New Books in Critical Theory
Episodes
Gregory Sholette, "The Art of Activism and the Activism of Art" (Lund Humphries, 2021)
27 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Since the global financial crash of 2008, artists have become increasingly engaged in a wide range of cultural activism targeted against capitalism, p...
Digital Lethargy
27 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of High Theory, Tung-Hui Hu talks with Júlia Irion Martins about Digital Lethargy, as part of our High Theory in STEM series. As a mo...
Samo Tomšič, "The Labour of Enjoyment: Towards a Critique of Libidinal Economy" (Walther Konig Verlag, 2019)
27 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Enjoyment appears as purely private matter, but this is by far not the case. Ever since Aristotle the philosophical social critique is tormented by th...
Writing/Reading the Bible in Postcolonial Perspective
27 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The intricacies of imperialism and colonialism within the context of the Bible are nuanced and varied. Understanding the legacy of European Imperialis...
Juan Pablo Pardo-Guerra, "The Quantified Scholar: How Research Evaluations Transformed the British Social Sciences" (Columbia UP, 2022)
26 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How do metrics and quantification shape social science? In The Quantified Scholar: How Research Evaluations Transformed the British Social Sciences ...
NBN Classic: Theodor Adorno, "The Authoritarian Personality" (Verso, 2019)
25 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This episode proved remarkably popular, so we're reposting it as an NBN classic for those who missed it the first time. 70 years ago, the philosopher ...
NBN Classic: Zahi Zalloua, "Žižek on Race: Towards an Anti-Racist Future" (Bloomsbury, 2020)
25 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This episode proved remarkably popular, so we're reposting it as an NBN classic for those who missed it the first time. The Slovenian philosopher and ...
NBN Classic: Adrian Johnston, "A New German Idealism: Hegel, Žižek and Dialectical Materialism" (Columbia UP, 2018)
24 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This episode proved remarkably popular, so we're reposting it as an NBN classic for those who missed it the first time. In 2012, the world-renowned ph...
NBN Classic: Phillipa Chong, “Inside the Critics’ Circle: Book Reviewing in Uncertain Times” (Princeton UP, 2020)
24 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This episode proved remarkably popular, so we're reposting it as an NBN classic for those who missed it the first time. How does the world of book rev...
Yarimar Bonilla ed. et al., "Trouillot Remixed: The Michel-Rolph Trouillot Reader" (Duke UP, 2021)
23 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Throughout his career, the internationally renowned Haitian anthropologist Michel-Rolph Trouillot unsettled key concepts in anthropology, history, pos...
On Karl Marx's "The Communist Manifesto"
23 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
1848 was the Year of Revolutions in Europe. It was also the year that Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published The Communist Manifesto, proposing a ne...
Doug Greene, "Failure of Vision: Michael Harrington and the Limits of Democratic Socialism" (Zero Books, 2022)
23 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Democratic Socialists of America have exploded in the last few years, going from just a couple thousand members to close to a hundred thousand. Th...
Paula Serafini, "Creating Worlds Otherwise: Art, Collective Action, And (Post)Extractivism" (Vanderbilt UP, 2022)
22 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How are art and social justice intertwined? In Creating Worlds Otherwise: Art, Collective Action, and (Post)Extractivism Paula Serafini, a Lecturer...
Olúfemi Táíwò, "Against Decolonization: Taking African Agency Seriously" (Hurst, 2022)
22 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Decolonisation has lost its way. Originally a struggle to escape the West’s direct political and economic control, it has become a catch-all idea, o...
Kim Q. Hall, "Queering Philosophy" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022)
20 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Why isn’t there a queer subfield in philosophy? How has institutionalized philosophy continued to develop without a recognized specialization in que...
Nancy Fraser, "Cannibal Capitalism: How our System is Devouring Democracy, Care, and the Planet and What We Can Do About It" (Verso, 2022)
20 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Capital is currently cannibalizing every sphere of life–guzzling wealth from nature and racialized populations, sucking up our ability to care for e...
Raúl Pérez, "The Souls of White Jokes: How Racist Humor Fuels White Supremacy" (Stanford UP, 2022)
19 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Having a "good" sense of humor generally means being able to take a joke without getting offended—laughing even at a taboo thought or at another's e...
