Ethnic groups and multicultural studies Books

Book SynopsisOffers a sweeping examination of the interactions between Mexican-origin people and law enforcement - both legally codified police agencies and extralegal justice - across the US Southwest (especially Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas) from the 1830s to the 1930s.

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Book SynopsisExamining blues songs, Black newspapers, vice reports, memoirs, sexology case studies, and more, Cookie Woolner illuminates the unconventional lives Black lady lovers formed to suit their desires.Trade ReviewExtraordinary in its scope and inventiveness to focus on their intimate lives . . . . Woolner's beautiful prose and writing style makes this book a delight to read. Academics and general readers alike will be drawn to it."—Starred review, Library Journal Impeccably researched and compellingly written examination of Black women who loved women during the 1920s and 1930s."—Karla J. Strand, Ms. Magazine

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Book SynopsisGuides readers through time and place from Washington, DC, to the deep South, tracing how non-Black Latino people moved through the region’s evolving racial landscape. In considering Latino presence in the South’s schools, its workplaces, and its tourist destinations, Marquez tells a challenging story of race-making that defies easy narratives.

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Book SynopsisAnger is an emotion that affects everyone regardless of culture, class, race, or gender—but at the same time, being angry always results from the circumstances in which people find themselves. In On Anger, Sue J. Kim opens a stimulating dialogue between cognitive studies and cultural studies to argue that anger is always socially and historically constructed and complexly ideological, and that the predominant individualistic conceptions of anger are insufficient to explain its collective, structural, and historical nature.On Anger examines the dynamics of racial anger in global late capitalism, bringing into conversation work on political anger in ethnic, postcolonial, and cultural studies with recent studies on emotion in cognitive studies. Kim uses a variety of literary and media texts to show how narratives serve as a means of reflecting on experiences of anger and also how we think about anger—its triggers, its deeper causes, its wrongness or rigTrade Review[Kim’s] very timely book gives us a much needed window through which the collective anger of people in Ferguson and too many other American cities becomes comprehensible. * Melus *Table of Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1. Anger as Cognition Chapter 2. Anger as Culture Chapter 3. Liberal Anger: Technologies of Anger in Crash Chapter 4. Temporality and the Politics of Reading Kingston's The Woman Warrior Chapter 5. Anger and Space in Dangarembga's Nervous Conditions and The Book of Not Chapter 6. Estranging Rage: Ngugi's Devil on the Cross and Wizard of the Crow Chapter 7. "This Game Is Rigged": The Wire and Agency Attribution Conclusion. Anger and Outrage Notes Works Cited Index

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Book SynopsisThis much-needed volume provides a comprehensive empirical study of the school experiences of Mexican Americans and those who help them succeed.Table of Contents Foreword by Patricia Gándara A Personal Narrative by Sally Alonzo Bell, PhD Acknowledgments Abbreviations Part I: Setting the Context 1. Locked Doors; Closed Opportunities: Who Holds the Magic Key? (Ruth Enid Zambrana and Sylvia Hurtado) 2. History's Prism in Education: A Spectrum of Legacies across Centuries of Mexican American Agency; Experience and Activism 1600s–2000s (Victoria-María MacDonald and Jason Rivera) 3. Trend Analyses from 1971 to 2012 on Mexican American/Chicano Freshmen: Are We Making Progress? (Sylvia Hurtado) Part II: Conceptual Understandings 4. An Intersectional Lens: Theorizing an Educational Paradigm of Success (Ruth Enid Zambrana and Sylvia Hurtado) 5. Parental Educational and Gender Expectations: Pushing the Educational Trajectory (Ruth Enid Zambrana and Rebeca Burciaga) 6. Examining the Influence of K–12 School Experiences on the Higher Education Pathway (Ruth Enid Zambrana, Anthony De Jesús, and Brianne A. Dávila) Part III: Contemporary College Experiences 7. The Ivory Tower Is Still White: Chicana/o-Latina/o College Students' Views on Racism, Ethnic Organizations, and Campus Racial Segregation (Nolan L. Cabrera and Sylvia Hurtado) 8. Campus Climate, Intersecting Identities, and Institutional Support among Mexican American College Students (Adriana Ruiz Alvarado and Sylvia Hurtado) Part IV: Implications for Educational Policy and Future Practices in P–16 Pathways and Beyond 9. Mexican American Males' Pathways to Higher Education: Awareness to Achievement (Luis Ponjuan and Victor B. Sáenz) 10. The Role of Educational Policy in Mexican American College Transition and Completion (Frances Contreras) Notes Bibliography Contributing Authors Index

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Book SynopsisEssays chronicling the experiences of fourteen Latina/o LGBT activists present a new perspective on the hitherto-marginalized history of their work in the last three decades of the twentieth century.Trade Review"While Queer Brown Voices is likely to become a seminal text in college and university queer studies programs, its conversational tone makes it compelling for a general reader as well." * The Guardian *"The creation of Queer Brown Voices is itself a kind of activism; it renders visible the challenges faced by Latina/o queer communities in decades past as well as their robust efforts to pave the way for a more just future." * Texas Observer *"Filled with insights." * Bitch Media *"Queer Brown Voices is a unique book that does a good job in documenting Latina/o LGBT experiences with grassroots organizations, local, state, and federally funded programs. This book is recommended if you are interested in learning about the 1980s, and 1990s organizing and issues faced by LGBT Latina/o activists." * QED Journal *Table of Contents Preface by Letitia Gomez Acknowledgments Introduction. Brown Writing Queer: A Composite of Latina/o LGBT Activism, by Salvador Vidal-Ortiz Luz Guerra. Dancing at the Crossroads: Mulata, Mestiza, Macha, Mujer Dennis Medina. We Are a Part of the History of Texas That You Must Not Exclude! Jesús Cháirez. From the Closet to LGBT Radio Host in Dallas Laura M. Esquivel. An East L.A. Warrior Who Bridged the Latina/o and the Gay Worlds Brad Veloz. A South Texas Activist in Washington, D.C., Houston, and San Antonio David Acosta. The Boy in Fear Who Became a Latino/a LGBT Advocate in Philadelphia Letitia Gomez. No te rajes—Don’t Back Down! Daring to Be Out and Visible Mona Noriega. Creating Spaces to Break the Circle of Silence and Denial Gloria A. Ramirez. The Queer Roots of the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center in San Antonio, Texas Moisés Agosto-Rosario. Latinas/os and the AIDS Treatment Advocacy Movement José Gutiérrez. We Must Preserve Our Latina/o LGBT History Olga Orraca Paredes. All the Identities on the Table: Power, Feminism, and LGBT Activism in Puerto Rico Wilfred W. Labiosa. Visibility, Inclusivity, and the Fight for LGBT Rights in New England Adela Vásquez. Finding a Home in Transgender Activism in San Francisco Conclusion by Uriel Quesada Index

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Book SynopsisWinner, Humanities Book Prize, Mexico Section of the Latin American Studies Association, 2018Many scholars believe that the modern concentration camp was born during the Cuban war for independence when Spanish authorities ordered civilians living in rural areas to report to the nearest city with a garrison of Spanish troops. But the practice of spatial concentration—gathering people and things in specific ways, at specific places, and for specific purposes—has a history in Latin America that reaches back to the conquest. In this paradigm-setting book, Daniel Nemser argues that concentration projects, often tied to urbanization, laid an enduring, material groundwork, or infrastructure, for the emergence and consolidation of new forms of racial identity and theories of race.Infrastructures of Race traces the use of concentration as a technique for colonial governance by examining four case studies from Mexico under Spanish rule: centralized townTrade ReviewNemser's work offers a theoretically complex and multifaceted argument that shows how the material and the ideological worked in conjunction to form colonial notions of race, especially those defining indigenous subjects. * Hispanic American Historical Review *Nemser's writing is strong and often inspired throughout . . . Overall, this book will provide deeply thought-provoking for scholars versed in the aforementioned fields, particularly those interested in Mexican history, the questions of Marx and Foucault's utility to postcolonial studies, the process of racialization, the relationships of ideas to the material world, and legacies of human concentration. Its arguments are sure to fuel discussion, especially about the nature of Mexican history and race, for years to come. * Revista Hispánica Moderna *Infrastructures of Race provides essential historical background for present-day interrogations of how infrastructures – from aged water pipes to search engine algorithms – reinforce persistent racial inequalities...Through Nemser’s case studies, we can better apprehend the hundreds of years of oppression that have been built into our material lives. * New Book Network: Science, Technology, and Society *[Nemser makes] a valuable contribution to the field: to wit, race is not an idea, but a structure. * Middle Atlantic Review of Latin American Studies *Nemser contributes a thoughtful exploration of colonialism’s legacies...this is an impressive work, one that would be especially fruitful for scholars situated at the intersections of biopolitics, race, and decolonial studies. [Nemser] leverages themes of space and structure to bring light to a unique understanding of racial subjectivities during the colonial encounter and into the present. * New Political Science *[A] groundbreaking and beautifully written monograph...historians, anthropologists, and cultural studies scholars will find in this book a welcome and provocative approach to studies of race in colonial Latin America in particular, but one that can and should be considered in other colonial contexts as well. * Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies *Table of Contents Acknowledgments Introduction. Before the Camp Chapter 1. Congregation: Urbanization and the Construction of the Indian Chapter 2. Enclosure: The Architecture of Mestizo Conversion Chapter 3. Segregation: Sovereignty, Economy, and the Problem with Mixture Chapter 4. Collection: Imperial Botany and Racialized Life Epilogue. Primitive Racialization Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisIn 2016, the University of Texas at Austin celebrated two important milestones: the thirtieth anniversary of the Heman Sweatt Symposium on Civil Rights and the sixtieth anniversary of the first black undergraduate students to enter the university. These historic moments aren't just special; they are relevant to current conversations and experiences on college campuses across the country. The story of integration at UT against the backdrop of the Jim Crow South is complex and momentousa story that necessitates understanding and sharing. Likewise, this narrative is inextricably linked to current conversations about students' negotiations of identity and place in higher education.

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Book SynopsisWinner, John G. Cawelti Award for the Best Textbook/Primer, Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association, 2019MPCA/ACA Book Award, Midwest Popular Culture Association / Midwest American Culture Association, 2020Taking a multifaceted approach to attitudes toward race through popular culture and the American superhero, All New, All Different? explores a topic that until now has only received more discrete examination. Considering Marvel, DC, and lesser-known texts and heroes, this illuminating work charts eighty years of evolution in the portrayal of race in comics as well as in film and on television.Beginning with World War II, the authors trace the vexed depictions in early superhero stories, considering both Asian villains and nonwhite sidekicks. While the emergence of Black Panther, Black Lightning, Luke Cage, Storm, and other heroes in the 1960s and 1970s reflected a cultural revolution, the book reveals how nonwhite superheroes nonetTrade ReviewAn invaluable resource for textual examples of the handling of race in American superhero comics and for considering the kinds of characters and stories featuring racial minorities that were common to the different eras it covers. * Inks: The Journal of the Comics Studies Society *The authors’ consideration of race [in All New, All Different?] is holistic, framing the genre over time and providing the reader with a means to understand the superhero archetype and to consider the limitation of racial liberalism in the United States...All New, All Different? offers an important narrative about the gradations around race in superhero comics and the broader society. * American Historical Review *[All New, All Different?] is an incredibly useful text...an inside look at the ever-changing landscape of comics, and audiences will be enlightened by how attitudes have developed right along with it. * Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics *[Austin and Hamilton's] contribution is more than just compiling a damning narrative. The authors read their material through the history of race in America and alongside a slew of recent scholarship on comics…[All New, All Different?] offers useful insights and ways to read nonwhite superhero tales from the 1960s onward...the scope of the work is impressive. * Journal of American History *Table of Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction: Into the “Gutters” 1. “World’s Finest”? The Wartime Superhero and Race, 1941–1945 2. Struggling for Social Relevance: DC, Marvel, and the Cold War, 1945–1965 3. “We’re All Brothers!”: The Ideal of Liberal Brotherhood in the 1960s and 1970s 4. Guess Who’s Coming to Save You? The Rise of the Ethnic Superhero in the 1960s and 1970s 5. “Something for Everyone”: The Superteam in the Age of Multiculturalism, 1975–1996 6. Replacement Heroes and the Quest for Inclusion, 1985–2011 7. Something Old, Something New: Heroes Reborn and Reimagined, 1990–2015 Coda: Born Again (and Again and Again . . . and Again and Again . . .) Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThe experience of Central Americans in the United States is marked by a vicious contradiction. In entertainment and information media, Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Nicaraguans, and Hondurans are hypervisible as threatening guerrillas, MS-13 gangsters, maids, and forever illegals. Central Americans are unseen within the broader conception of Latinx community, foreclosing avenues to recognition. Yajaira M. Padilla explores how this regime of visibility and invisibility emerged over the past forty yearsbookended by the right-wing presidencies of Ronald Reagan and Donald Trumpand how Central American immigrants and subsequent generations have contested their rhetorical disfiguration. Drawing from popular films and TV, news reporting, and social media, Padilla shows how Central Americans in the United States have been constituted as belonging nowhere, imagined as permanent refugees outside the boundaries of even minority representation. Yet in documentaries about cross-border transit throughTrade ReviewA well-researched, poignant discussion of the representations, misrepresentations, and erasures of the expanding Central American and Latinx communities in the US. [Padilla's] work seamlessly illustrates the significance and consequences of these representations, or lack thereof...Recommended. * CHOICE *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: Central Americans among “US” Chapter 1. Signifying US Central American Non-belonging Chapter 2. Domesticated Subject? The Salvadoran Maid in US Television and Film Chapter 3. Lance Corporal José Gutiérrez and the Perils of Being a “Good Immigrant” Chapter 4. Central American Crossings, Rightlessness, and Survival in Mexico’s Border Passage Chapter 5. The Cachet of Illegal Chickens in Central American Los Angeles Conclusion: Seeing beyond the Dominant Notes Works Cited Index

