“Many people who call themselves very patriotic, even nationalist, leave [Ukraine], while the people who are actually protecting it are the common people.”
Interviews
Five Books on Labor and Ecology
Our scorching planetary age results from the conjoined forces of colonial extractivism, fossil capitalism, and postcolonial developmentalism.
“Gestures of Refusal”: A Conversation with Sarah Bernstein and Daisy Lafarge
“Why do we want our characters to be innocent, as if we are innocent ourselves?”
“Dignity Matters as Much as Material Needs”: Michèle Lamont on Recognition Claims and Understanding American Politics
“To recognize the existence of injuries requires the recognition of others and their dignity.”
The Seduction of Desert Spectacles: Talking “Arid Empire” with Natalie Koch and Andrew Curley
“You cannot divorce domestic empire from international empire. Those histories created one another.”
Don’t Save Yourself, Save the World: A Dialogue with Vincent Lloyd
“I’m very skeptical about the ability of people in positions of power and privilege—including intellectuals—to name truths about the world.”
“If It Bleeds, We Can Kill It”: Ander Monson on “Predator” and the Monster of American Masculinity
“I see actual male friendship, in a way that I don't in almost any other action movie from the 80s.”
Nostalgia’s Empire: A Conversation with Grafton Tanner and Johny Pitts
Nostalgia is both a threat and a refuge.
Finding the Latinx City with Mike Amezcua and Pedro A. Regalado
“Sometimes Latino urban history is thought of as the history of a cultural community and that’s a little dismissive. I examine people contesting and reshaping the use of space.”
“We Want More Housing, but How?” Talking with Max Holleran
“There are a lot of basic things that America has still not accepted in terms of how to live a happy urban life.”
Chains of Domination, Chains of Solidarity: Benjamin L. McKean on Justice, Solidarity, Supply Chains
“For good or ill, freedom and solidarity and social justice are not things we can get quickly.”
Cooking, Monasteries, Arithmetic: Lorraine Daston on the History of Rules
“There is a deadly earnestness with which children take up whatever rules have been established for a particular context.”
5 Books on the Politics of Indonesian Labor
People are familiar with how big the Japanese and South Korean economies are, but Indonesia is a rising power in Asia with a large labor force, and it’s very rarely being talked about.
“To Reach across Boundaries”: Laleh Khalili Talks Solidarity and Global Trade
“It is precisely because we are unlike, or we haven't had the same experiences, that solidarity can be built.”
Saying Goodbye to Childhood: An Interview with Javier Zamora
“I hope people will see the heartbreak of a little kid having to grow up and say goodbye to his childhood in order to survive.”
Public Thinker: Ruha Benjamin on Uprooting Oppression and Seeding Justice
“Keep your cosmetic change, if you’re making no attempt to deal with the underlying practices that perpetuate harm.”
Car Creditocracy: An Interview with Julie Livingston & Andrew Ross
“If you are a car owner, you are red meat for whoever wants to prey upon you, whether it is police, auto lenders, or state agencies.”
Filming the Deep: Margaret Cohen on Underwater Film Technologies
"The book is about the importance of film for enabling audiences to connect to the most remote environment on the planet."
What Films Should We Teach?: A conversation about the Canon
What are the most-assigned films in college classrooms? Three film studies professors talk about the rankings and what they mean.
“There’s No Normal to Get Back To”: The State of Higher Ed
"Maybe that’s one thing the pandemic has allowed—for us to be a bit more honest about our struggles."