Lara Sheehi and Stephen Sheehi, "Psychoanalysis Under Occupation: Practicing Resistance in Palestine" (Routledge, 2021)
19 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On this episode, J.J. Mull interviews co-authors Lara and Stephen Sheehi about their book, Psychoanalysis Under Occupation: Practicing Resistance in ...
Charles William Johns, "Object Oriented Dialectics: Hegel, Heidegger, Harman" (Mimesis International, 2022)
15 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Object Oriented Dialectics: Hegel, Heidegger, Harman (Mimesis, 2022), Johns, in the style of Derrida, looks over the absence or spectre of the si...
Neferti X. M. Tadiar, "Remaindered Life" (Duke UP, 2022)
15 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Remaindered Life Neferti X. M. Tadiar offers a new conceptual vocabulary and framework for rethinking the dynamics of a global capitalism maintai...
Amber M. Trotter, "Psychoanalysis as a Subversive Phenomenon: Social Change, Virtue Ethics, and Analytic Theory" (Lexington Books, 2020)
14 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
“Perhaps psychoanalysis survives because it obstinately carries a torch of wild freedom and reverence for the unknowable in a world of rational epis...
Finding Your Purpose
13 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This episode is the edited version of a live event held on June 17 2022 to celebrate the launch of Finding Your Purpose: a Higher Calling Workbook fo...
Danielle J. Lindemann, "True Story: What Reality TV Says About Us" (FSG, 2022)
12 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Why is reality TV important? In True Story: What Reality TV Says About Us (FSG, 2022), Danielle J. Lindemann, an Associate Professor of Sociology ...
Nicholas Gamso, "Art After Liberalism" (Columbia UP, 2022)
12 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Art After Liberalism (Columbia UP, 2022) is an account of creative practice at a moment of converging political and social rifts – a moment that co...
Pew Research Center: Analyzing the Evangelical Right
09 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
You’ve seen hilarious videos of the evangelicals for Trump. You might be inclined to ignore them, mock their excesses, or dismiss their threat. But ...
The Twisted Science of Great Replacement Theory
08 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On May 14, 2022, a shooter opened fire in a supermarket in Buffalo, New York. Ten people were killed, an additional three injured. The suspect in the ...
Lorgia García Peña, "Translating Blackness: Latinx Colonialities in Global Perspective" (Duke UP, 2022)
08 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Translating Blackness: Latinx Colonialities in Global Perspective (Duke University Press, 2022), Lorgia García Peña considers Black Latinidad...
Neoliberalism
06 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Troy Vettese talks with us about neoliberalism. It turns out the neoliberals aren’t actually a secret cabal of dastardly villains, ...
Adrian Little, "Temporal Politics: Contested Pasts, Uncertain Futures" (Edinburgh UP, 2022)
06 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Temporal Politics: Contested Pasts, Uncertain Futures (Edinburgh UP, 2022), Adrian Little demonstrates how different conceptions of past, presen...
Liz Bucar, "Stealing My Religion: Not Just Any Cultural Appropriation" (Harvard UP, 2022)
06 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Liz Bucar is the Director of Sacred Writes, Professor of Religion, and Dean’s Leadership Fellow at Northeastern University. Bucar is an expert in ...
Erin James, "Narrative in the Anthropocene" (Ohio State UP, 2022)
05 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Narrative in the Anthropocene (Ohio State UP, 2022), Erin James poses two complementary questions: What can narrative teach us about our current...
Paul A. Silverstein, "Postcolonial France: The Question of Race and the Future of the Republic" (Pluto Press, 2018)
02 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
France is a bellwether for the postcolonial anxieties and populist politics emerging across the world today. Postcolonial France: The Question of Rac...
Anthony Downey, "Critique in Practice: Renzo Martens' Episode III (Enjoy Poverty)" (Sternberg Press, 2020)
01 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 2008, the artist Renzo Martens released his controversial film Episode 3: Enjoy Poverty filmed in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The film port...
Philipp Felsch, "The Summer of Theory: History of a Rebellion, 1960-1990" (Polity Press, 2021)
01 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
'Theory' - a magical glow has emanated from this word since the sixties. Theory was more than just a succession of ideas: it was an article of faith, ...