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Book SynopsisThe experience of Central Americans in the United States is marked by a vicious contradiction. In entertainment and information media, Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Nicaraguans, and Hondurans are hypervisible as threatening guerrillas, MS-13 gangsters, maids, and forever illegals. Central Americans are unseen within the broader conception of Latinx community, foreclosing avenues to recognition. Yajaira M. Padilla explores how this regime of visibility and invisibility emerged over the past forty yearsbookended by the right-wing presidencies of Ronald Reagan and Donald Trumpand how Central American immigrants and subsequent generations have contested their rhetorical disfiguration. Drawing from popular films and TV, news reporting, and social media, Padilla shows how Central Americans in the United States have been constituted as belonging nowhere, imagined as permanent refugees outside the boundaries of even minority representation. Yet in documentaries about cross-border transit throughTrade ReviewA well-researched, poignant discussion of the representations, misrepresentations, and erasures of the expanding Central American and Latinx communities in the US. [Padilla's] work seamlessly illustrates the significance and consequences of these representations, or lack thereof...Recommended. * CHOICE *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: Central Americans among “US” Chapter 1. Signifying US Central American Non-belonging Chapter 2. Domesticated Subject? The Salvadoran Maid in US Television and Film Chapter 3. Lance Corporal José Gutiérrez and the Perils of Being a “Good Immigrant” Chapter 4. Central American Crossings, Rightlessness, and Survival in Mexico’s Border Passage Chapter 5. The Cachet of Illegal Chickens in Central American Los Angeles Conclusion: Seeing beyond the Dominant Notes Works Cited Index

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Book Synopsis2023 Ralph J. Gleason Music Book Award, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 2024 Woody Guthrie Book Award, International Association for the Study of Popular Music-US Branch (IASPM-US) 2023 ARSC Awards for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research,Association for Recorded Sound Collections? 2023 The Judy Tsou Critical Race Studies Award,American Musicological SocietyHow Black musicians have changed the country music landscape and brought light to Black creativity and innovation. After a century of racist whitewashing, country music is finally reckoning with its relationship to Black people. In this timely work—the first book on Black country music by a Black writer—Francesca Royster uncovers the Black performers and fans, including herself, who are exploring the pleasures and possibilities of the genre. Informed by queer theory and Black feminist scholarship, Royster’s book elucidates the roots of the currTrade ReviewAs superstar Lil Nas X might put it, 'can’t nobody tell me' that Francesca Royster’s dazzling book isn’t a necessary and groundbreaking work in popular music studies. Both riveting and moving, Black Country Music weaves together a number of urgent and critical threads of inquiry—interrogating overlooked and ofttimes underloved Black pioneers who made rich and innovative music in spite of marginalization, and exploring present-day rule-breaking artists who are inventing new ways of narrating their own sounds and their often complicated relationships to country. At its heart, this book insists that we reckon with both the Blackness that lies at the heart of country music and the fearlessness of generations of musicians who laid claim to a sonic culture that was slow to acknowledge their worth. It's a book for the national moment in which we find ourselves. -- Daphne A. BrooksBlack Country Music holds within it vital history and also serves as a vessel for Francesca Royster's gentle, reliable, and immersive storytelling, weaving an expansive narrative to hold up the untold and undertold stories of the music-makers at the heart of America's many sounds. -- Hanif AbdurraqibFrancesca Royster’s extraordinary book puts Black country artists and audience in conversation with Black thinkers Audre Lorde, Claudia Rankine, bell hooks, and Camille Dungy, among others, to center the radical work that is revealed as Royster listens for, and finds, strains of revolution within Black country. Her work at the intersection of Afrofuturism and Black country is necessary reading for all interested in the evolution of Black aesthetics. -- Alice RandallFrancesca Royster gets to the heart of the matter with this book. She plots the journey of self-acceptance and defiance that has marked every one of our journeys in country music. -- Rissi PalmerAn original, timely and much-needed entry in the long-overdue national conversation on representation and accountability in the country music industry. * Los Angeles Times *Black Country Music delves deeply into the tensions, pleasures, and contradictions that Royster, as a Black queer woman, finds in country music as a genre and a cultural signifier. The book weaves history, criticism, and memoir into an elegant narrative that challenges assumptions about what country music can be. * Chapter 16 *Black Country Music is an astounding work of musical history and cultural reckoning...This is a must-read for anyone who enjoys country music, music writing, Black history, and Afrofuturism. * Bearded Gentlemen Music *Royster examines not just the erasure Black artists have faced in country music, but the many ways they are reclaiming their presence in it. At the same time, she also interrogates her own relationship with country music as listener, fan, and banjo player...Royster explores the spaces Black country artists are carving for themselves. * JSTOR Daily *[A] groundbreaking work…Black Country Music is a must-read for any music fan. * Texas Monthly *An important examination on the erasure of Black voices and music expression in the world of American country music. * New York Amsterdam News *Black Country Music arrives as mainstream country music continues to grapple with its longstanding marginalization of minorities. Along with artists that broke through to country radio, like Charley Pride and Darius Rucker, [Royster] spotlights a new generation of artists, including Our Native Daughters, Allison Russell and Leyla McCalla, while explaining the industry's need to take an honest look at inclusion — and the genre's lackthereof. * The Boot, "10 Best Country Music Books of 2022" *Provocative and illuminating...Every fan of country and Americana music should read this book. * No Depression, "2022's Most Memorable Music Books" *Royster addresses the dismissal that Black country music artists and fans feel within this community, combining memoir writing with journalism as she focuses on specific Black artists helping to create space in a genre that appears too willing to neglect its own roots...In Black Country Music, the featured artists are sometimes surprising (Tina Turner, Beyoncé), but in sharing their efforts in the genre, the Black community can reclaim country music as part of their present. * SPIN, "Best Music Books of 2022" *Black Country Music is an exhilarating book, and Royster’s ingenious blend of memoir and analysis showcases the emerging artists and fans that she affirms are 'changing what country music looks and sounds like.' * No Depression *Black Country Music follows the author on an observational and historical journey through the racially divisive undertones of American country music...This book is just as personal as it is a well of knowledge regarding the history of the Black country tradition and the artists who contribute to it, past and presence. * New York Amsterdam News, "Best Black books of 2022" *A thoughtful and thought-provoking read...I found Royster’s explanations to be very accessible and moving, and I would happily read more from her. I hope her work is widely read now and in the future by country music fans from all kinds of backgrounds. * Book Riot *Country music encompasses so much more than one would be led to believe by what’s being promoted and by what has been written and rewritten about countless times. Thankfully, Francesca Royster’s new book tells the story of Black songwriters/performers/fans in the white male-dominated world of popular country music. It’s a history that has been obscured, hidden, white-washed, overlooked and outright denied for way too long. This is a really fantastic and inspiring book that opens up a whole new world of country and folk music. If you think you know it all you don’t! * Southern Bookseller Review *Today, black singers and songwriters are producing some of the most interesting country music around: Mickey Guyton, Amythyst Kiah, Rissi Palmer, Brittney Spencer—to name a few. They are the latest wave in a long and complicated history of black involvement in and influence on country music, as expertly detailed by Francesca T. Royster in Black Country Music. * Wall Street Journal *A compendium that studies the history and future of African-American achievement in the genre. * The Tennessean *Francesca T. Royster’s prose deserves consideration regardless of this book’s novelty. It is well-researched as well as sensuous and personal, and the insights about artists ranging from Lil Nas X and Rhiannon Giddens to Tina Turner and Beyoncé are incisive. . . This work is strong and adds much to the study of country music, race, and American music. * Pop Matters *In a sense, this book is itself Afrofuturist: the author created the future she wanted by listening for revolutions. She found them. * The Journal of Popular Culture *Table of Contents Introduction. Where My People At? Chapter 1. Uneasy Listening: Tuning into Tina Turner’s Queer Frequencies in Tina Turns the Country On! and Other Albums Chapter 2. “Love You, My Brother”: Darius Rucker’s Bro-Intimacy and Acts of Sonic Freedom Chapter 3. How to Be an Outlaw: Beyoncé’s Daddy’s Lessons Chapter 4. Valerie June, Ghost Catcher Chapter 5. Can the Black Banjo Speak? Notes on Songs of Our Native Daughters Chapter 6. Thirteen Ways of Looking at Lil Nas X’s Old Town Road Conclusion. Black Country Afrofuturisms: Mickey Guyton, Rissi Palmer, and DeLila Black Acknowledgments Notes Index

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Book Synopsis2023Outstanding Book Award?, National Association for Ethnic Studies Finalist,2024 Charles Rufus Morey Book Award,College Art AssociationHow Latinx artists around the US adopted the medium of printmaking to reclaim the lands of the Americas. Printmakers have conspired, historically, to illustrate the maps created by European colonizers that were used to chart and claim their expanding territories. Over the last three decades, Latinx artists and print studios have reclaimed this printed art form for their own spatial discourse. This book examines the limited editions produced at four art studios around the US that span everything from sly critiques of Manifest Destiny to printed portraits of Dreamers in Texas. Reclaiming the Americas is the visual history of Latinx printmaking in the US. Tatiana Reinoza employs a pan-ethnic comparative model for this interdisciplinary study of graphic art, drawing on art history, Latinx studieTrade Review[A] pioneering book…[Reinoza] offers an interdisciplinary approach to Latinx printmaking from a decolonized perspective that debunks Eurocentric conventions of cartography and geography and reinscribes the art form of printmaking to the peoples of the Americas. * CHOICE *Table of Contents List of Illustrations Introduction Chapter 1. Native Territorialities: Ricardo Duffy’s Border Pop and the Indigenous Uncanny Chapter 2. Embodied Territorialities: Enrique Chagoya and Alberto Ríos Disrupting the Western Cartographic Gaze Chapter 3. Mestiza Territorialities: Sandra Fernández’s Migrant Justice and the Movable Border Chapter 4. Aqueous Territorialities: The Dominican York Proyecto Gráfica’s Island Dwellers and Water Boundaries Conclusion. Revolution on Display Acknowledgments Appendix: Printmaking Workshops Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThe first famous transgender person in the United States, Christine Jorgensen, traveled to Denmark for gender reassignment surgery in 1952. Jorgensen became famous during the ascent of postwar dreams about the possibilities for technology to transform humanity and the world. In Mobile Subjects Aren Z. Aizura examines transgender narratives within global health and tourism economies from 1952 to the present. Drawing on an archive of trans memoirs and documentaries as well as ethnographic fieldwork with trans people obtaining gender reassignment surgery in Thailand, Aizura maps the uneven use of medical protocols to show how national and regional health care systems and labor economies contribute to and limit transnational mobility. Aizura positions transgender travel as a form of biomedical tourism, examining how understandings of race, gender, and aesthetics shape global cosmetic surgery cultures and how economic and racially stratified marketing and care work create the idTrade Review"Recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty and professionals." -- N. B. Rosenthal * Choice *"Destabilizing formulaic transnational mobility stories that rely on an epic departure-and-return script, Aizura offers a powerful challenge to consider the wild movements of minor mobilities and the potentiality of staying in place." -- Emmanuel David * TSQ *"[This] book evokes a pondering of how Transgender Studies as a field will move itself forward. Aizura’s own urging to give a voice to transgender people who straddle the margins of privileged trans-normativity reiterates the field’s mission of breaking new paths for inclusivity, intersectionality, and independence from myopic visions of what being transgender means today." -- Muriel Vernon * Medical Anthropology Quarterly *"Mobile Subjects is intentional and thoughtful in its application of interdisciplinary research. . . . Through his multi-method and intersectional approach, Aizura brings forth a conversation that simultaneously accounts for the impact of gender, race, and class on seeking out and obtaining gender reassignment technologies, as well as the varying policies, practices, and vernacular inherent to transnational study." -- Jacob Barry * Journal of Critical Race Inquiry *“Mobile Subjects provides new insights relevant and challenging for those interested in a range of topics and methodologies. This is a required read for our times...." -- Lars Olav Aaberg * newbooks.asia *“... [S]cholars in a wide range of fields will find this book useful.... Mobile Subjects exemplifies what can be done when trans studies is integrated with science, technology, and society studies, and more ‘traditional’ gender studies theories, such as queer theory, transnational feminisms, and Marxist theory.” -- K.S. Shindle * Catalyst *“Mobile Subjects is a complex, wide-ranging, and powerfully provocative exploration of how gender reassignment has been and continues to be shaped by physical and metaphorical tropes of movement....” -- Isaac Gagné * American Ethnologist *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction: Provincializing Trans 1 Part I 1. The Persistence of Trans Travel Narratives 29 2. On Location: Transsexual Autobiographies, Whiteness, and Travel 59 3. Documentary and the Metronormative Trans Migration Plot 03 Part II Interlude 135 4. Gender Reassignment and Transnational Entrepreneurialisms of the Self 137 5. The Romance of the Amazing Scalpel: Race, Labor, and Affect in Thai Gender Reassignment Clinics 174 Epilogue: Visions of Trans Worlding 207 Notes 221 Bibliography 245 Index 269

