Hip hop(-as-)pedagogy

I recently saw a posting for a workshop on hip hop pedagogy at my university, which I unfortunately won't be able to attend. I'm not familiar with hip hop pedagogy—which is why I'm disappointed I can't make it—but I like the idea of connecting hip hop as an expressive political force with education and social …

Doing more than just “getting by” in 2019

It's the end of January and the beginning of the semester. This is a month late in writing, but I feel like the vibe of it still rings true as classes start up and hopes for learning and growth gain root for students and teachers. These days, I'm thinking about the way in which people …

Solitude and “co-being”: connecting Russian and Rilke in becoming a scholar

In the fourth year of doing a PhD, different people come up into, and against, different feelings. Some become more invigorated, generating an ever-so-slight fullness of smile, a growing sense of purpose, of voice. Others seem bogged down, sagging under the weight of hours staring at one's silly words, uncertain that anything will ever come …

Comedy and crossing borders: Eddie Izzard and standup’s post-Westphalian potential

Let's start with the $5 word in the title of this post: "post-Westphalian." Westphalian thinking refers to the notion that each nation-state has sovereignty over everything that happens within its borders. The term comes from the Peace of Westphalia, ending religious wars in Europe in the 17th century. It tends to show up with political scientists …

New Year’s Resolution: Be human (+ an insomniac) first, then a PhD student

It's been a month since I wrote, which is a much longer break than I'd anticipated. I've decided to write about something which is not terribly inspiring or creative, but rather which is real to me and has been for several months. I've been struggling with insomnia since early October, a piece of information which …

“Zines as creative resistance”: authoring the world, authoring ourselves

The Graduate Center library and first-floor hallways have spaces for exhibitions of art by artists with a variety of commitments and visions, some of which are beautiful, raw, terrifying, playful, and sometimes – in my favorite cases – all of the above. Below I've collected a group of images of zines which explore topics of race, queer …

“Time Enough at Last”: screens and the elusive book

I've been watching episodes of "The Twilight Zone," an old black-and-white TV series that ran from 1959 to 1964 and told weird, sometimes futuristic, often Kafkaesque tales that made the viewer twist uncomfortably or stare rapt in suspended horror at the screen. Unknown, mostly White male actors, limited and mundane sets (by today's standards), oddly-rhythmed …

A Night at the Garden: White supremacy and collective forgetting

"A Night at the Garden" is a short film that depicts a pro-Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City in 1939. Billed as a "pro-American" rally, the images of the columns of white, uniformed men from the ethnic German group called the German American Bund striking drums, carrying swastika-adorned banners, and displaying …

The intellectual’s desperate need for self-parody as a Professional Smarty Pants

After the inspiring first class of Introduction to Dialectics with Stanley Aronowitz this weekend among many seasoned thinkers and established intellectuals, I felt the need to reflect on the experience of being a Professional Smarty Pants and my socialization, for better or worse, into this motley group. I'm increasingly convinced that self-awareness is in desperate …

Feminist Friday: fairy tales

A few months ago, I saw this poster on the New York subway, part of an art initiative which I generally embrace: The poem "A Name" was written by Ada Limón, a Californian poet whose work is featured in feminist collections and conferences. This is the text: A Name When Eve walked among the animals …