Leslie Kern, "Gentrification is Inevitable and Other Lies" (Verso, 2022)
31 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What does gentrification look like? Can we even agree that it is a process that replaces one community with another? It is a question of class? Or of ...
Property Technology
30 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of High Theory, Erin McElroy talks with Nathan Kim about Property Technology. This is the first episode in the High Theory in STEM ser...
Jennifer Jill Fellows and Lisa Smith, "Gender, Sex, and Tech!: An Intersectional Feminist Guide" (Canadian Scholars, 2022)
29 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this timely collection, gender, sex, and technology are explored through an intersectional and interdisciplinary lens. Gender, Sex, and Tech!: An ...
Kareem Rabie, "Palestine Is Throwing a Party and the Whole World Is Invited: Capital and State Building in the West Bank" (Duke UP, 2021)
26 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 2008, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad invited international investors to the first-ever Palestine Investment Conference, which was designed...
Ruben Espinosa, "Shakespeare on the Shades of Racism" (Routledge, 2021)
26 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Shakespeare on the Shades of Racism (Routledge, 2021), Ruben Espinosa explores the works of the early modern dramatist in the context of Trump-er...
Paul Adler, "No Globalization Without Representation: U.S. Activists and World Inequality" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2021)
26 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Paul Adler's No Globalization Without Representation: U.S. Activists and World Inequality (U Pennsylvania Press, 2021) is a history of the hardwork...
Enter the Zuckerverse: On the Metaverse and its Corporatization
25 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The term “metaverse” was coined in a 1993 science fiction novel. Since then, it’s grown from a dystopian literary concept to a reality that corp...
Alfie Bown, "Dream Lovers: The Gamification of Relationships" (Pluto Press, 2022)
24 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We are in the middle of a 'desirevolution' - a fundamental and political transformation of the way we desire as human beings. Perhaps as always, new t...
Ben Rhodes, "After the Fall: Being American in the World We've Made" (Random House, 2021)
24 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Ben Rhodes visited dozens of countries, meeting with politicians and activists confronting the same nationalism and authoritarianism that are tearing ...
Gamify Everything: Turning Work Into Play . . . for Better and for Worse
24 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Setting goals for the new year? Learning a language? Going for a run? Delivering food? Picking packages off a warehouse shelf for delivery? There’s ...
Reality TV
23 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of High Theory, Olivia Stowell speaks with Saronik about Reality TV. In the episode she talks about the genesis of the genre in Candi...
Mathew Lawrence and Adrienne Buller, "Owning the Future: Power and Property in an Age of Crisis" (Verso, 2022)
23 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Adrienne Buller (The Value of a Whale) and Mathew Lawrence (Planet on Fire) have penned a radical manifesto for the transformation of post-pandemic...
Simon Truwant, "Cassirer and Heidegger in Davos: The Philosophical Arguments" (Cambridge UP, 2022)
22 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The 1929 encounter between Ernst Cassirer and Martin Heidegger in Davos, Switzerland is considered one of the most important intellectual debates of t...
Karen Archey, "After Institutions" (Les presses du réel, 2022)
22 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Faced with waning state support, declining revenue, and forced entrepreneurialism, museums have become a threatened public space. Simultaneously, they...
Selene Wendt, "Beyond the Door of No Return: Confronting Hidden Colonial Histories Through Contemporary Art" (Skira, 2021)
19 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Beyond the Door of No Return: Confronting Hidden Colonial Histories through Contemporary Art (Skira, 2021), art historian and curator Selene Wen...
Carmen Martínez Novo, "Undoing Multiculturalism: Resource Extraction and Indigenous Rights in Ecuador" (U Pittsburgh Press, 2021)
18 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
President Rafael Correa (2007-2017) led the Ecuadoran Citizens’ Revolution that claimed to challenge the tenets of neoliberalism and the legacies of...
Antonio C. Cuyler, "Access, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Cultural Organizations: Insights from the Careers of Executive Opera Managers of Color in the US" (Routledge, 2020)
18 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Where are the success stories for people of color in opera? In Access, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Cultural Organizations: Insights from the ...