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Book SynopsisThis anthologywhich includes essays from artists, curators, and criticsprovides an overview of the history and theory of Chicano/a art from the 1960s to the present, emphasizing the debates and vocabularies that have played key roles in its conceptualization.Trade Review"A substantial volume, covering the literature of the movimiento during a period of approximately forty years. The scope offered is far beyond a survey, compiled by four recognized authorities. . . . An impressive resource" -- Clayton C. Kirking * ARLIS/NA Reviews *"This pioneering anthology fills a significant gap in the complex history of Chicana/o art and visual culture. . . . this volume is a required resource for teaching and learning about Chicana/o art, especially as issues of identity, immigration, and inclusion continue to ignite intense debate and controversy in the US. Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals." -- L. Estevez * Choice *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations ix Preface xiii Acknowledgments xv Introduction / Jennifer A. González 1 Part I. Definitions and Debates Introduction / Chon Noriega 13 1. Looking for Alternatives: Notes on Chicano Art, 1960-1990 / Philip Brookman 19 2. Con Safo (C/S) Artists: A Contingency Factor / Mel Casas 30 3. El Arte de Chicano: "The Spirit of the Experience" / Gilbert Sanchez Luján 32 4. Notes on an Aesthetic Alternative / Carlos Almaraz 35 5. A Critical Perspective on the State of Chicano Art / Malaquís Montoya and Lezlie Salkowitz-Montoya 37 6. Response: Another Opinion on the State of Chicano Art / Shifra M. Goldman 45 7. Post-Chicano / Rita Gonzalez 54 8. The New Chicano Moment / Josh Kun 58 9. Post-movimiento: The Contemporary (Re)Generation of Chicana/o Art / Tomás Ybarra-Frausto 66 Further Reading 72 Part II. Cultural Reclamation and Vernacular Traditions Introduction / Terezita Romo 75 10. The Politics of Popular Art / Rupert García 81 11. Rasquachismo: A Chicano Sensibility / Tomás Ybarra-Frausto 85 12. Domesticana: The Sensibility of Chicana Rasquache / Amalia Mesa-Bains 91 13. Chicano Humor in Art: For Whom the Taco Bell Tolls / Rubén Trejo 100 14. Points of Convergence: Iconography of the Chicano Poster / Terezita Romo 104 15. Graffiti Is Art: Any Drawn Line That Speaks about Identity, Dignity, and Unity . . . That Line Is Art / Charles "Chaz" Bojórquez 117 16. Inventing Tradition, Negotiating Modernism: Chicano/a Art and the Pre-Columbian Past / Victor Zamudio-Taylor 123 17. Negotiated Frontiers: Contemporary Chicano Photography / Jennifer A. González 135 18. Deus ex Machina: Tradition, Technology, and the Chicanafuturist Art of Marion C. Martinez / Catherine S. Ramírez 146 19. Celia Alvarez Muñoz: "Civic Studies" / Roberto Tejada 165 Further Reading 174 Part III. Bodily Aesthetics and Iconologies Introduction / Jennifer A. González 177 20. Mel Casas: Redefining America / Nancy Kelker 183 21. Drawing Offensive/Offensive Drawing: Toward a Theory of Mariconógraphy / Robb Hernández 194 22. The Pachuco's Flayed Hide: Mobility, Identity, and Buenas Garras / Marcos Sánchez-Tranquilino and John Tagg 208 23. Writing on the Social Body: Dresses and Body Ornamentation in Contemporary Chicana Art / Laura A. Pérez 219 24. Ojo de la Diosa: Becoming Divine in Delilah Montoya's Photography / Asta Kuusinen 237 25. Art Comes for the Archbishop: The Semiotics of Contemporary Chicana Feminism and the Work of Alma López / Luz Calvo 250 Further Reading 263 Part IV. Public Practices and Enacted Landscapes Introduction / C. Ondine Chavoya 267 26. The Enacted Environment of East Los Angeles / James T. Rojas 271 27. Space, Power, and Youth Culture: Mexican American Graffiti and Chicano Murals in East Los Angeles, 1972-1978 / Marcos Sánchez-Tranquilino 278 28. Pseudographic Cinema: Asco's No-Movies / C. Ondine Chavoya 292 29. Whose Monument Where? Public Art in a Many-Cultured Society / Judith F. Baca 304 30. La Memoria de Nuestra Tierra: Colorado / Judith F. Baca 310 31. The Donkey Cart Caper: Some Thoughts on Socially Conscious Art in Antisocial Public Space / David Avalos 314 32. Public Audit: An Interview with Elizabeth Sisco, Louis Hock, and David Avalos / Clyena Simonds 319 Further Reading 331 Part V. Border Visions and Immigration Politics Introduction / Jennifer A. González 335 33. Border Arte: Nepantle, el Lugar de la Frontera / Gloria Anzaldúa 341 34. The Spaces of Home in Chicano and Latino Representations of the San Diego–Tijuana Borderlands (1968–2002) / Jo-Anne Berelowitz 351 35. Straddling la otra frontera: Inserting MiChicana/o Visual Culture into Chicana/o Art History / Dylan Miner 372 36. Borders, Border Crossing, and Political Art in North Carolina / Gabriela Valdivia, Joseph Palis, and Matthew Reilly 394 37. Excerpts from Codex Espangliensis: From Columbus to the Border Patrol / Enrique Chagoya, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, and Felicia Rice 402 38. 187 Reasons Why Mexicanos Can't Cross the Border (Remix) / Juan Felipe Herrera 406 Further Reading 410 Part VI. Institutional Frameworks and Critical Reception Introduction / C. Ondine Chavoya 413 39. Los Four / Peter Plagens 417 40. MARCH to an Aesthetic of Revolution / Raye Bemis 420 41. Resisting Modernism: Chicano Art: Retro Progressive or Progressive Retro? / Ralph Rugoff 423 42. Our America at the Smithsonian / Philip Kennicott 427 43. Alex Rivera, Philip Kennicott Debate Washington Post Review of Our America / Philip Kennicott 430 44. What Do We Mean When We Talk about "Latino Art"? / Elizabeth Blair 434 45. Chicano Art: Looking Backward / Shifra M. Goldman 436 46. Readers' Forum Letter to the Editor in Response to Shifra Goldman's Exhibition Review / Judithe Elena Hernández de Neikrug 440 47. Readers' Forum Response to Judithe Hernandez's Letter to the Editor / Shifra M. Goldman 442 48. "All Roads Lead to East L.A.," Goez Art Studios and Gallery / Karen Mary Davalos 444 49. From CARA to CACA: The Multiple Anatomies of Chicano/a Art at the Turn of the New Century / Alicia Gaspar de Alba 455 50. On Museum Row: Aesthetics and the Politics of Exhibition / Chon Noriega 470 51. Strangeways Here We Come / Rita Gonzalez 484 Further Reading 495 Glossary 497 Contributors 501 Index 509 Acknowledgment of Copyrights 531

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Book SynopsisThe contributors to Captivating Technology examine how carceral technologies such as electronic ankle monitors and predictive-policing algorithms are being deployed to classify and coerce specific populations and whether these innovations can be appropriated and reimagined for more liberatory ends.Trade Review"The book comes at a timely moment, contributing to pressing contemporary conversations about predictive algorithms, bias in AI, new modes of surveillance, and the myriad ways our increasingly technologically mediated lives are experienced unequally along lines of race, class, and gender. . . . Captivating Technology offers a meaningful contribution to public and scholarly discussions of technological (in)justice." -- Naomi Zucker * Somatosphere *"Benjamin presents a rich and original contribution to critical studies of race and technoscience." -- Clara Hick * Ethnic and Racial Studies *“Captivating Technology is a powerful and deeply creative text that excavates suppressed histories just as much as it works towards building new futures.” -- Susila Gurusami * Surveillance & Society *“Captivating Technology...is an excellent collection that is compelling both in rich individual chapters and in the synthetic whole.... One of the strengths of this collective volume is its deliberate use of literary technologies.” -- Vivette García-Deister and Anne Pollock * BioSocieties *“[Captivating Technology] is an ideal in action; unfettered by carceral imaginations, scholars can invent different worlds that replace—and not merely, through reform, extend—the discriminatory societies we have made together.” -- David Theodore * Technology and Culture *Table of ContentsForeword / Troy Duster xi Acknowledgments / Ruha Benjamin xv Part I. Carceral Techniques from Plantation to Prison 1. Naturalizing Coercion: The Tuskegee Experiments and the Laboratory Life of the Plantation / Britt Rusert 25 2. Consumed by Disease: Medical Archives, Latino Fictions, and Carceral Health Imaginaries / Christopher Perreira 50 3. Billions Served: Prison Food Regimes, Nutritional Punishment, and Gastronomical Resistance / Anthony Ryan Hatch 67 4. Shadows of War, Traces of Policing: The Weaponization of Space and the Sensible Preemption / Andrea Miller 85 5. This Is Not Minority Report: Predictive Policing and Population Racism / R. Joshua Scannell 107 Part II. Surveillance Systems from Facebook to Fast Fashion 6. Racialized Surveillance in the Digital Service Economy / Winifred Poster 133 7. Digital Character in "The Scored Society": FICO, Social Networks, and the Competing Measurements of Creditworthimess / Tamara K. Nopper 170 8. Deception by Design: Digital Skin, Racial Matter, and the New Policing of Child Sexual Exploitation / Mitali Thakor 188 9. Employing the Carceral Imaginary: An Ethnography of Worker Surveillance in the Retail Industry / Madison Van Oort 209 Part III. Retooling Liberation from Abolitionists to Afrofuturists 10. Anti-Racist Technoscience: A Generative Tradition / Ron Eglash 227 11. Techo-Vernacular Creativity and Innovation across the African Diaspora and Global South / Nettrice R. Gaskins 252 12. Making Skin Visible through Liberatory Design / Lorna Roth 275 13. Scratch a Theory, You Find a Biography: A Conversation with Troy Duster 308 14. Reimagining Race, Resistance, and Technoscience: A Conversation with Dorothy Roberts 328 Bibliography 349 Contributors 389 Index 393

