Our awareness of death, of our finite existence as mortal beings, significantly shapes our social organization and how we ensure the (re)production of life itself. … More Freedom, fatal convictions, and the face mask.
BY GERDA ROELVINK Over the past six months in Australia we have experienced a long and extreme drought, devastating widespread bush fires, and now the Covid-19 pandemic. These crises have brought to the fore already simmering questions about how we are to survive, let alone thrive, with others on this planet. Achille Mbembe’s (2020) reflection … More The Power of a Pause
BY MINDY GREILING Many people are seeking mental health support during the sheltering-in-place COVID-19 siege. Social media is fraught with posts about the anxiety and depression it can cause, and the National Institute of Mental Health is researching how stressors related to the virus affect mental health. Our son Jim, who has a mental illness, … More On caring for a loved one with mental illness during Covid-19.
BY JAMES TYNER On May 12, 2020, during a Senate Health Committee hearing, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) questioned Dr. Anthony Fauci about the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and efforts to ‘reopen’ the U.S. economy. Paul’s frontal attack on Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was part of a concerted effort among … More False profits and finding meaning in life.
BY MARC DOUSSARD Risky work and low pay shouldn’t co-exist. Economics textbooks and the public policies they support treat high pay—whether it’s an hourly wage, a stock option, or a lofty salary—as necessary compensation for the risks that befall people on the job. Without raising hourly pay well into the double digits, unpleasant or physically … More Covid-19 and the struggle at the bottom of the labor market
BY JAMES TYNER As the coronavirus identified as Covid-19 began its steady, inexorable sweep across the globe—and, in the process, infecting not only people but the global economy—leaders in the United States sat by idly. Scientific experts, long chastised by President Trump and his followers as members of the ‘Deep State’, were silenced and subdued. … More As the novel coronavirus rages in the US, it reveals a systemic rot and the privilege of profits over premature death.
Dear friends, In this time of distancing, I’ve been nostalgic for those most ordinary communal experiences from the old world. Lunch with a friend, an evening at the theatre or cinema, a stroll through the museum: how easy it was to take these things for granted. Bookstore haunting is one of my very favorite pastimes. … More It’s our time to rally around local independent booksellers.
Dear U of MN Press community, friends, authors, scholars, and readers: To call these times unprecedented in our country and our world does not do justice to the level of disruption, difficulty, and genuine peril at our doorsteps. As with most of you, the emergency arrived swiftly at the Press. First, highly anticipated travel and … More The Stories Still Need to Be Told: A Message for Our University of Minnesota Press Community
