Unite the Right #2

Rally in DC doesn’t even unite the counter-protestors

When Unite the Right announced it would hold a rally across from the White House on the August 12 anniversary of its 2017 rally in Charlottesville VA, it caused a lot of consternation. Violence had permeated the 2017 event, resulting in the death of a counter protestor. Several organizations and coalitions ...
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Unite the Right #2

The View From My Sick Bed

Reflections on an Illness, a Family Photo, the Social Condition and Public Seminar

I have not been feeling well recently. I don’t believe it’s serious. But I am moved today, on yet another hot and humid New York Friday, to use my maladies to think out loud about their connection with some of my theoretical concerns, taking advantage of the perspective my mini-health ...
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The View From My Sick Bed

Hiding in Plain Sight

Revealing the Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire

Post Stonewall activism in the gay community ushered in an era of liberation that would result in a social shift toward increased visibility and acceptance. One of the most critical victories was the removal of homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) of Mental Disorders in 1973. Franklin Kameny, ...
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Hiding in Plain Sight

From the Cyborg Manifesto to The User Unconscious

A Commentary by Patricia Ticineto Clough

In the following commentary, psychoanalyst and professor for sociology and women studies Patricia Ticineto Clough reflects on how her recent work on the user unconscious expands on/differs from Donna Haraway’s groundbreaking essay “Cyborg Manifesto” in thinking about the human’s relation to/inevitable entanglement with the other-than-human and argues that her proposed ...
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From the Cyborg Manifesto to The User Unconscious

A Call for International Solidarity

On the fight for immigrant and refugee justice

About a month and a half ago I applied for an American tourist visa at the U.S. embassy in Skopje, Macedonia, because I plan on visiting my boyfriend there during fall break. Admittedly, I felt a little resentful of the process. Security guards with guns they weren’t going to use ...
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A Call for International Solidarity

The Watergate Babies

What the Congressional Class of 1974 can teach us about political change

It is less than ninety days until election day in the United States, when Democrats hope to achieve one of the biggest sweeps of Congressional seats in recent American history. Many of these Democratic hopefuls are veterans. As longtime political strategist Joe Trippi put it back in March, these are ...
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The Watergate Babies

Gender Reveal Party Fail

On Cisnormativity and its disruptions

In late 2016, a YouTube video entitled “Gender Reveal Party Fail” went viral. The video shows a couple named Joe and Leela Krummel standing over a large box covered in pastel pink and blue polka dots. During the brief 31-second clip, you can hear a group of people chat excitedly ...
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Gender Reveal Party Fail

Rethinking the Human in the Digital Age

An Excerpt from Patricia Ticineto Clough’s latest book

A commentary by Ticineto Clough on her latest book, in which she puts her concept of the user unconscious in relation to Donna Haraway’s “Cyborg Manifesto”, can be found here. The turns in philosophy, media studies, and critical theory to the posthuman, the nonhuman, and the ahuman befit both a post-national ...
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Rethinking the Human in the Digital Age

LIVE! Latinos in the Hamptons, Grift, and Rosé Wine

Past Present Episode 143

In this episode, Natalia, Niki, and Neil discuss the history of Latinos in the Hamptons, the problem of grift in Washington, and the sudden popularity of rosé wine. Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: Latino immigration has transformed Eastern Long Island. Natalia referenced this New York Times article on the political ...
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LIVE! Latinos in the Hamptons, Grift, and Rosé Wine

Queer Donald Trump and the Paradoxes of Power

What does Trump’s willingness to snuggle up to Putin say about the self-avowed pussy-grabber?

The descriptions of Donald Trump’s press conference in Helsinki with Vladimir Putin made it perfectly clear. A New York Times editorial referred to “Trump’s subservience to the Russian strongman” and his “globally televised submissiveness.” John McCain said Trump had “abased himself abjectly before a tyrant.” This, from Trump the authoritarian, the blusterer, the pussy-grabber, ...
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Queer Donald Trump and the Paradoxes of Power

The Whole World Is Watching?

Thoughts on police violence in the streets of Bucharest and the streets of Portland, Charlottesville, Ferguson, and Chicago 1968

“I merely took the energy it takes to pout, and I wrote some blues.” -Duke Ellington This past Friday night, August 10, a major demonstration was held at Piata Victorei in downtown Bucharest to protest the widespread corruption of the SPD government, led by Prime Minister Viorica Dăncilă, and by the ...
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The Whole World Is Watching?

Feminists Say

Gagging on rape

Last year the journal Studies in Gender and Sexuality published a panel called "The ontology of the rape joke," organized around a performance by Vanessa Place of her piece, "Rape joke." The panel included responses from Jamieson Webster, Jeff Dolven, Gayle Salamon, Kyoo Lee, Katie Gentile, and Virginia Goldner, and ended with ...
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Feminists Say