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Book SynopsisSavannah Shange traces the afterlives of slavery as lived in a progressive high school set in post-gentrification San Francisco, showing how despite the school's sincere antiracism activism, it unintentionally perpetuated antiblackness through various practices.Trade Review"By locating the everyday mechanisms of the neoliberal state in a progressive school in San Francisco, Savannah Shange brings the lived experiences of social actors often only talked about as 'Black and Brown bodies' into discussions of the afterlife of slavery. And in so doing, she reveals the fissures in Afropessimism and critical anthropology. Progressive Dystopia is scholarship at its finest and an essential contribution." -- Aimee Meredith Cox, author of * Shapeshifters: Black Girls and the Choreography of Citizenship *“Who's afraid of dystopia? Not Savannah Shange, whose provocative and audacious book exposes ‘progressive’ multiracial social justice initiatives for what they are: a golden noose. ‘Winning,’ she argues, does not disrupt state logics of captivity, containment, accumulation, and antiblackness. And fighting for utopias yet to be without attending to the dystopian present that is for the folks trapped in this ongoing settler-colonial catastrophe will not make us free. Instead, Shange applies an abolitionist frame to reveal how Black and Brown kids who defy their saviors, disrupt liberal teleologies, and map new territory make the road toward freedom by walking, talking, dancing, fighting, and thinking. Unsettling, persuasive, and beautiful, Progressive Dystopia is one of those rare books that will make you rethink everything.” -- Robin D. G. Kelley, author of * Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination *“At the center of Savannah Shange's powerful analysis in progressive dystopia: abolition, anthropology, and race in the new San Francisco are the multiple and seemingly conflicting forces brought to bear on the Black girls and boys who attend the Robeson Justice Academy in the contested space that makes up Frisco. Shange theorizes a set of ‘common sense’ ‘progressive’ logics that reproduce the carceral—what she names progressive dystopia and carceral progressivism—and then the willful defiance that characterizes the refusals and political demands of the Black girl students, in particular, who refuse to bear and internalize what Hartman names as ‘burdened individualism.’ This is a profoundly important book.” -- Christina Sharpe, author of * In the Wake: On Blackness and Being *"Progressive Dystopia is a discerning and devoted read for scholars interested in progressive politics, studies of statecraft, and abolitionist approaches to combating anti-Blackness. Shange’s work is a powerful project with serious ramifications for scholars across many fields of study." -- Julio Alicea * Antipode *"[Progressive Dystopia] is radically different from other school ethnographies. ... Shange operates in a different discursive universe. ... [It] is one of the most ambitious ethnographies I have read: it creates new territory for what to do with and through ethnography. It is a decolonizing act." -- Annegret Staiger * Anthropological Quarterly *“In her pathbreaking first book, Savannah Shange calls for an abolitionist anthropology that begins at the end of the world, with what Black folks teach us about how to survive the apocalypse…. This text will benefit a variety of readers. Undergraduates can learn from thorough readings of the Black anthropological canon and germinal Black studies scholarship. Graduate students will benefit from the model of abolitionist anthropology as ethic and methodology and ethnographic research that is at once agile, grounded, and accountable. It will also be of use to educators, activists, and anyone working within, against, and beyond the state in the service of Black lives.” -- Amelia Simone Herbert * Transforming Anthropology *"Progressive Dystopia casts an honest light on the realities of progressive educational initiatives based around social and racial justice. This book is a must-read for anyone who cares about the complexities and limitations of anti-racist efforts in the age of neoliberalism, and especially anyone with an interest in anti-racist or social-justice education.… This book would also be valuable to anyone interested in qualitative research, and particularly as an example of participant observation in an educational setting." -- Amy Ernestes * Ethnic and Racial Studies *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix 1. #OurLivesMatter: Mapping an Abolitionist Anthropology 1 2. "A Long History of Seeing": Historicizing the Progressive Dystopia 22 3. "Why Can't We Learn African?": Academic Pathways, Coalition Pedagogy, and the Demands of Abolition 44 4. The Kids in the Hall: Space and Governance in Frisco's Plantation Futures 66 5. Ordinary Departures: Flesh, Bodies, and Border Management at Robeson 92 6. Black Skin, Brown Masks: Carceral Progressivism and the Co-optation of Xicanx Nationalism 123 7. My Afterlife Got Afterlives 151 Appendix 161 Notes 169 References 183 Index 201

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Book SynopsisRight Here, Right Now collects the powerful first-person stories of dozens of men who are living on death row in the United States, offering a glimpse into the lives of some of the most marginalized people in America.Trade Review"Everyone must read this book. To read the compelling stories in these pages is to feel the birth pangs of the fundamental changes that must come. These voices bear witness that criminal justice in America has become a nation's crime unto itself. We must measure our national stature and moral standing not by stock markets or church steeples but by the grace and humanity of the institutions that rebuild broken lives. Right Here, Right Now is the place to start." -- Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival and author of * The Third Reconstruction: Moral Mondays, Fusion Politics, and the Rise of a New Justice Movement *“Revelatory. Having spent twenty-five years advocating for comprehensive criminal justice reform and having spent time with many innocent people in maximum security prisons, I have often found more decency and compassion amongst the people inside the prison walls than without. These first-person stories serve to remind us of the humanity and common decency that we as a society all too often push aside in our rush to judgment and punishment.” -- Jason Flom, host of the podcast * Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom *"This powerful collection contains true stories from the dozens of men living on death row across the country. Some remembrances stretch back to childhood experiences of poverty and police misconduct, while other accounts pertain to life inside the carceral system, as the writers fight to hold on to their connections to the outside world. The events of 2020 underscored systematic inequality and the injustices of the justice system; here, these firsthand accounts form a moving, personal call to action." -- Sarah Edwards * IndyWeek *"Right Here, Right Now contains moving, first-person, anonymous accounts of men living on death row. . . . With the common refrain of death row being reserved for the worst of America’s criminals, Right Here, Right Now provokes uncomfortable questions about a judicial system that disproportionately incarcerates those who are 'descendants of enslaved peoples and other people of color, the vast majority poor, and too many mentally ill,' as articulated by acclaimed death row attorney Henderson Hill in the book’s foreword." -- Thomasi McDonald * Indy Week *"What is the worst thing you ever did? What drove you to do it? What would your life be like if you were defined only by that one thing? Those are some of the questions that came to mind as I read Right Here, Right Now: Life Stories from America’s Death Row, a collection of powerful and often wrenching first-person stories of more than 100 men sentenced to death. It’s an emotionally difficult read, but it’s more than worth the investment of time and heart." -- Steven Petrow * Washington Post *"Right Here, Right Now is much more than a death penalty critique. At its heart, the book is about the challenge that has always faced us humans: to see the beauty, dignity, and value in every single person, and to create a society around that. What would it mean to live in a culture that looks at convicted murderers and determinedly sees the humanity there? What would it take to become a society that genuinely serves the least among us before celebrating the achievers?" -- Amanda Abrams * Plough *"Poignant. . . . This volume packs a punch and gives a voice to those whose stories need to be fully heard. Libraries, especially those seeking to expand collections related to criminal justice and the politics surrounding issues of race and class, should purchase this title." -- Mattie Cook * Library Journal *“While there are different authors voicing their tales throughout, [Right Here, Right Now] reads as one strong voice. . . . This piece furthers our understanding of not only experiences when sentenced to death, but also the tenacity that a human can hold to still be able to grow, learn, and think deeply despite the conditions that they are living under." -- AM Purdy * Criminal Law and Criminal Justice *Table of ContentsForeword / Henderson Hill ix Acknowledgments xv Introduction 1 About the Stories 9 I. The Part That Was Innocent (Early Childhood, Birth to Five Years Old) 1. Playing Solitary 17 2. Grandma Shot Bob 18 3. Ajar 19 4. Now Questions Asked 21 5. Downpour 22 6. Nigger Lover 24 7. Shelf Life 25 8. Not the Worst Fate 27 9. Car Ride 30 10. Momma's Boy 32 11. Good Habits 34 II. Boot Camp (Elementary School, Six to Ten Years Old) 12. It Was Reefer 39 13. Blistered 41 14. Ode to a Pretty Girl 43 15. U-Turn 45 16. The Monster 46 17. Don't Bring a Gun to a Knife Fight 47 18. Red, Half-White, and Blue 49 19. Badge of Honor 51 20. Boot Camp 52 21. Lesson Learned 54 22. Better Off Dead 56 23. Shake It Off 58 III. The Drama Was Live (Middle School, Eleven to Thirteen Years Old) 24. You Can Be Anything 63 25. Bootleg 65 26. Luxury 67 27. Cop 68 28. Man of the House 69 29. Trance 71 30. Tar Pit 73 31. Point Blank 75 32. Role Model 77 33. Elliot MF Jones 79 34. Suspension of Disbelief 81 IV. From Bad to Worse (Fourteen Years Old to Arrest) 35. A Wrap 85 36. JD 86 37. When We Were Young 88 38. Stinging Bee 90 39. Hands On 92 40. On My Own 94 41. Ain't Got No Name 96 42. Slap in the Face 98 43. Doing My Job 100 44. White Devil 102 45. Voices in the Dark 103 46. Finally 105 47. Crossing Over 107 V. Given the Circumstances 48. A Kind of Peace 113 49. Seeing the Light 116 50. Boy 119 51. The Quiet Room 122 52. Helpless 124 53. Just Like a Frog 127 54. The Source 129 55. I Heard You 131 56. Mercy on My Soul 133 57. Butterflies 135 58. After the Storm 137 VI. Worst of the Worst (Entering Death Row and Solitary) 59. What You Got? 141 60. Worst of the Worst 142 61. Nursing Home 144 62. Combat Readiness 143 63. The Hole 148 64. Peanut 150 65. Motel 6 152 66. All These Guys 155 67. Word is Bond 157 VII. You Are Not Here to Be Rehabilitated 68. The Raw 163 69. Firstborn 165 70. Valentine's Day 166 71. Time Lost 169 72. Hugs 171 73. I Knew What Was Coming 173 74. The Real Question 175 75. For My Heart Only 177 76. Guilty by Association 179 77. Pumping Iron 181 78. I Became Him 183 79. Definitely Christmas 185 80. Sidekick for Life 187 81. The Huggy Boys 190 82. Cellar Dwellers 192 83. Your Neighbor 195 84. Beyond the Wall 198 85. Ten Cents a Minute 201 86. You Can Do It 204 87. The Kind that Never Go Away 206 88. Making It Home 208 89. Someone Was Going to Die 211 90. Sugar Rush 214 VIII. Every Day's Worth Celebrating (Facing Execution) 91. Deal the Cards 219 92. Weighing the Cost 221 93. The Envelope 223 94. Final Hours 226 95. Cruel and Unusual 228 96. Black and Mild 229 97. Something Wasn't Right 231 98. Holy Week 234 99. Dawn 235 Afterword / Timothy B. Tyson 237 Resources for Deeper Connection 249

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Book SynopsisBiko Mandela Gray offers a philosophical eulogy for Aiyana Stanley-Jones, Tamir Rice, Alton Sterling, and Sandra Bland that attests to their irreducible significance in the face of unremitting police brutality.Trade Review“[Black Life Matter] is an incredible work examining the lost lives of four key figures in thepost-modern Civil Rights Movement, also known as Black Lives Matter. . . . Mandela Gray does an amazing job at demonstrating, and never forgetting, the recent atrocities and injustices of our culture.” -- Josh Barker * Amsterdam News *“Black Life Matter is a wonderful book that explores the meaning of Black bodies and their corporality as living matter. . . . This book works as an instrument to mourn, honour, and actively remember not only the lives and death of the four victims described in each of the chapters but any other Black life that has been stolen.” -- Felipe Agudelo * Ethnic and Racial Studies *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction 1 1. Hands and Braids 31 2. “What I Do?” 55 3. “I Am Irritated, I Really Am” 85 Conclusion 113 Notes 123 Bibliography 149 Index 159

