BY JOHN HULTGRENBennington College Academics are typically tasked with giving complex accounts of complex situations. We specialize in stories of nuance, where power operates with such subtlety that its movement through the social body requires explaining and unmasking. Simple explanations are to be suspect, as are prescriptions for immediate action. There are moments, however, when … More Children. Before. Borders.
BY KATE VIEIRAUniversity of Wisconsin, Madison I am not an expert on the effects of the forcible separation of children from their parents. I believe the experts. I believe the American Association of Pediatrics president who says that the policy, in that it affects children’s brain chemistry, causes irreparable harm. I believe the scholars of … More ¿Cómo Ubico Mis Hijos? (How do I locate my children?)
BY THOMAS BIOLSIUniversity of California, Berkeley How should we make sense of “red states” and “blue states,” and in a way that does not fall victim to the political polarization that seems to have reached a crescendo in the present? My new book, Power and Progress on the Prairie, seeks to uncover the history of … More Governing the countryside: On modernity and progress in rural South Dakota.
BY NICOLE NGUYENAssistant professor of social foundations of education at the University of Illinois-Chicago In 2015, the FBI launched the controversial website Don’t Be a Puppet: Pull Back the Curtain on Violent Extremism. Through interactive games, the playful website intends to prevent young people from embracing extremist beliefs. Don’t Be a Puppet also offers resources … More When Homeland Security goes to school
BY LYNN MIE ITAGAKIAssociate professor, The Ohio State University Violence in the Middle East. Upheavals in Europe. Anxieties about American decline. Economic fears. A recent recession. Police brutality caught on video. Interracial conflict. Attacks on the police. A Clinton presidential campaign. The year was 1992, although it could just as easily be 2016. On the … More On the vengeance of a divided country, 1992 and 2016
BY CURTIS MAREZProfessor of ethnic studies at the University of California, San Diego Even before Donald Trump promised to build one, U.S. popular culture was preoccupied with walls—most famously the Wall in Game of Thrones that protects the Seven Kingdoms from the wildlings. Contemporary depictions of zombies are set amid fences and fortifications that recall … More Of walls and robots: The future of immigration
Cliff’s writing serves as a model for how to confront the dualities of our complex world. The University of Minnesota Press is deeply saddened to hear of Michelle Cliff’s death. Cliff embraced her many identities as a light-skinned Creole, a lesbian, and an immigrant in both England and the United States to prove the intersections … More Author Michelle Cliff dies at 69
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
BY AMY BROWNUniversity of Pennsylvania On a spring day in 2010, I interviewed Sebastian Thomas, head of the in-house nonprofit organization at the public New York City high school at which I taught for two years (referred to here as “College Prep”). Thomas was responsible for organizing the benefits, films, flyers, media, and other forms … More What are the implications of philanthropic relationships in education?
BY CATHERINE VIEIRAAssistant professor of English at the University of Wisconsin, Madison The United States is a nation of immigrants. But immigrating here—or coming as a refugee—has never been easy. Refugees and immigrants take difficult, dangerous, and expensive journeys. And they also undertake paperwork. Lots of it. Potential immigrants and asylum seekers must present themselves … More "Before the fence, before the checkpoints, before the border guards, there are the documents and the bureaucrats": On immigration and literacy.
