From the Editors Archives - Page 114 of 172

Feature

Grounding in Trump Time

Trump year 1

December 5, 2017 • by Tim Lacy

Since those first shocking days after the November 2016 presidential election, I’ve grounded myself by becoming, ironically, more radical and more alert to injustice. We’re now living in what I’ve taken to calling “Trump Time” -- a bizarre image of regular time wherein we’re all on alert for abuse. It ...

Feature

Why Both Parties May Regret a Government Shutdown

The continuing resolution showdown has risks for everyone

December 4, 2017 • by John Lawrence

Since Congress failed, as usual, to pass the appropriations bills by the October 1 deadline, legislators must extend existing spending levels to avoid a government shutdown. Despite the highly partisan atmosphere, virtually all extensions since 2011 have required the majority Republicans to seek Democratic votes because something less than 218 ...

Feature

Bill Clinton, the NYC Subway, and GOP’s Tax Plan

Past Present Episode 109

December 3, 2017 • by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Nicole Hemmer and Neil J. Young

In this episode, Niki, Neil, and Natalia debate the recent reckoning with Bill Clinton’s legacy, the state of the New York City subway, and the new tax reform measure.

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Bill Clinton, the NYC Subway, and GOP’s Tax Plan

Feature

Trump’s Head and Women’s Blood

Is Kathy Griffin’s controversial image a work of protest art?

December 2, 2017 • by Lisa Aslanian

Kathy Griffin released a picture of herself, wearing a navy or royal blue pussy-bow blouse and holding up a faux severed and bleeding head of Donald Trump. How to describe her gaze? Emotionless? Steely? Resolved. I am not going to spend this essay defending the image or deconstructing the fallout around ...

Feature

Culture vs. Anti-Culture

What kind of cultural commitment provides constructive alternatives to “Tax Reform,” Access Hollywood Denial and Birther-gate Revival?

December 1, 2017 • by Jeffrey C. Goldfarb

As I sit down to write this post, “tax reform” is on the verge of becoming the law of the land in the U.S., giving to the rich, taking from the poor, disfavoring those who work to live (including some of the relatively wealthier among us). And as Jeremy Safran ...

Feature

Rethinking Academic Jargon

New tweets from an old culture war

December 1, 2017 • by Lora Burnett

This was, by and large, a well-received tweet. But there was some pushback from a couple of folks (okay, a couple of guys) who separately invoked the terrifying specter of "critical jargon" or "academic jargon" – without, ironically enough, defining what they meant. But whatever they thought they were saying, ...

Feature

Becoming a Candidate Too Soon

Trump year 1

December 1, 2017 • by Victoria Saker Woeste

I ran for office two years too soon. When I was in high school, my fantasy was to be a U.S. Senator. I became a historian instead and got involved in local politics in Indiana, where we moved in 1999. Indiana went blue in 2008, and despite the rise of the ...

Education

The War on Higher Education

Why tax reform is a clear and present danger to universities

November 30, 2017 • by Jeremy Safran

Although the media have provided coverage of this issue, they are understandably more focused on those aspects of the bill that will exacerbate the existing disparity between the wealthiest 1-2 percent of the population and rest of the country, a policy apparently based on “trickle down” economic theory that many ...

Feature

Life Sentences

Opening remarks from the Conference on Incarceration and the Humanities

November 30, 2017 • by N. D. B. Connolly

Now, you could imagine the horrors of a colonial prison in a black, economically depressed country like 1930s Jamaica, just as you can imagine the nightmare that the sound of wailing men might conjure in the mind of a nine-year old child like my grandfather. Even the most benign administrative ...

Education

Being a Woman is Work

How capitalist society (de) values ‘female’ labor

November 30, 2017 • by Judith Elster

This is essay is part of the OOPS course Law and Sexuality. The current division of labor has been perceived as equal for many, but remains impractical in the long term, especially in our contemporary capitalist America. The challenges that come with capitalism, such as inflation and recession, has forced each member ...