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Book SynopsisRight Here, Right Now collects the powerful first-person stories of dozens of men who are living on death row in the United States, offering a glimpse into the lives of some of the most marginalized people in America.Trade Review"Everyone must read this book. To read the compelling stories in these pages is to feel the birth pangs of the fundamental changes that must come. These voices bear witness that criminal justice in America has become a nation's crime unto itself. We must measure our national stature and moral standing not by stock markets or church steeples but by the grace and humanity of the institutions that rebuild broken lives. Right Here, Right Now is the place to start." -- Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival and author of * The Third Reconstruction: Moral Mondays, Fusion Politics, and the Rise of a New Justice Movement *“Revelatory. Having spent twenty-five years advocating for comprehensive criminal justice reform and having spent time with many innocent people in maximum security prisons, I have often found more decency and compassion amongst the people inside the prison walls than without. These first-person stories serve to remind us of the humanity and common decency that we as a society all too often push aside in our rush to judgment and punishment.” -- Jason Flom, host of the podcast * Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom *"This powerful collection contains true stories from the dozens of men living on death row across the country. Some remembrances stretch back to childhood experiences of poverty and police misconduct, while other accounts pertain to life inside the carceral system, as the writers fight to hold on to their connections to the outside world. The events of 2020 underscored systematic inequality and the injustices of the justice system; here, these firsthand accounts form a moving, personal call to action." -- Sarah Edwards * IndyWeek *"Right Here, Right Now contains moving, first-person, anonymous accounts of men living on death row. . . . With the common refrain of death row being reserved for the worst of America’s criminals, Right Here, Right Now provokes uncomfortable questions about a judicial system that disproportionately incarcerates those who are 'descendants of enslaved peoples and other people of color, the vast majority poor, and too many mentally ill,' as articulated by acclaimed death row attorney Henderson Hill in the book’s foreword." -- Thomasi McDonald * Indy Week *"What is the worst thing you ever did? What drove you to do it? What would your life be like if you were defined only by that one thing? Those are some of the questions that came to mind as I read Right Here, Right Now: Life Stories from America’s Death Row, a collection of powerful and often wrenching first-person stories of more than 100 men sentenced to death. It’s an emotionally difficult read, but it’s more than worth the investment of time and heart." -- Steven Petrow * Washington Post *"Right Here, Right Now is much more than a death penalty critique. At its heart, the book is about the challenge that has always faced us humans: to see the beauty, dignity, and value in every single person, and to create a society around that. What would it mean to live in a culture that looks at convicted murderers and determinedly sees the humanity there? What would it take to become a society that genuinely serves the least among us before celebrating the achievers?" -- Amanda Abrams * Plough *"Poignant. . . . This volume packs a punch and gives a voice to those whose stories need to be fully heard. Libraries, especially those seeking to expand collections related to criminal justice and the politics surrounding issues of race and class, should purchase this title." -- Mattie Cook * Library Journal *“While there are different authors voicing their tales throughout, [Right Here, Right Now] reads as one strong voice. . . . This piece furthers our understanding of not only experiences when sentenced to death, but also the tenacity that a human can hold to still be able to grow, learn, and think deeply despite the conditions that they are living under." -- AM Purdy * Criminal Law and Criminal Justice *Table of ContentsForeword / Henderson Hill ix Acknowledgments xv Introduction 1 About the Stories 9 I. The Part That Was Innocent (Early Childhood, Birth to Five Years Old) 1. Playing Solitary 17 2. Grandma Shot Bob 18 3. Ajar 19 4. Now Questions Asked 21 5. Downpour 22 6. Nigger Lover 24 7. Shelf Life 25 8. Not the Worst Fate 27 9. Car Ride 30 10. Momma's Boy 32 11. Good Habits 34 II. Boot Camp (Elementary School, Six to Ten Years Old) 12. It Was Reefer 39 13. Blistered 41 14. Ode to a Pretty Girl 43 15. U-Turn 45 16. The Monster 46 17. Don't Bring a Gun to a Knife Fight 47 18. Red, Half-White, and Blue 49 19. Badge of Honor 51 20. Boot Camp 52 21. Lesson Learned 54 22. Better Off Dead 56 23. Shake It Off 58 III. The Drama Was Live (Middle School, Eleven to Thirteen Years Old) 24. You Can Be Anything 63 25. Bootleg 65 26. Luxury 67 27. Cop 68 28. Man of the House 69 29. Trance 71 30. Tar Pit 73 31. Point Blank 75 32. Role Model 77 33. Elliot MF Jones 79 34. Suspension of Disbelief 81 IV. From Bad to Worse (Fourteen Years Old to Arrest) 35. A Wrap 85 36. JD 86 37. When We Were Young 88 38. Stinging Bee 90 39. Hands On 92 40. On My Own 94 41. Ain't Got No Name 96 42. Slap in the Face 98 43. Doing My Job 100 44. White Devil 102 45. Voices in the Dark 103 46. Finally 105 47. Crossing Over 107 V. Given the Circumstances 48. A Kind of Peace 113 49. Seeing the Light 116 50. Boy 119 51. The Quiet Room 122 52. Helpless 124 53. Just Like a Frog 127 54. The Source 129 55. I Heard You 131 56. Mercy on My Soul 133 57. Butterflies 135 58. After the Storm 137 VI. Worst of the Worst (Entering Death Row and Solitary) 59. What You Got? 141 60. Worst of the Worst 142 61. Nursing Home 144 62. Combat Readiness 143 63. The Hole 148 64. Peanut 150 65. Motel 6 152 66. All These Guys 155 67. Word is Bond 157 VII. You Are Not Here to Be Rehabilitated 68. The Raw 163 69. Firstborn 165 70. Valentine's Day 166 71. Time Lost 169 72. Hugs 171 73. I Knew What Was Coming 173 74. The Real Question 175 75. For My Heart Only 177 76. Guilty by Association 179 77. Pumping Iron 181 78. I Became Him 183 79. Definitely Christmas 185 80. Sidekick for Life 187 81. The Huggy Boys 190 82. Cellar Dwellers 192 83. Your Neighbor 195 84. Beyond the Wall 198 85. Ten Cents a Minute 201 86. You Can Do It 204 87. The Kind that Never Go Away 206 88. Making It Home 208 89. Someone Was Going to Die 211 90. Sugar Rush 214 VIII. Every Day's Worth Celebrating (Facing Execution) 91. Deal the Cards 219 92. Weighing the Cost 221 93. The Envelope 223 94. Final Hours 226 95. Cruel and Unusual 228 96. Black and Mild 229 97. Something Wasn't Right 231 98. Holy Week 234 99. Dawn 235 Afterword / Timothy B. Tyson 237 Resources for Deeper Connection 249

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Book SynopsisJosé David Saldívar offers a critical examination of Junot Díaz, showing how his influences converged in his fiction and how his work radically changed the course of US Latinx literature and created a new way of viewing the decolonial world.Trade Review"This is an engaging, important contribution to understanding of Junot Díaz’s work and life. Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers." -- A. A. Edwards * Choice *"Junot Díaz is a good introduction to the Diaz oeuvre, while at the same time, a must-read for an intermediate reader of Junot Díaz’s work." -- Gustavo Gutierrez Hernandez * Kritikon Litterarum *Table of ContentsPreface xi Acknowledgments xix Introduction 1 1. “Wrestling with J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings”: How Junot Díaz Thinks About Coloniality, Power, and the Speculative Genres 27 Part I. Junot Díaz’s MFA Program Era at Cornell University and Beyond 2. Díaz’s Planet MFA: “Negocios” 47 3. Díaz’s Planet POC (People of Color): Drown 73 Part II. Understanding Imaginary Transference and the Colonial Difference 4. Becoming Oscar “Oscar Wao” 99 Part III. A Legacy In-formation 5. Junot Díaz’s Search for Decolonial Love 151 Conclusion and Coda: “Monstro” and Islandborn 179 Notes 191 Bibliography 225 Index 239

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Book SynopsisSince the 1600s, travelers, scientists, and doctors have claimed that “hermaphroditism” and intersex are disproportionately common among black South Africans. In Envisioning African Intersex Amanda Lock Swarr debunks this claim by interrogating contemporary intersex medicine and demonstrating its indivisibility from colonial ideologies and scientific racism. Tracing the history of racialized research that underpins medical and scientific premises of gendered bodies, Swarr analyzes decolonial actions by intersex South Africans from the 1990s to the present, centering the work of organizers such as Sally Gross, the first openly intersex activist in Africa and a global pioneer of intersex legislation. Swarr also explores African social media activism that advocates for intersex justice and challenges the mistreatment of South African Olympian Caster Semenya. Throughout, Swarr shows how activists displace doctors’ impositions to fashion self-representation. By unseTrade Review"Envisioning African Intersex is a compelling and provocative analysis of how medical and scientific authorities have imagined intersex (atypical sex development) in Africa and, just as important, how contemporary South African intersex activists have resisted these racist interpretations." -- Elizabeth Reis * Journal of Medical Humanities *Table of ContentsIntroduction. Pathologizing Gender Binaries: Intersex Images and Citational Chains 1 Part I. Uncovering: Colonial and Apartheid Legacies 1. Colonial Observations and Fallacies: “Hermaphroditism” in Histories of South Africa 23 2. “Intersex in Four South African Racial Groups in Durban”: Visualizing Scientific Racism and Gendered Medicine 49 Part II. Recovering: Decolonial Intersex Interventions 3. Defying Medical Violence and Social Death: Sally Gross and the Inception of South African Intersex Activism 73 4. #HandsOffCaster: Caster Semenya’s Refusals and the Decolonization of Gender Testing 102 5. Toward an “African Intersex Reference of Intelligence”: Directions in Intersex Organizing 132 Epilogue. Reframing Visions of South African Intersex 156 Acknowledgments 161 Appendix One: Compilation of Works by and Featuring Sally Gross 165 Appendix Two: Cited Twitter Posts Referencing Caster Semenya 167 Appendix Three: African Intersex Movement Priorities (2017, 2019, 2020) 169 Notes 171 References 207 Index 231

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Book SynopsisIn Between Shadows and Noise Amber Jamilla Musser theorizes sensation as a Black feminist method for aesthetic interpretation and criticism that uses the knowledges held by the body to access the unrepresentable. Thinking through Blackness, empire, and colonialism, Musser examines artworks ranging from Ming Smith’s Flamingo Fandango, Jordan Peele’s Us, and Katherine Dunham’s Shango to Samita Sinha’s This ember state, Titus Kaphar’s A Pillow for Fragile Fictions, and Teresita Fernández’s Puerto Rico (Burned) 6. She engages with these works from an embodied situatedness to grapple with the questions and sensations of racialization and difference that the works produce. Throughout, Musser rethinks how we consider the relationships between race, representation, and politics by dwelling in those spaces and concepts that elude Western norms of representation, objectivity, and logic. In so doing, she eTrade Review“Between Shadows and Noise is a brilliant meditation on anti-imperial forms of enmeshment and relation that exist beyond monolithic representation. Through a carefully crafted and resoundingly intimate practice of critical situatedness, Amber Jamilla Musser brings the critic into embodied relation with every scene of encounter. Animal bodies, maternal bodies, the bodies of strangers, and our own vulnerable bodies coalesce in this beautiful book to orient us toward the plurivocal and multisensory worlds always proliferating against colonial capture.” -- Julietta Singh, author of * The Breaks *“Bringing together unexpected constellations of contemporary texts while experimenting with form and point of view, Amber Jamilla Musser holistically reenvisions how a body of work can be stretched, massaged, and released in order to attune to the creative ways racialized, colonized, and queer bodies map and remap the embodied experiences of trauma and resilience. This thought-provoking, beautifully written, and creative work will reshape current conversations in Black studies, feminist studies, art criticism, performance studies, film studies, and beyond.” -- Omise’eke Natasha Tinsley, author of * The Color Pynk: Black Femme Art for Survival *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction. Body Work 1 1. Us, the Uncanny, and the Threat of Black Femininity 21 2. Inside Out: Shango and Spectacles of the Spirit 42 3. Noise and the Body-Place: This ember state and the Critical Encounter 59 4. On the Brink: Approximation, Difference, and Ongoing Storms 76 5. Tamarind, Metabolism, and Rest: Making Racialized Labor Visible 94 Conclusion. Inflammation: Notes from the Front 112 Notes 131 Bibliography 157 Index 175

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Book SynopsisAmber Jamilla Musser theorizes sensation as a Black feminist method for aesthetic interpretation and criticism that uses the knowledges held by the body to access the unrepresentable.Trade Review“Between Shadows and Noise is a brilliant meditation on anti-imperial forms of enmeshment and relation that exist beyond monolithic representation. Through a carefully crafted and resoundingly intimate practice of critical situatedness, Amber Jamilla Musser brings the critic into embodied relation with every scene of encounter. Animal bodies, maternal bodies, the bodies of strangers, and our own vulnerable bodies coalesce in this beautiful book to orient us toward the plurivocal and multisensory worlds always proliferating against colonial capture.” -- Julietta Singh, author of * The Breaks *“Bringing together unexpected constellations of contemporary texts while experimenting with form and point of view, Amber Jamilla Musser holistically reenvisions how a body of work can be stretched, massaged, and released in order to attune to the creative ways racialized, colonized, and queer bodies map and remap the embodied experiences of trauma and resilience. This thought-provoking, beautifully written, and creative work will reshape current conversations in Black studies, feminist studies, art criticism, performance studies, film studies, and beyond.” -- Omise’eke Natasha Tinsley, author of * The Color Pynk: Black Femme Art for Survival *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction. Body Work 1 1. Us, the Uncanny, and the Threat of Black Femininity 21 2. Inside Out: Shango and Spectacles of the Spirit 42 3. Noise and the Body-Place: This ember state and the Critical Encounter 59 4. On the Brink: Approximation, Difference, and Ongoing Storms 76 5. Tamarind, Metabolism, and Rest: Making Racialized Labor Visible 94 Conclusion. Inflammation: Notes from the Front 112 Notes 131 Bibliography 157 Index 175

