From the Editors Archives - Page 56 of 170

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A Few Quick Take-Aways

Reflecting on the 2018 midterm election

November 9, 2018 • by John Lawrence

A short blog on the election; it will take a little while to fully digest the results. But some results seem clear and important to note. Obviously, the major news of the day is the Democratic resurgence in the House, with Democrats winning back the majority they lost so spectacularly in ...

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Probing for Meaning in the Media

Gaslighting, data overload, and “Propaganda 2.0”

November 9, 2018 • by Carol Wilder

“We are in a universe where there is more and more information, and less and less meaning.” Jean Baudrillard, The Implosion of Meaning in the Media On a recent Wednesday evening in a Political Media seminar I was talking about the well-known Herman and Chomsky propaganda model -- media ownership, advertising dependence, reliance ...

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When Food Becomes Political

The Netflix series Chef’s table shows why we take cooking seriously

November 8, 2018 • by Veronica Alfaro Ahumada

Cooking shows, as a genre, have long fascinated the American public. From the beloved figure of Julia Child cooking French food, to the travel adventures of Anthony Bourdain, the genre is continuously evolving and attracting a growing number of followers vicariously experiencing foreign cuisines and cultures. Netflix’s documentary series, Chef’s Table, is ...

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Neoliberalism with An Inhuman Face

How Bolsonaro won and how the Left failed in Brazil

November 8, 2018 • by Vladimir Pinheiro Safatle

The consolidation of the Brazilian extreme right is a recent fact and deserves to be debated in a more analytical fashion. Even though Brazil had significant parts of its society immersed in the tacit defense of the military dictatorship and in actions marked by the absence of any social solidarity ...

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The Kinds of Selves We Are

Jill Stauffer’s Ethical Loneliness reveals the injustice of not being heard

November 8, 2018 • by Jill Stauffer

Ethical loneliness is the experience of being abandoned by humanity, compounded by the cruelty of wrongs not being acknowledged. It is the result of multiple lapses on the part of human beings and political institutions that, in failing to listen well to survivors, deny them redress by negating their testimony ...

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LIVE BLOG: Election Day, 2018

Executive Editor Claire Potter rocked an old school blog post throughout the day

November 7, 2018 • by Claire Potter

This post will be periodically updated throughout Election Day, 2018, and will be featured as Purple Wednesday on November 7 2018. In true old school style, you will have to read this post backwards, as the most recent entries will be at the top. 10:23 p.m. NBC projects that Democrats will take ...

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Omnipotent Leviathan – or Lost in Transition?

Russia’s approach to the past as portrayed in the recent Memorial to the Victims of the Soviet Repressions

November 7, 2018 • by Selbi Durdiyeva

A meme surfaced recently in Russia that says, “Today you should believe in the Russian Empire, the USSR, Stalin, Putin, and God, simultaneously.” The politics of identity at play in Russia are indeed illogical. We see former KGB officers and loyal Communist Party members now wholeheartedly praying in an Orthodox ...

Omnipotent Leviathan – or Lost in Transition?

Education

What Does It Mean to Educate Adults?

The Case of the New School

November 6, 2018 • by Julia Foulkes

There is much in question about the future of higher education, but one trend is clear: the average age of undergraduates is rising. As a college degree replaces a high school degree as the basis for more jobs and the possibility of economic stability, more people are starting or returning ...

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Still Fighting Jim Crow in Georgia

Stacey Abrams is not just battling Brian Kemp, she is battling history

November 6, 2018 • by Robin Morris

In 1964, Clara Curtis worked as a poll watcher at her local Cobb County, Georgia precinct. She had been working to establish a Republican Party in a state where the Democratic party had a stranglehold on local and state politics. Curtis watched each voter drop a ballot into the wooden ...

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Why Nationalists Insist on the Gender Binary

The attack on transgender people is part of a bigger plan to reverse gender justice

November 6, 2018 • by Maria Bucur

Since 2012 religious groups of many stripes have started to use the term “gender ideology” as a means to polarize the conversation about gender justice, especially in relation to non-binary individuals. What Catholics like the German sociologist Gabriele Kuby want to see is a return to what is “normal” and ...

Why Nationalists Insist on the Gender Binary

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Orban’s Government vs. The Social Sciences

Censoring scientific lectures in Hungary

November 5, 2018 • by Balazs Vedres

A public talk that a PhD student, Orsolya Vasarhelyi, and I were scheduled to give on November 8, 2018 at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences’ (HAS) “Hungarian Day of Science” was censored by the Academy’s deputy secretary-general Beáta Mária Barnabás. In English, our talk’s title could be translated as “The ...

Orban’s Government vs. The Social Sciences

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I Was Primed for Sex & Secularism

Reflections on Joan Wallach Scott

November 5, 2018 • by Susan Henking

When I was young, I wanted to understand how one became secular. At first, I had no word for the change I sought. What I wanted– not so much to know as to do – was leave religion behind. I had been religious. I now was not. Getting there was ...