Moderates
“The Southern Poverty Law Center describes The Camp of the Saints as ‘the favorite racist fantasy of the anti-immigrant movement in the US.’”
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Payback: Korean Revenge Dramas Will Do It for You
South Korean media excels at the revenge plot. Here are seven shows you can stream right now to get your fix.