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Book SynopsisHonorable Mention, Mirra Komarovsky Book Award, given by the Eastern Sociological Society2021 Outstanding Academic Title, Choice MagazineHow workers navigate race, gender, and class in the food service industryTwo unequal worlds of work exist within the upscale restaurant scene of Los Angeles. White, college-educated servers operate in the front of the housealso known as the public areas of the restaurantwhile Latino immigrants toil in the back of the house and out of customer view.In Front of the House, Back of the House, Eli Revelle Yano Wilson shows us what keeps these workers apart, exploring race, class, and gender inequalities in the food service industry.Drawing on research at three different high-end restaurants in Los Angeles, Wilson highlights why these inequalities persist in the twenty-first century, pointing to discriminatory hiring and supervisory practices that ultimately grant educated whites accTrade ReviewUsing his keen lens of participant observation and his powerful writing style, Wilson takes readers into the world of high-end dining in Los Angeles. He shares the often-unnoticed, taken-for-granted ways that managers, customers, and even workers themselves sort workers into different and unequal jobs rooted in systems of inequality and socially coded expectations that advantage some and disadvantage others. This book is a must read for students and scholars who are interested in the racialized coding of labor in US workplaces, and will be a seminal text for both the sociology of work and ethnographic studies. * Choice *You’ll never see that Hamachi crudo with yuzu kosho the same way after reading Eli Wilson’s Front of the House, Back of the House. The stories and commentary of this well-told tale of restaurant work give that plate a chain of literal “back-stories”: of structural and racial discrimination and of the real humanity of food workers. The meeting point in a fine-dining restaurant is the kitchen-to-dining-room “pass-through” where the dishes created by mostly “brown-collar” workers, with different pay scales, languages, family lives and opportunities meet the front-of-the-house workers whose wages, lives and experiences, in the very same establishment, are so very different. This should be required reading for anyone interested in the social, economic and racial coding of labor in America – and for anyone who comes to the table to consume the foods of that labor. -- Merry White, author of Coffee Life in JapanEli Wilson’s careful research reveals the parallel universes of work that keep upscale restaurants humming. At the front of the house, young, white bartenders and servers who telegraph “cool” and “class” leisurely interface with the customers and collect the higher pay, while in the kitchen an army of lower-paid Latino immigrant men frantically cook, clean, bus tables and literally run as “food runners.” But one of the many surprises is this: the back of the house runs not only on super-exploitation, but also a complex work culture defined by an ethos of loyalty, mentorship, skilled craftsmanship, and masculine competition. And a smaller sample of US-born Latinx workers use their in-between status to leverage new positions. Offering nuanced insights into how race and class operate in the workplaces of 21st century global cities, this book is a must read not only for students and scholars, but also for fine dining enthusiasts, celebrity chefs and their Instagram followers—if they are willing to look beyond their plates. -- Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, Florence Everline Professor of Sociology, USCEli Wilson invites us inside some of the fanciest restaurants in Los Angeles. The food may be exquisite, but the mundane racism he documents will churn your stomach. As a waiter he is privy to a system of racial apartheid between the front of the house and the back of the house. This book vividly shows how white managers and workers benefit from the everyday oppression of immigrant laborers. -- Christine Williams, author of Inside Toyland: Working, Shopping, and Social InequalityThis beautifully written book uses the world of restaurants to provide readers with a primer on the making and re-making of everyday social inequality. Filled with lively ethnographic detail and yet always keenly analytical, Eli Wilson has delivered a volume to be savored by scholars and students alike. -- Roger David Waldinger, The Cross-Border Connection: Immigrants, Emigrants, and Their HomelandsFront of the House, Back of the House: Race and Inequality in the Lives of Restaurant Workers stands as a brilliant empirically grounded account of how food service work and social inequality intertwine in ways that go largely unnoticed by consumers in these establishments. Written in clear and descriptive prose, Wilson provides a vivid image of the processes that pattern social inequality in the lives of restaurant workers. -- Paul Jakhu, University of the Fraser Valley * Sociological Inquiry *Sociologist Eli Revelle Yano Wilson skillfully traverses the swinging kitchen doors of high-end restaurants in Los Angeles and takes the reader into the two worlds of fine dining, the front-of-the-house, and back-of-the-house. Wilson’s riveting book…highlights how swinging kitchen doors provide a physical barrier that separate staff based on job tasks, but it is a series of formal and informal practices that ultimately cements inequities between them. -- Glenda M. Flores, University of California * Social Forces *Wilson joins a legacy of ethnographers who take jobs in the fields that they study, building a bridge between theory and practice…His book fits into a growing body of scholarship and activism that not only theorizes but also works to transform the injustices built into the restaurant and hospitality industries. -- Natasha Bunzl, New York University * Gastronomica *

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Book SynopsisHonorable Mention, Mirra Komarovsky Book Award, given by the Eastern Sociological Society 2021 Outstanding Academic Title, Choice Magazine How workers navigate race, gender, and class in the food service industry Two unequal worlds of work exist within the upscale restaurant scene of Los Angeles. White, college-educated servers operate in the front of the housealso known as the public areas of the restaurantwhile Latino immigrants toil in the back of the house and out of customer view. In Front of the House, Back of the House, Eli Revelle Yano Wilson shows us what keeps these workers apart, exploring race, class, and gender inequalities in the food service industry. Drawing on research at three different high-end restaurants in Los Angeles, Wilson highlights why these inequalities persist in the twenty-first century, pointing to discriminatory hiring and supervisory practices that ultimately grant educated whites access to the most desirable positions. Additionally, he shows us how workers navigate these inequalities under the same roof, making sense of their jobs, their identities, and each other in a world that reinforces their separateness. Front of the House, Back of the House takes us behind the scenes of the food service industry, providing a window into the unequal lives of white and Latino restaurant workers.Trade ReviewUsing his keen lens of participant observation and his powerful writing style, Wilson takes readers into the world of high-end dining in Los Angeles. He shares the often-unnoticed, taken-for-granted ways that managers, customers, and even workers themselves sort workers into different and unequal jobs rooted in systems of inequality and socially coded expectations that advantage some and disadvantage others. This book is a must read for students and scholars who are interested in the racialized coding of labor in US workplaces, and will be a seminal text for both the sociology of work and ethnographic studies. * Choice *You’ll never see that Hamachi crudo with yuzu kosho the same way after reading Eli Wilson’s Front of the House, Back of the House. The stories and commentary of this well-told tale of restaurant work give that plate a chain of literal “back-stories”: of structural and racial discrimination and of the real humanity of food workers. The meeting point in a fine-dining restaurant is the kitchen-to-dining-room “pass-through” where the dishes created by mostly “brown-collar” workers, with different pay scales, languages, family lives and opportunities meet the front-of-the-house workers whose wages, lives and experiences, in the very same establishment, are so very different. This should be required reading for anyone interested in the social, economic and racial coding of labor in America – and for anyone who comes to the table to consume the foods of that labor. -- Merry White, author of Coffee Life in JapanEli Wilson’s careful research reveals the parallel universes of work that keep upscale restaurants humming. At the front of the house, young, white bartenders and servers who telegraph “cool” and “class” leisurely interface with the customers and collect the higher pay, while in the kitchen an army of lower-paid Latino immigrant men frantically cook, clean, bus tables and literally run as “food runners.” But one of the many surprises is this: the back of the house runs not only on super-exploitation, but also a complex work culture defined by an ethos of loyalty, mentorship, skilled craftsmanship, and masculine competition. And a smaller sample of US-born Latinx workers use their in-between status to leverage new positions. Offering nuanced insights into how race and class operate in the workplaces of 21st century global cities, this book is a must read not only for students and scholars, but also for fine dining enthusiasts, celebrity chefs and their Instagram followers—if they are willing to look beyond their plates. -- Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, Florence Everline Professor of Sociology, USCEli Wilson invites us inside some of the fanciest restaurants in Los Angeles. The food may be exquisite, but the mundane racism he documents will churn your stomach. As a waiter he is privy to a system of racial apartheid between the front of the house and the back of the house. This book vividly shows how white managers and workers benefit from the everyday oppression of immigrant laborers. -- Christine Williams, author of Inside Toyland: Working, Shopping, and Social InequalityThis beautifully written book uses the world of restaurants to provide readers with a primer on the making and re-making of everyday social inequality. Filled with lively ethnographic detail and yet always keenly analytical, Eli Wilson has delivered a volume to be savored by scholars and students alike. -- Roger David Waldinger, The Cross-Border Connection: Immigrants, Emigrants, and Their HomelandsFront of the House, Back of the House: Race and Inequality in the Lives of Restaurant Workers stands as a brilliant empirically grounded account of how food service work and social inequality intertwine in ways that go largely unnoticed by consumers in these establishments. Written in clear and descriptive prose, Wilson provides a vivid image of the processes that pattern social inequality in the lives of restaurant workers. -- Paul Jakhu, University of the Fraser Valley * Sociological Inquiry *Sociologist Eli Revelle Yano Wilson skillfully traverses the swinging kitchen doors of high-end restaurants in Los Angeles and takes the reader into the two worlds of fine dining, the front-of-the-house, and back-of-the-house. Wilson’s riveting book…highlights how swinging kitchen doors provide a physical barrier that separate staff based on job tasks, but it is a series of formal and informal practices that ultimately cements inequities between them. -- Glenda M. Flores, University of California * Social Forces *Wilson joins a legacy of ethnographers who take jobs in the fields that they study, building a bridge between theory and practice…His book fits into a growing body of scholarship and activism that not only theorizes but also works to transform the injustices built into the restaurant and hospitality industries. -- Natasha Bunzl, New York University * Gastronomica *

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Book SynopsisWinner, 2022 Children''s Literature Association Book Award, given by the Children''s Literature AssociationWinner, 2020 World Fantasy AwardsWinner, 2020 British Fantasy Awards, NonfictionFinalist, Creative Nonfiction IGNYTE Award, given by FIYACON for BIPOC+ in Speculative FictionReveals the diversity crisis in children''s and young adult media as not only a lack of representation, but a lack of imaginationStories provide portals into other worlds, both real and imagined. The promise of escape draws people from all backgrounds to speculative fiction, but when people of color seek passageways into the fantastic, the doors are often barred. This problem lies not only with children's publishing, but also with the television and film executives tasked with adapting these stories into a visual world. When characters of color do appear, they are often marginalized or subjected to violence, reinforcing for audienTrade ReviewOne of the most radiant and thought-provoking descriptions of the potentials of fantastic literature. * LA Review of Books *The Dark Fantastic will entirely change the way you read science fiction, fantasy, [and] horror, and I can absolutely assure you it will be for the better. * BookRiot *The Dark Fantastic is a wakeup call to all who research, teach, or create young adult speculative fiction ... Thomas issues a call to decolonize the speculative fiction genre and to ensure more texts, films, and television shows that include a Black female protagonist become the norm to influence a new generation of readers and writers. The Dark Fantastic is a must-read. * Booklist *One of the most brilliant and woke explorations of race and speculative fiction I've ever read. Thomas breaks down the history of fantasy and imagination and shows us how far we have to go with such patience and clarity I felt like I was sitting beside her, growing smarter with each word. -- Jacqueline Woodson, National Book Award-winning author * Brown Girl Dreaming *If you care about thoughtfully engaging with race, Harry Potter, and fandom, you definitely need to check out The Dark Fantastic. * Mugglenet *By bridging pop culture, personal experience, and academic study, The Dark Fantastic provides a crucial examination of race and storytelling in sci-fi fantasy media aimed at teens and young adults. Not only does Thomas discuss how Black characters are erased in an inescapable cycle, but she also provides a guide to breaking it. * Brain Mill Press Voices *Thomas synthesizes theory from several disciplines to build her model of “the dark fantastic”—a cycle in which Black female characters are sidelined in mainstream fantasy narratives for young adults. … Valuable for introducing readers to a range of concepts, this is an important work of criticism on an underexamined topic. * School Library Journal *A creative blend of autoethnography, literary analysis, and counter-storytelling, this volume is intriguing, accessible, and raises important questions that will likely generate additional research on this topic... A must read, especially for current and future educators. * Choice *Timely and beautifully written book [...] Powerfully addresses the imagination gap in white writers’ use of Black characters as props to demonstrate aspects of white protagonists’ character development, often through violence wrecked upon Black bodies. This book should be in the library of any university teaching Children’s literature or Fantasy literature, and on the reading list of any courses in those two areas. * Fantastika Journal *Thorough, creative, and revolutionary, The Dark Fantastic addresses the & imagination gap that plagues the majority of children's and YA media, which erases and mutes the stories and agency of black characters. From Harry Potter to The Hunger Games, Ebony Elizabeth Thomas sheds light on the dark fantastic to point scholars and fans toward a world where we can all experience and be liberated by the power of magic. -- Tananarive Due, American Book Award winner and author * Ghost Summer: Stories *A compelling work of criticism, autoethnography, and counter-storytelling. Ebony Elizabeth Thomas reads within and across novels, film, television, fanfiction, the writers who create them, and online communities in order to explore the & role of race in the collective literary imagination. Thomas powerfully introduces the concept of the imagination gap and articulates its implications for the culture as a whole, recognizing the power and necessity of new stories capable of remaking the world. -- Christina Sharpe, author * In the Wake: On Blackness and Being *A compelling synthesis of speculative fiction, critical race theory, autobiography, and fantasy, The Dark Fantastic provides a powerful diagnosis of how racial difference shapes our imaginations. If you are looking for ways to repair the damage wrought by the lack of diversity in popular culture, there's no better place to begin. -- Philip Nel, author * Was the Cat in the Hat Black? *The form of this piece of scholarly activism is as fresh as its scholarly content; Thomas has a strong authorial voice and uses it eloquently, lightly, and without pretension, making this necessary book accessible to a much wider audience than children’s literature scholars. The Dark Fantastic is a transformative and democratising work in the public humanities, emancipated from stagnant academic notions. * International Research in Children’s Literature *The Dark Fantastic is a timely entree into the literature on speculative and fantastic fictions, and it does exactly what it sets out to do…As fantastical and speculative fictions become more popular, this text is sure to become a must read for scholars, teachers, and readers of the fantastical. * The Journal of African American History *

