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

Challenging the Perception of the Wayward Girl

An interview with Saidiya Hartman

Yannise Jean [YJ]: For this book, you took a different approach by structuring it like a fictional narrative. I think this structure really helps the reader get into the character's heads. Was this your intention during the outlining stages of your book? Saidiya Hartman [SH]: I write nonfiction. As I started to write ...
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Challenging the Perception of the Wayward Girl

Black Bachelorette, White Mask

The Patterns of Subjugation and Oppression in Reality TV

There is no more popular culture, only ways of seeing populations as nothing. -- Nina Power, Thirty-one Theses on the Problem of the Public Like many faithful members of Bachelor Nation, I have long watched my favorite television show, The Bachelorette, with a healthy dose of irony. The sheer premise -- thirty-five ...
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Black Bachelorette, White Mask