Trump – Show your Taxes

Washington D.C. Protest on April 15th

Several thousand protesters gathered on the west lawn of the Capitol on April 15 to demand that President Trump release his tax returns.  The DC rally was one of many such protests held around the country on the traditional day for filing income taxes.  Organized by several progressive groups, the ...
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Trump – Show your Taxes

Venezuela Under Dictatorship

An urgent note regarding recent developments in Venezuela

After several months of political apathy, Venezuela is experiencing a massive popular uprising since April 4th. Over the last three weeks, almost daily, a wave of mass anti-government protests has exploded in major cities of the country, reaching its zenith on April 19. Hundreds of thousands of people have poured ...
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Venezuela Under Dictatorship

Is Right-Wing Populism Really Surging?

A look back at the Dutch election

A question on the exit polls during the US presidential election was which “presidential quality” mattered most. Interestingly enough, it was not experience, nor good judgment that people deemed the most necessary quality for a president: it was their ability to “bring needed change” (39%). That was also the only quality ...
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Is Right-Wing Populism Really Surging?

On Theorizing Neoliberalism

The Problems and Politics of a Critique

In a recent piece for Public Seminar, Jeffery Goldfarb explores the problems of the term and concept of neoliberalism, specifically its inconsistent application by those on the left. He claims that neoliberalism is used to describe a wide range of policy positions from public-private ventures up to the complete deregulation of ...
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On Theorizing Neoliberalism

Putin May Have Bombed His Own Metro

It is not unthinkable. He’s done it before.

There was a vile terrorist attack in Russia on April 3rd, 2017. Some coward who believes his cause is greater than human life put a bomb on a metro car. It exploded while the car was in transit, passing between two of the busiest stations in St. Petersburg. A blast ...
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Putin May Have Bombed His Own Metro

The Right to Lie

Lawrence Abu Hamdan

Lawrence Abu Hamdan, a 2015-17 Vera List Center Fellow, is a visual artist and audio investigator with a background in DIY music. He was the Armory Show commissioned Artist of 2015 and has exhibited and performed at venues such as The New Museum, Van AbbeMuseum, The Shanghai Biennial (2014), The Whitechapel Gallery, MACBA, ...
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The Right to Lie

In Defense of Sanctuary

The negation of a movement

As the lights went out on the administration’s anti-healthcare initiative, Jeff Sessions, like the ringmaster of a three-ring circus, made a sudden appearance out from the darkness to train the spotlight once more onto sanctuary cities and bark about their criminal inhabitants, otherwise known as immigrants. Sanctuary policies, he claimed, ...
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In Defense of Sanctuary

Fly the Angry Skies

Airline Travel and the Militarization of Everyday Spaces

Yes, he was threatening me with detention and a strip search. What had I done? I hadn't lost my temper. Not yet, at any rate. I hadn't even sighed or rolled my eyes. I had, however, explained that I was late for my flight and needed to be searched and released ...
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Fly the Angry Skies

Three Futures for the Democratic Party

The Party Beyond Hillary and Bernie

The electoral defeat of the Democratic Party last November, coupled with a lackluster resistance to Trump and the Republican agenda, has exposed a political party long in decay. Having lost nearly one thousand seats in local and national elections over the past eight years, and then the presidency, the Democratic ...
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Three Futures for the Democratic Party

Get Out & The Horror of White Pleasure

An Examination of Jordan Peele’s 2017 Film

The terrific film Get Out -- which writer and director Jordan Peele aptly dubs a “social thriller” -- is a smash hit and critics’ favorite. Many glowing reviews converge on a key claim: the film is a gripping exposé of “white liberal hypocrisy.” And it is. But it is also, and ...
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Get Out & The Horror of White Pleasure

White Supremacy, Elitism, and the Future of Liberal Education

A response to Tim Lacy’s ‘Great Books Socialism’

In his extended essay, “Great Books Socialism?,” recently published on Public Seminar, Tim Lacy makes a compelling case for adapting the practice -- suggested by Molly Worthen in an Op-ed for the New York Times -- of deploying the great books as ideological tools established by conservative foundations and institutes ...
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White Supremacy, Elitism, and the Future of Liberal Education

Seeing Rikers, Closing Rikers

Making Incarceration Visible

A year ago the New School hosted the opening of States of Incarceration, an exhibition created by hundreds of students and people directly affected by incarceration. Organized through the Humanities Action Lab, a consortium of 20 universities, the exhibition details the history of imprisonment in the U.S by a close ...
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Seeing Rikers, Closing Rikers