Rochelle DuFord, "Solidarity in Conflict: A Democratic Theory" (Stanford UP, 2022)
18 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Of all the concepts that form the constellation of modern political thought, surely “solidarity” is a strong candidate for the most challenging. A...
The Pavilion: When Canadians First Had to Confront the Country’s Genocidal Story
18 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Expo 1967 was the centrepiece of Canada’s 100th birthday. Amid the crowds and the pageantry, one building stood out: The Indians of Canada Pavilion....
Linda Connolly and Tina O’Toole, "Documenting Irish Feminisms: The Second Wave" (Arlen House, 2022)
17 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Linda Connolly is a professor of sociology at Maynooth University, with research focusing on gender, Irish society, family studies, migration, and Iri...
Normalization
17 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of High Theory, Gëzim Visoka and Nicolas Lemay-Hebert tell us about normalization in international relations. Their research applies ...
Paris Marx, "Road to Nowhere: What Silicon Valley Gets Wrong about the Future of Transportation" (Verso, 2022)
16 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Road to Nowhere: What Silicon Valley Gets Wrong about the Future of Transportation (Verso, 2022), Paris Marx identifies two convergent forces in...
Plague Robbers--Nothing Spreads Like Greed: The Pandemic Profiteers Who Made the Crisis Worse
16 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Has the pandemic taught us anything? As we look forward and imagine what the future might look like, we like to think ‘next time will be different.’...
Modifying Maize: How Genetically Modified Corn Changed Science, Academia and Indigenous Rights in Mexico (Part 1 of 2)
11 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This is part 1 of a 2-part series from Cited - the predecessor of Darts and Letters. When genetically modified corn was found in the highlands of Mexi...
The Colonial Lens: Analyzing Decolonization, Reconciliation, and Colonialism in Academia
10 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Scholars want to decolonize everything, and universities say they are doing the hard work of reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. But is anything r...
Letters from Herzl: Settler Colonialism at work in Palestine
09 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Today’s episode originally aired in May of 2021, while violence was erupting all along the Gaza Strip. Israeli airstrikes had left over 200 Palestin...
Nasar Meer, "The Cruel Optimism of Racial Justice" (Policy Press, 2022)
08 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Why are societies still not offering racial equality? In The Cruel Optimism of Racial Justice (Policy Press, 2022), Nasar Meer, a professor of Rac...
Itay Lotem, "The Memory of Colonialism in Britain and France: The Sins of Silence" (Palgrave MacMillan, 2021)
05 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In The Memory of Colonialism in Britain and France: The Sins of Silence (Palgrave MacMillan, 2021), Itay Lotem explores the remembering of empire i...
Heide Hinrichs and Jo-Ey Tang, "Shelf Documents: Art Library as Practice" (Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, 2021)
05 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How can a library change the world? How can an art library change the art school or the gallery? Or even an art practice? In Shelf Documents: Art Lib...
Tema Milstein and José Castro-Sotomayor, "Routledge Handbook of Ecocultural Identity" (Routledge, 2020)
03 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Routledge Handbook of Ecocultural Identity (Routledge, 2020) brings the ecological turn to sociocultural understandings of self. Tema Milstein ...
Lindsay Pérez Huber and Susana M. Muñoz, "Why They Hate Us: How Racist Rhetoric Impacts Education" (Teachers College Press, 2021)
03 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Why They Hate Us: How Racist Rhetoric Impacts Education (Teachers College Press, 2021) examines how racist political rhetoric has created damaging an...
Daniel Laurison, "Producing Politics: Inside the Exclusive Campaign World Where the Privileged Few Shape Politics for All of Us" (Beacon Press, 2022)
01 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Who runs American politics? In Producing Politics: Inside the Exclusive Campaign World Where the Privileged Few Shape Politics for All of Us (Beacon...
Hawa Allan, "Insurrection: Rebellion, Civil Rights, and the Paradoxical State of Black Citizenship" (Norton, 2022)
29 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The little-known and under-studied 1807 Insurrection Act was passed to give the president the ability to deploy federal military forces to fend off la...
