What the “Gender Reveal” Reveals

And what the party that caused California’s El Dorado fire was really all about

The El Dorado fire, one of the many currently burning on the west coast, is getting attention for its somewhat unusual cause: an explosive pyrotechnic device set off at a gender reveal party, something that might more accurately be termed a “genital and chromosome disclosure ritual.”   The news reports in ...
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What the “Gender Reveal” Reveals

Sentencing the Present: An Archive of a Crisis

Critical conversations in a time of crisis

A sentence is protean: It can describe, question, or cry out. A sentence is critical: In passing judgment, it names wrongs, makes decisions, and declares publicly. In a spirit of both open inquiry and political advocacy, and inspired by the response of readers to our own “Theses for Theory in ...
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Sentencing the Present: An Archive of a Crisis

Sentencing the Present: Part Five

Critical conversations in a time of crisis

This is the final seminar of the "Sentencing the Present" series. For previous seminars, see part one, part two, part three and part four. A sentence is protean: It can describe, question, or cry out. A sentence is critical: In passing judgment, it names wrongs, makes decisions, and declares publicly. In ...
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Sentencing the Present: Part Five