What’s next for #MeToo? Rethinking the place for gender in politics and society with a look back to eighteenth-century France.

NANCY LUXONUniversity of Minnesota Never in history have questions of gender and authority been so acute. One cannot discuss contemporary politics without discussing gender – a remarkable development, given the previous absence of these conversations despite the stubborn persistence of gender inequalities in politics, the workplace, and beyond. In the United States, gender and authority … More What’s next for #MeToo? Rethinking the place for gender in politics and society with a look back to eighteenth-century France.

International Women’s Day 2018: On feminism’s political message and its past, present, and future.

BY JANET HALLEY, PRABHA KOTISWARAN, RACHEL REBOUCHÉ, AND HILA SHAMIR As we celebrate International Women’s Day, it is hard not to be struck by how ubiquitous the political message of feminism is. Until recently, announcing one’s feminist credentials elicited looks of surprise, incomprehension, or outright hostility. Fast forward to 2018 and Sweden has a foreign … More International Women’s Day 2018: On feminism’s political message and its past, present, and future.

Sexlexia: Reading Sex Work and Genre

BY NICHOLAS DE VILLIERS I have just returned from a lovely experience filming an interview segment for Juliana Piccillo’s documentary Whores on Film (forthcoming 2018), which she has conceived as The Celluloid Closet (Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, 1995) for sex workers: primarily sex workers discussing tropes in representations of sex workers in Hollywood movies, … More Sexlexia: Reading Sex Work and Genre

Exclusively gay, remarkably famous: The "fabulous potency" of Truman Capote and Gertrude Stein.

BY JEFF SOLOMONAssistant professor of English and women, gender, and sexuality studies at Wake Forest University Truman Capote and Gertrude Stein should not have been famous. Both secured their reputations between the Wilde trials and Stonewall, when the most widely available understandings of homosexuality were inversion and perversion, and when censorship prevented the public discussion … More Exclusively gay, remarkably famous: The "fabulous potency" of Truman Capote and Gertrude Stein.

Climate change, carbon-heavy masculinity, and the politics of exposure

BY STACY ALAIMOUniversity of Texas at Arlington The final weeks of the 2016 U.S. presidential election have become a lewd circus. Complex, urgent issues such as climate change have been upstaged by rude outbursts—“you’re a puppet!,”“such a nasty woman.” It is difficult to imagine these scenes could have anything at all to do with climate … More Climate change, carbon-heavy masculinity, and the politics of exposure

#INeedDiverseGames and why representation in games matters

Image copyright of Sylvie Reuter BY ADRIENNE SHAWAssistant professor of media studies and production at Temple University  After years of trying to explain my book, Gaming at the Edge, in a sound byte, I eventually boiled it down to the following: 1) players don’t care that much about representation in games, and 2) that’s a … More #INeedDiverseGames and why representation in games matters

Highly regarded author and professor José Esteban Muñoz dies

Muñoz’s work was foundational to studies of race, gender, and sexuality The University of Minnesota Press is saddened to learn of the untimely death of José Esteban Muñoz. Muñoz authored and edited several books and numerous scholarly articles. His first book, Disdentifications: Queers of Color and the Performance of Politics, was innovative and groundbreaking, and … More Highly regarded author and professor José Esteban Muñoz dies

“People are born here and only leave here when they die": On forced land eviction in Salvador, Brazil.

View of Gamboa de Baixo, a neighborhood in the Brazilian city of Salvador, Bahia, which is known for its Afro-Brazilian culture and street carnival. It is also known as Brazil’s “capital of happiness.” BY KEISHA-KHAN Y. PERRYAssistant professor of Africana studies at Brown University Gamboa de Baixo is a neighborhoodin the northeastern Brazilian cityof Salvador, … More “People are born here and only leave here when they die": On forced land eviction in Salvador, Brazil.