Christof Dejung et al., "The Global Bourgeoisie: The Rise of the Middle Classes in the Age of Empire" (Princeton UP, 2019)
27 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
While the nineteenth century has been described as the golden age of the European bourgeoisie, the emergence of the middle class and bourgeois culture...
James Steinhoff, "Automation and Autonomy: Labour, Capital and Machines in the Artificial Intelligence Industry" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021)
27 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Automation and Autonomy: Labour, Capital and Machines in the Artificial Intelligence Industry (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021) argues that Marxist theory ...
Heejung Chung, "The Flexibility Paradox: Why Flexible Working Leads To (Self-)Exploitation" (Polity Press, 2022)
26 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Why are we working harder? In The Flexibility Paradox: Why Flexible Working Leads To (Self-)Exploitation (Polity Press, 2022), Heejung Chung, a pr...
Michael Bérubé and Jennifer Ruth, "It's Not Free Speech: Race, Democracy, and the Future of Academic Freedom" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2022)
25 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The protests of summer 2020 led to long-overdue reassessments of the legacy of racism and white supremacy in both American academe and cultural life m...
Jason Resnikoff, "Labor's End: How the Promise of Automation Degraded Work" (U Illinois Press, 2021)
21 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Labor's End: How the Promise of Automation Degraded Work (U Illinois Press, 2021) traces the discourse around automation from its origins in the fact...
Alice Crary and Lori Gruen, "Animal Crisis: A New Critical Theory" (Polity, 2022)
20 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
As we lose more individual animals and entire species to catastrophic climate change, habitat destruction, toxic dumping, and other human activities, ...
Maxwell Kennel, "Postsecular History: Political Theology and the Politics of Time" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021)
20 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this thought provoking book entitled PostSecular History:Political Theology and The Politics of Time (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021), Max Kennel exp...
Erika Balsom and Hila Peleg, "Feminist Worldmaking and the Moving Image" (MIT Press, 2022)
20 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Erika Balsom and Hila Peleg's edited volume Feminist Worldmaking and the Moving Image (MIT Press, 2022) offers intersectional, intergenerational, an...
Black Trans Feminism
19 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Marquis Bey talks about the radical and abolitionist project of Black Trans Feminism. Rather than an identity formation, it is a politics and modality...
Melanie Bell, "Movie Workers: The Women Who Made British Cinema" (U Illinois Press, 2021)
19 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Where are the women in the history of British cinema? In Movie Workers: The Women Who Made British Cinema (U Illinois Press, 2021), Melanie Bell, a...
Asim Qureshi, "I Refuse to Condemn: Resisting Racism in Times of National Security" (Manchester UP, 2020)
15 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In times of heightened national security, scholars and activists from the communities under suspicion often attempt to alert the public to the more co...
Daniel Wirls, "The Senate: From White Supremacy to Governmental Gridlock" (U Virginia Press, 2021)
14 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Daniel Wirls, Professor of Politics at the University of California-Santa Cruz, has a new book that continues his research stream on the United States...
Jed Esty, "The Future of Decline: Anglo-American Culture at Its Limits" (Stanford Briefs, 2022)
13 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
As the US becomes a second-place nation, can it shed the superpower nostalgia that still haunts the UK? The debate over the US's fading hegemony has r...
Nicole Erin Morse, "Selfie Aesthetics: Seeing Trans Feminist Futures in Self-Representational Art" (Duke UP, 2022)
13 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Selfie Aesthetics: Seeing Trans Feminist Futures in Self-Representational Art (Duke University Press, 2022) Nicole Erin Morse examines how trans...
Penny Jane Burke et al., "Gender in an Era of Post-truth Populism: Pedagogies, Challenges and Strategies" (Bloomsbury, 2022)
11 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Why does gender matter in our troubled global times? In Gender in an Era of Post-truth Populism: Pedagogies, Challenges and Strategies (Bloomsbury, ...
Helen Morgan, "The Work of Whiteness: A Psychoanalytic Perspective" (Routledge, 2021)
06 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
'Whiteness' is a politically constructed category which needs to be understood and dismantled because the system of racism so embedded within our soci...
Ben Davis, "Art in the After-Culture: Capitalist Crisis and Cultural Strategy" (Haymarket Books, 2022)
06 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It is a scary and disorienting time for art, as it is a scary and disorienting time in general. Aesthetic experience is both overshadowed by the spect...
