Month: July 2014

Linda LeGarde Grover on the merits of time-honored oral tradition and contemporary fictional storytelling.

July 30, 2014

BY LINDA LEGARDE GROVERRecipient of the Flannery O’Connor Award and the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize; associate professor of American Indian studies at the University of Minnesota Duluth Although I didn’t know it at the time, The Road Back to Sweetgrass began during a visit to an elderly Ojibwe man’s house some years ago. Invited by … More Linda LeGarde Grover on the merits of time-honored oral tradition and contemporary fictional storytelling.

Sexuality in school: LGBT issues are not the exclusive concern of LGBT students.

July 23, 2014

BY JEN GILBERTAssociate professor in the Faculty of Education at York University, Toronto When lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues emerge in schools, it is often as controversy. Battles over sex education, worries about young children reading picture books about same-sex families, outrage at boys taking boys to the prom, lawsuits over gay-straight alliances, and … More Sexuality in school: LGBT issues are not the exclusive concern of LGBT students.

Reflections on Jacques Derrida, born on this day in 1930.

July 15, 2014

BY CARY WOLFEFounding editor, Posthumanities Series at University of Minnesota Press On this occasion of what would have been Jacques Derrida’s 84th birthday, it is worth reflecting once more on the resonance of his work for our own moment—a resonance that depends not only on his own remarkable body of writings, of course, but also … More Reflections on Jacques Derrida, born on this day in 1930.

Racial inequality remains etched into the very foundation of the U.S. interstate highway program and its cities.

July 10, 2014

A Los Angeles freeway in 2009. In his new book, Eric Avila digs into thecultural history of the U.S. interstate highway program.Image via Creative Commons. BY ERIC AVILAProfessor of history, Chicano studies, and urban planning at UCLA——- Avila is the author of The Folklore of the Freeway: Race and Revolt in the Modernist City, which … More Racial inequality remains etched into the very foundation of the U.S. interstate highway program and its cities.