Summer is upon us, though the weather may not always be clear about this. There is nothing like being caught unawares in freezing rain wearing nothing but a tank top, shorts and worn flip-flops. This is what summer in Denmark is, and we like it. Summer also means beach reading, and sometimes train and plane [...]
Tagged Column, Culture, Libary, Literature, Readings, Recommendations, SummerBen Shahn’s “Register to Vote” poster from the 1940s
Photography by Ben Shahn for the FSA: Fiddlin’ Bill Henseley, North Carolina, 1937
This morning I read a fantastic article, Update: Michelle Obama as Racial Rorschach Test over at Open Left. About a month or so ago Open Left, a fairly influential progressive community blog, began a “guest blogger” program. Stemming from the overt sexist and misogynistic portrayals of Hillary Clinton during the primary, the mostly White, [...]
Which I wish to remark
And my language is plain
That for ways that are dark
And for tricks that are vain,
The heathen Chinee is peculiar.
Which the same I would rise to explain.
Ah Sin was his name;
And I shall not deny
In regard to the same
What that name might imply,
But [...]
“Will Race Survive in the US? The Possibilities and Impossibilities of the Obama Phenomena”
By Professor David Roediger,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Sponsored by the Embassy of the United States, Copenhagen
Center for American Studies
University of Southern Denmark, Odense
Thursday, September 25, 2008
14:15-16:00, Room 100
This lecture, based on David Roediger’s shortly forthcoming How Race [...]
One of the most captivating presentations at the recent EAAS conference in Oslo was Kay Koppedrayer’s narration of the events at a Lakota sundance ceremony on the Pine Ridge reservation where American Flags were flown during the ceremony:
One year, four American flags flew over a Lakota sundance on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Raised on a [...]
My paper for the EAAS conference in Oslo last week dealt with icons and icon work, continuing a line of research I began about 5 years ago when I participated in a conference in Austria with the theme of US Icons. The convener of both the AAAS event in 2003 and of the Oslo workshop [...]
Tagged Journals and Publications, Photography, Popular Culture, Postmodern Culture, The 70sThis article is partially a response to Bent’s last post, Beauty and the Beast? I had originally intended on posting the Lebron Vouge Magazine photo which Bent analyzes below. I then thought I would post a reply in his thread but upon further reflection, I think an independent post is in order. I typically wouldn’t [...]
Tagged Photography, Popular Culture, Race and EthnicityIt seems ethnicity and commercials is a hot topic these days. Waves are still high over LeBron James allegedly being cast as ‘King Kong’ in Annie Leibovitz’ April 2008 Vogue cover (see my recent post on this), and now the wires report that Woody Allen has decided to sue American Apparel over their allegedly unauthorized [...]
Tagged Photography, Postmodern Culture, Race and Ethnicity, The 70sA strange and unexpected development means that an addendum to my recent post on Annie Leibovitz over at my personal blog seems due. It appears that Vogue (and therefore indirectly Leibovitz, who shot the offending image) is taking some flak over the cover image of the April 2008 issue which is themed to pitch superstars [...]
Tagged Photography, Postmodern Culture, Race and Ethnicity