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Book SynopsisIlluminates how recent shifts in demographics, policy, culture and thinking have changed how race is understood todayThe Complexities of Race illustrates how several recent dynamics compel us to reconsider race, racial identity, and racial inequality. It argues that race and racism provide key but complex lenses through which critical events and issues of any moment can be more fully understood. The emergence of intersectionality, the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, changing ethnic and racial demographics in the United States, and other forces challenge prevailing values and narratives related to race. The volume provides new and detailed snapshots of the diverse and complicated ways that race, racism, racial identity, and racial justice are represented, experienced, and addressed in America, offering new ways of understanding the complex dynamics of power and systems of oppression. Each chapter uses a current, real-world example to demonstrate how race works in tandem with Trade Review"A cutting-edge analysis of race and interlocking identities, The Complexities of Race is compelling, focused, and thorough. " -- Vasti Torres, Indiana University Bloomington"Featuring important contributions that include new perspectives on issues of identity and race, The Complexities of Race is an invaluable addition to the field. " -- Susan Robb Jones, Professor Emeritus, The Ohio State University"The Complexities of Race is a vital contribution that provides critical insights into systems of inequality and social movements that seek to enact forms of transformative justice. " -- Andrew J. Jolivétte, University of California, San Diego"Of particular interest to social justice practitioners and scholars are the last two chapters. Taken together, they provide a rich overview of what it means to apply critical race theory, intersectionality, and other themes around racial identity discussed in the book." * Choice *

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Book SynopsisIlluminates how recent shifts in demographics, policy, culture and thinking have changed how race is understood todayThe Complexities of Race illustrates how several recent dynamics compel us to reconsider race, racial identity, and racial inequality. It argues that race and racism provide key but complex lenses through which critical events and issues of any moment can be more fully understood. The emergence of intersectionality, the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, changing ethnic and racial demographics in the United States, and other forces challenge prevailing values and narratives related to race. The volume provides new and detailed snapshots of the diverse and complicated ways that race, racism, racial identity, and racial justice are represented, experienced, and addressed in America, offering new ways of understanding the complex dynamics of power and systems of oppression. Each chapter uses a current, real-world example to demonstrate how race works in tandem with Trade ReviewA cutting-edge analysis of race and interlocking identities, The Complexities of Race is compelling, focused, and thorough. -- Vasti Torres, Indiana University BloomingtonFeaturing important contributions that include new perspectives on issues of identity and race, The Complexities of Race is an invaluable addition to the field. -- Susan Robb Jones, Professor Emeritus, The Ohio State UniversityThe Complexities of Race is a vital contribution that provides critical insights into systems of inequality and social movements that seek to enact forms of transformative justice. -- Andrew J. Jolivétte, University of California, San DiegoOf particular interest to social justice practitioners and scholars are the last two chapters. Taken together, they provide a rich overview of what it means to apply critical race theory, intersectionality, and other themes around racial identity discussed in the book. * Choice *

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Book SynopsisHow we can understand race, crime, and punishment in the age of Black Lives MatterWhen The Color of Crime was first published in 1998, it was heralded as a path-breaking book on race and crime. Now, in its third edition, Katheryn Russell-Brown's book is more relevant than ever, as police killings of unarmed Black civilianssuch as George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Daniel Prudecontinue to make headlines around the world. She continues to ask, why do Black and white Americans perceive police actions so differently? Is white fear of Black crime justified?With three new chapters, over forty new racial hoax cases, and other timely updates, this edition offers an even more expansive view of crime and punishment in the twenty-first century. Russell-Brown gives us much-needed insight into some of the most recent racial hoaxes, such as the one perpetrated by Amy Cooper. Should perpetrators of racial hoaxes be charged with a felony? Further, Russell-Brown makes a compelling case for race and crimTrade ReviewRussell-Brown’s new edition of The Color of Crime is essential reading for students and scholars of race, crime, and justice. It not only provides excellent overviews of concepts and issues for those who are newer to investigating this huge topic, but also presents stimulating material for those more steeped in conversations about race and crime. Be prepared to be wowed by her thoughtful and provocative final chapter–the 'Parable of the Soul Savers.' -- Lauren J. Krivo, co-author of Divergent Social Worlds: Neighborhood Crime and the Racial-Spatial DivideKatheryn Russell-Brownprovides plenty of food for thought, new information, and intriguing perspectives in the portrayal of race, crime and justice in the United States. This updated edition of The Color of Crime will be a valuable resource for a variety of audiences, providing a broader and more thorough treatment of race and crime than many other works, including attention to timely issues like racial hoaxes, White crime, and more. -- Ruth D. Peterson, co-author of Divergent Social Worlds: Neighborhood Crime and the Racial-Spatial DivideThis book is a classic. When The Color of Crime was first released, Russell-Brown shook the worlds of criminology, penology, and a then-burgeoning sociology of punishment by centering anti-black images in the media in her study of what we would later understand as the rise of mass incarceration. Updated with chapters and case studies that account for new kinds of media and racism, as well as our broader understanding of the carceral state’s reach, this interdisciplinary, accessible, and ambitious work has proven, once again, that Russell-Brown’s trenchant analysis is indispensable for serious students of race and crime control in the United States and beyond. -- Reuben Jonathan Miller, author of Halfway Home: Race, Punishment, and the Afterlife of Mass Incarceration

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Book SynopsisHow black women have personified art,expression,identity, and freedom through performanceWinner, 2016 William Sanders Scarborough Prize, presented by the Modern Language Association for an outstanding scholarly study of African American literature or cultureWinner, 2016 Barnard Hewitt Award for Outstanding Research in Theatre History, presented by the American Society for Theatre ResearchWinner, 2016 Errol Hill Award for outstanding scholarship in African American theater, drama, and/or performance studies, presented by the American Society for Theatre ResearchTracing a dynamic genealogy of performance from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century, Uri McMillan contends that black women artists practiced a purposeful self-objectification, transforming themselves into art objects. In doing so, these artists raised new ways to ponder the intersections of art, performance, and black female embodiment.McMillan reframes the conceTrade Review"Uri McMillans magisterial debut book engages while naming a two-century-long tradition of black womens performance art in the United States, intervening in the problematic racialization and gendering of particular art historical traditions buttressed by the presumed absence of black womens aesthetic and political enactments." * Theatre Journal *"Uri McMillan's magisterial debut book engages while naming a two-century-long tradition of black women's performance art in the United States...Part of the greatness of this book is its complicated engagement with racialized, gendered, and sexualized objecthood as method, the risk-taking practices whereby the historically unfree recalculate the possibilities objecthood for smuggling in liberatory alternatives." * Theatre Journal *"Embodied Avatarsdestabilizes the boundaries between art, objecthood, and survival within the last two centuries [....] Readers are left with the reverberating echoes of not only the black women artists profiled, but the resonances of their multiple avatars, becoming a fierce atonal chorus. Performing objecthood becomes a transformative human strategy in the face of searing dehumanization. Rather than arguing for another iteration of the human as a salvageable category, McMillans innovative scholarship illuminates a complex and obstinate way of being, a being that strikingly prefers not to." * Women & Performance *"Roll over Joseph Beuys, tell Yves Klein the news! Embodied Avatarsradically disrupts prevailing histories, definitions, and genealogies of performance art by focusing on black women who, over the course of two centuries, sought to turn their degraded bodies into dissident tools of emancipation and social critique. Recognizing the first modern stage of black performativity as the auction block, Uri McMillan reveals how black women turned objectification into objecthood, enabling them to remake, disguise, remold the self into an object of resistance, an embodied nightmare to the American dream. Full of eye-popping analytical turns and thrilling theoretical high wire acts, this book is both brilliant scholarship and a performance to be reckoned with." -- Robin D. G. Kelley,author of Thelonious Monk"Embodied Avatarspresents a sweeping and charismatic investigation of the ways in which Black women have strategically staged versions of 'themselves as modes of public, personal, and critical performance and as interventions in art, expression, identity, identification, and freedom.This vibrant and energetic study of art, performance, and embodiment is far-reaching, profound, lively, and engaging." -- Stephanie Leigh Batiste,author of Darkening Mirrors"Uri McMillan takes us on a journey to unexpected terrain. With powerful alchemy, he reveals how black women performance artists work on multiple registersthrough seduction, trickery, the comfort of the seemingly familiarto enact possibility, or what he theorizes as performance & in the service of a certain type of freedom. Meticulously researched and rigorously theorized, Embodied Avatarsis a model of interdisciplinary scholarship grounded in archival work and impressive textual analysis. This book is certain to forge new paths of inquiry and debate in performance, gender and sexuality studies, and black cultural studies." -- Nicole R. Fleetwood,author of Troubling Vision"AlthoughEmbodied Avatarsis an art historical text, the author displays an admirable dexterity across discipline and epistemologies: the mixture of art history, disability studies, object-oriented ontology, and discourses of black subjectivity is deft and, at times, dazzling." * QED *"Uri McMillans Embodied Avatars is a masterfully multilayered exposition of black womens performance art from the nineteenth century to the present. McMillan not only centers black women within traditional and feminist performance art, but also challenges black hegemonic ideas about objectification in performance." * Journal of African American History *Table of ContentsContents List of Illustrations xi Acknowledgments xiii Introduction: Performing Objects 1 1. Mammy Memory: The Curious Case of Joice Heth, the Ancient Negress 23 2. Passing Performances: Ellen Craft's Fugitive Selves 65 3. Plastic Possibilities: Adrian Piper's Adamant Self-Alienation 95 4. Is This Performance about You? The Art, Activism, and Black Feminist Critique of Howardena Pindell 153 Conclusion: "I've Been Performing My Whole Life" 197 Notes 227 Index 275 About the Author 283 McMillan_i_283.indd 9 7/30/15 9:04 AM

