BY ANDRÉ CARRINGTONAssistant professor of English at Drexel University In the 21st century, society has grown to rely on the axiom that “race” is a lie. For some people, out of paranoia or a desire to avoid conflict, touting the knowledge that race is socially constructed is a way of declaring that ignorance about what … More Racial justice, American exceptionalism, and speculative fiction
This publicity photograph from RCA emphasizes the wealth and prestige of the first television viewers posed in front of the TRK-12 RCA receiver.Courtesy of the Hagley Museum and Library. BY DANIELLE SHAPIRO Today, we take television for granted. It is everywhere, in different sizes and shapes, in our pockets and our living room walls. It is … More The 1939–40 New York World’s Fair publicly launched the first idea of the television and what it can do.
This billboard appeared in Dallas, Texas, in 2015. Despite widespread condemnation,reparative (also known as “ex-gay” or “reorientation”) therapies still exist in some states. BY TOM WAIDZUNASAssistant professor of sociology at Temple University I recently traveled to Texas to talk about my new book The Straight Line: How the Fringe Science of Ex-Gay Therapy Reoriented Sexuality. … More Reparative therapies remain alive and well in some US states—Texas and Oklahoma included.
A homeless man in New York. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has been interestedin East New York as a mass transit hub—but at what cost to the rest of the neighborhood?Image: Wikimedia Commons. BY CRAIG WILLSEAssistant professor of cultural studies, George Mason University A recent article in the Wall Street Journal publicized new … More Homelessness and housing justice in gentrifying Brooklyn
BY GRANT FARREDCornell University I’ve been living with Martin Heidegger for a while now. Longer, I suppose, than I could accurately tell. At some point, maybe ten or so years ago, I turned to Heidegger and since then I have been unable to get away from him. And, as if to intensify that truth, I … More Living with the ghost of Martin Heidegger
A view of flooded New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, September 2005.It’s been ten years since, and yet it left lessons that remain to be learned. BY CEDRIC JOHNSONAssociate professor of African American studies and political sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago It has been ten years since New Orleans was … More Hurricane Katrina, ten years later: When the investor class goes marching in
Recent events in America including the #BlackLivesMatter movement areforcing white Americans to look at race in a way that’s uncomfortable—but also much more realistic.Image taken in November 2014 of a demonstration in New York City. Credit: Flickr. BY JULIA LEEAssistant professor of English at University of Nevada, Las Vegas According to a recent poll, nearly … More Examining America’s rhetoric of postracial progress.
This image created by the Hubble Space Telescopeis often referred to as the “Pillars of Creation.” It hasbeen a common subject for painters such as Thomas Moran. BY ELIZABETH A. KESSLERStanford University On April 24, 1990, NASA launched the Hubble Space Telescope into its orbit above Earth. During its 25 years in space, astronomers have … More 25 years of Hubble images from space: strange, alien, phenomenal—and yet somehow, familiar.
Frank Paul, “Flying Man,” on the cover of Amazing Stories 3, no. 5 (August 1928). BY ADNAN MORSHEDAssociate professor of architecture and architectural history at the Catholic University of America A hundred years have passed since the world’s first scheduled passenger airline service. In Florida, on January 1, 1914, a Benoist XIV airboat flew from … More How early aviation inspired American utopianism
Children sit together on a tree limb in an uncredited Seventh-Day Adventist image. From Louis B. Reynolds and Charles L. Paddock, Little Journeys into Storyland: Stories That Will Live and Lift (Nashville: Southern Publishing Association, 1947). BY KATHARINE CAPSHAWAssociate professor of English at the University of Connecticut 2015 marks the 50th anniversary of the Voting … More The effect of Civil Rights photobooks in transforming the social consciousness of young people