Mattin, "Social Dissonance" (MIT Press, 2022)
05 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We are not what we think we are. Our self-image as natural individuated subjects is determined behind our backs: historically by political forces, cog...
Adrienne Buller, "The Value of a Whale: On the Illusions of Green Capitalism" (Manchester UP, 2022)
05 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this searing and insightful critique, Adrienne Buller examines the fatal biases that have shaped the response of our governing institutions to clim...
Max Ajl, "A People's Green New Deal" (Pluto Press, 2021)
05 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The idea of a Green New Deal was launched into popular consciousness by US Congressperson Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in 2018. It has become a watchword ...
Elisabeth R. Anker, "Ugly Freedoms" (Duke UP, 2022)
04 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Ugly Freedoms (Duke UP, 2022), Elisabeth R. Anker reckons with the complex legacy of freedom offered by liberal American democracy, outlining ho...
Roberto J. González, "War Virtually: The Quest to Automate Conflict, Militarize Data, and Predict the Future" (U California Press, 2022)
01 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A critical look at how the US military is weaponizing technology and data for new kinds of warfare—and why we must resist. War Virtually: The Quest...
Rae Lynn Schwartz-DuPre, "Curious about George: Curious George, Cultural Icons, Colonialism, and US Exceptionalism" (UP of Mississippi, 2021)
01 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 1940, Hans Augusto Rey and Margret Rey built two bikes, packed what they could, and fled wartime Paris. Among the possessions they escaped with was...
Kuba Szreder, "The ABC of the Projectariat: Living and Working in a Precarious Art World" (Manchester UP, 2021)
01 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Labour has taken an about-turn. From Adam Smith’s proposal for specialisation which saw the factory line reorganised so that each worker needed to u...
Stefanie K. Dunning, "Black to Nature: Pastoral Return and African American Culture" (UP of Mississippi, 2021)
01 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Black to Nature: Pastoral Return and African American Culture (University Press of Mississippi, 2021), author Stefanie K. Dunning considers b...
Ruth Wilson Gilmore, "Abolition Geography: Essays Towards Liberation" (Verso, 2022)
27 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Gathering together Ruth Wilson Gilmore’s work from over three decades, Abolition Geography: Essays Toward Liberation (Verso, 2022) presents her si...
Alan Lane, "The Club on the Edge of Town: A Pandemic Memoir" (Salamander Street, 2022)
24 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What happened to arts organisations during the pandemic? In The Club on the Edge of Town: A Pandemic Memoir (Salamander Street, 2022), Alan Lane, A...
Mark Andrejevic, "Automated Media" (Routledge, 2019)
24 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this era of pervasive automation, Mark Andrejevic provides an original framework for tracing the logical trajectory of automated media and their so...
Joni Schwartz and John R. Chaney, "Gifts from the Dark: Learning from the Incarceration Experience" (Lexington Books, 2022)
24 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
While in no way supporting the systemic injustices and disparities of mass incarceration, in Gifts from the Dark: Learning from the Incarceration Exp...
Bianca C. Williams et al., "Plantation Politics and Campus Rebellions: Power, Diversity, and the Emancipatory Struggle in Higher Education" (SUNY Press, 2021)
23 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Plantation Politics and Campus Rebellions: Power, Diversity, and the Emancipatory Struggle in Higher Education (SUNY Press, 2021) provides a multidi...
Dayna Bowen Matthew, "Just Health: Treating Structural Racism to Heal America" (NYU Press, 2022)
23 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the United States, systemic racism is embedded in policies and practices, thereby structuring American society to perpetuate inequality and all of ...
Joseph A. Boone, "The Homoerotics of Orientalism" (Columbia UP, 2014)
22 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
One of the largely untold stories of Orientalism is the degree to which the Middle East has been associated with "deviant" male homosexuality by score...
Jonathan Crary, "Scorched Earth: Beyond the Digital Age to a Post-Capitalist World" (Verso, 2022)
22 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this uncompromising essay, Jonathan Crary presents the obvious but unsayable reality: our ‘digital age’ is synonymous with the disastrous termi...