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"[The author] examines how affluent white children think about race Hagerman spent two years immersed with 30 privileged white Midwestern families to produce this timely...study. [S]he provides revealing portraits.[and] is especially good on the & conundrum of privilege.A complex and nuanced...book." * Kirkus Reviews *"Hagerman's book is a careful, painful and convincing argument that when white people give their children advantages, they are often disadvantaging others. Racism is so hard to overturn, in part, because white people prop it up when they work to make sure their children succeed." * NBC's "Think" blog *"Margaret Hagerman's White Kids brings to mind two words: must read....Hagerman unearths the segregation, income inequality, and racial biases which run rampant in her subjects lives... Hagermans writing is crisp and riveting...She puts forth a crucial analysis on the 'well-meaning,' 'colorblind' racism that her subjects perpetuate, stripping down the coded language of suburbia until it reveals the ugly truth underneath." -- STARRED * Foreword Reviews *"By studying how affluent white children think about race, we can see how racist attitudes permeate the structures of power in our society and what it would take to change them... its sobering message should be required reading for all affluent white parents (and affluent white college students)—and especially those who believe in social justice." * American Journal of Sociology *"Hagerman boldly unearths the development of racial identities among white children, and the choices and justifications white families make that perpetuate inequality and entitlement ... Hagerman’s work provides indisputable evidence that choice (of schools and neighborhoods) is for the privileged, and not even the privileged know how (or want) to alter structure. Margaret Hagerman’s book is a much needed investigation of whiteness and the making of such; this would be a great addition to any course that touches on race and inequality in the United States." * Social Forces *"A terrific book tracing the different trajectories of racial meaning young white children make about themselves and others as they navigate the worlds of school, friendship, and neighborhood, as well as the larger world beyond. This book is full of rich insight that should give us both pause and a sense of possibility." -- Amy L. Best, Author of Fast Food Kids: French Fries, Lunch Lines, and Social Ties"More than anything else, whiteness is an everyday practice constructed out of mostly mundane, seemingly & beyond race interactions. In her masterful White Kids, Margaret A. Hagerman demonstrates this fact by showing how privileged children in a Midwestern town are socialized into whiteness and, more significantly, make choices to reproduce whiteness. Hagerman's book deserves to be read widely as it is a sociological gem! -Eduardo Bonilla" -- Silva, Author of Racism Without Racists"This innovative, absorbing ethnography reveals that there is no single way that whites learn about race. Environmental influences such as schools, neighborhoods, and even extracurricular activities profoundly shape the ways that affluent white children think about racism and its impact on people of color. Its fascinating to learn how one child develops a critique of police shootings while another insists that racism does not exist at all. This immersive study will transform the way we think about racial socialization among the privileged. White Kids is a must read for anyone interested in how racial attitudes in America take shape in their earliest moments." -- Monica McDermott, Author of Working-Class White: The Making and Unmaking of Race Relations

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Book SynopsisFinalist, 2020 C. Wright Mills Award, given by the Society for the Study of Social ProblemsHonorable Mention, 2021 Asian America Section Book Award, given by the American Sociological AssociationAn inspiring look inside immigrant youth's political activism in perilous times Undocumented immigrants in the United States who engage in social activism do so at great risk: the threat of deportation. In Organizing While Undocumented, Kevin Escudero shows why and howdespite this riskmany of them bravely continue to fight on the front lines for their rights. Drawing on more than five years of research, including interviews with undocumented youth organizers, Escudero focuses on the movement's epicentersSan Francisco, Chicago, and New York Cityto explain the impressive political success of the undocumented immigrant community. He shows how their identities as undocumented immigrants, but also as queer individuals, people of colTrade ReviewNever before have I read an empirical and theoretical book-length treatise on intersectionality as the identity politics of a US social movement, in this case, one of the most prominent: that of unauthorized immigrant youth. This highly sophisticated analysis centers the organizing of the usually-unseen Asian ethnics without papers and interrelates social axes and activist strategies by way of the undocuqueer movement. Organizing While Undocumented is an indispensable read for anyone interested in the intersection of race, legal status, queer identity, and gender in activism and for anyone seeking a model of meticulous and incisive analysis that is both razor-sharp and inspiring. -- Nadia Y. Kim, author of Imperial Citizens: Koreans and Race from Seoul to LAOrganizing While Undocumented is a timely and powerful book that makes a major contribution to contemporary debates over immigration and citizenship. The courage and tenacity of undocumented Latino and Asian youth activists shine through in this book, revealing inspiring stories of personal and societal transformation. -- Rick Baldoz, author of The Third Asiatic Invasion: Empire and Migration in Filipino America, 1898-1946Since the massive immigrant-rights protests of 2006, the undocumented youth movement has emerged as one of the most powerful social movements of our time. Organizing While Undocumented offers an enlightening perspective of the more nuanced aspects of identify formation and cross-issue campaigns that undergird the importance and influence of this social movement. Timely and incredibly relevant, this book is a must-read for those interested in the contemporary processes of migration, identity, and protest. -- Roberto G. Gonzales, author of Lives in Limbo: Undocumented and Coming of Age in AmericaThe book does a great job highlighting how immigrant-rights activists think about and mobilize their intersectional identities to advance their civil rights agenda locally and nationally. [...] Escudero’s work will certainly be a model to conduct further work on mobilizations around immigrant rights. * Social Forces *

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Book SynopsisHonorable Mention, Barnard Hewitt Award from the American Society for Theater ResearchExplores the intersection and history of American literary realism and the performance of spiritual and racial embodiment. Recovering a series of ecstatic performances in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American realism, Realist Ecstasy travels from camp meetings to Native American ghost dances to storefront church revivals to explore realism's relationship to spiritual experience. In her approach to realism as both an unruly archive of performance and a wide-ranging repertoire of media practicesincluding literature, photography, audio recording, and early filmLindsay V. Reckson argues that the real was repetitively enacted and reenacted through bodily practice. Realist Ecstasy demonstrates how the realist imagining of possessed bodies helped construct and naturalize racial difference, while excavating the complex, shifting, and dynamic possibilities emTrade ReviewThis book’s significance lies in Lindsay Reckson’s ability to rethink literary tropes and tactics through a profound attention to embodiment—bodily gesture, comportment, performance, reenactment. Realist Ecstasy traces how bodies come undone into practices that threaten the very category of the real. Theoretically fascinating and solidly grounded, Reckson’s work places performance in conversation with photography and the literary, forcing each to account for one another across her archival ensemble. -- Rebecca Schneider, author of Performing Remains

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Book SynopsisPROSE Award- Media and Cultural Studies FinalistHow diversity initiatives end up marginalizing Arab Americans and US Muslims One of Donald Trump's first actions as President was to sign an executive order to limit Muslim immigration to the United States, a step toward the complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States he had campaigned on. This extraordinary act of Islamophobia provoked unprecedented opposition: Hollywood movies and mainstream television shows began to feature more Muslim characters in contexts other than terrorism; universities and private businesses included Muslims in their diversity initiatives; and the criminal justice system took hate crimes against Muslims more seriously. Yet Broken argues that, even amid this challenge to institutionalized Islamophobia, diversity initiatives fail on their promise by only focusing on crisis moments.Evelyn Alsultany argues that Muslims get included through crisis diversity, whereTrade ReviewAlsultany carefully and brilliantly walks us through the minefield known as ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ to expose the hypocrisies embedded in American discourses of tolerance. Far from addressing the root problems of today’s inequities, Alsultany shows, contemporary tolerance talk often ends up reinscribing forms of intolerance while institutionalizing racism and Islamophobia. After you read this mind-bending book, not only will you understand the strange space in liberalism’s universe that Muslims occupy, where Muslims represent what must be tolerated and what must not be tolerated simultaneously, but you’ll also realize that the slogan ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ is missing the most significant term of all: justice. -- Moustafa Bayoumi * author of This Muslim American Life: Dispatches from the War on Terror *A fresh, passionate, and comprehensive exploration of where Muslims factor into American diversity initiatives. Employing a blend of scholarly research and personal experience, Alsultany deftly deconstructs the state of Muslim representation and inclusion in the media, universities and key US institutions. -- Lorraine Ali * LA Times *Alsultany details the limit of the liberal promise of inclusion in a brilliant and accessible way. Just when you think that Muslims have entered the doorway into humanity, you see that the inclusive move is itself how Muslim sub-personhood is secured. Broken is invaluable for anyone tempted to put their hopes in multicultural inclusion. Alsultany’s achievement is that we are now steps closer to imagining abolition, the end of systems that protect white property interests. -- Sherene H. Razack * author of Nothing Has to Make Sense: Upholding White Supremacy Through Anti-Muslim Racism *With eloquent prose and a compelling voice, Broken fundamentally shifts contemporary frames for understanding Muslim representation in media, corporations, government, and universities from ‘Islamophobia’ to ‘Anti-Muslim Racism.’ In doing so, she provides a razor-sharp analysis of the truly systemic reality of anti-Muslim racism. -- Ralina Joseph * author of Postracial Resistance: Black Women, Media, and the Uses of Strategic Ambiguity *Alsultany traces how Muslims and Arabs have been incorporated into the United States, represented and racialized in its culture and politics. In some ways, these processes follow the patterns other groups experienced. But the context of terrorism and national security concerns charge the question of Arab and Muslim “otherness” in unique ways. Broken helps us articulate the racialization of 'otherness' and nonbelonging in new and important ways. -- Natalia Molina * The Chronicle of Higher Education, Best Scholarly Books of 2022 *In this eye-opening, provocative work, Alsultany clearly demonstrates that many diversity initiatives fail when they’re centered around moments of crisis instead of lasting change. This narrative will stay with readers long after the last page. To gain understanding and achieve true allyship, this is an essential title to read. * Library Journal (starred) *

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Book Synopsis**WINNER, D. Scott Palmer Prize for Best Edited Collection, given by the New England Council of Latin American Studies**Introduces new approaches, theoretical trends, and understudied topics in Latinx StudiesThis groundbreaking work offers a multidisciplinary, social-science oriented perspective on Latinx studies, including the social histories and contemporary lives of a diverse range of Latina and Latino populations. Editors Ana Y. Ramos-Zayas and Mérida M. Rúa have crafted an anthology that is unique in both form and content. The book combines previously published canonical pieces with original, cutting-edge works created for this volume. The sections of the text are arranged thematically as critical dialogues, each with a brief preface that provides context and a conceptual direction for the scholarly conversation that ensues. The editors frame the volume around the humanistic social sciences, using the term to highlight the historical and social contexts under which expressive culTrade ReviewBrilliantly crafted. . . . Brings together a wide range of scholars and offers a fresh take on Latinx Studies through its discussion of nine key diálogos that touch upon the social histories and contemporary experiences of diverse Latinx populations including immigrants, exiles, refugees, and US-born groups of various backgrounds. . . . Blurs the boundaries between the humanities and social sciences, making the modes of analysis in every chapter special and unique. Ramos-Zayas and Rúa have put together an incredibly rich volume that has something for everyone. -- Glenda M. Flores, author of Latina Teachers: Creating Careers and Guarding CultureCapacious, lively, beautifully organized. . . . Contributors cover colonization and decolonization, race and racialization, differing migration histories, gendered and queer experiences, language and the politics of labeling, cultural production, humor, religion, and the carceral, punitive states Latinx populations must navigate. But they also document past and present Latinx activisms, and open the door to analyzing the many new political coalitions of the present. -- Micaela di Leonardo, Northwestern University

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Book Synopsis**WINNER, D. Scott Palmer Prize for Best Edited Collection, given by the New England Council of Latin American Studies**Introduces new approaches, theoretical trends, and understudied topics in Latinx StudiesThis groundbreaking work offers a multidisciplinary, social-science oriented perspective on Latinx studies, including the social histories and contemporary lives of a diverse range of Latina and Latino populations. Editors Ana Y. Ramos-Zayas and Mérida M. Rúa have crafted an anthology that is unique in both form and content. The book combines previously published canonical pieces with original, cutting-edge works created for this volume. The sections of the text are arranged thematically as critical dialogues, each with a brief preface that provides context and a conceptual direction for the scholarly conversation that ensues. The editors frame the volume around the humanistic social sciences, using the term to highlight the historical and social contexts under which expressive culTrade ReviewBrilliantly crafted. . . . Brings together a wide range of scholars and offers a fresh take on Latinx Studies through its discussion of nine key diálogos that touch upon the social histories and contemporary experiences of diverse Latinx populations including immigrants, exiles, refugees, and US-born groups of various backgrounds. . . . Blurs the boundaries between the humanities and social sciences, making the modes of analysis in every chapter special and unique. Ramos-Zayas and Rúa have put together an incredibly rich volume that has something for everyone. -- Glenda M. Flores, author of Latina Teachers: Creating Careers and Guarding CultureCapacious, lively, beautifully organized. . . . Contributors cover colonization and decolonization, race and racialization, differing migration histories, gendered and queer experiences, language and the politics of labeling, cultural production, humor, religion, and the carceral, punitive states Latinx populations must navigate. But they also document past and present Latinx activisms, and open the door to analyzing the many new political coalitions of the present. -- Micaela di Leonardo, Northwestern University

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Book SynopsisExamines the bleak television comedies that illustrate the obsession of the white left with its own anxiety and sufferingAt the same time that right-wing political figures like Donald Trump were elected and reactionary socio-economic policies like Brexit were voted into law, representations of bleakly comic white fragility spread across television screens. American and British programming that featured the abjection of young, middle-class, liberal white peoplesuch as Broad City, Casual, You're the Worst, Catastrophe, Fleabag, and Transparentproliferated to wide popular acclaim in the 2010s. Taylor Nygaard and Jorie Lagerwey track how these shows of the white left, obsessed with its own anxiety and suffering, are complicit in the rise and maintenance of the far rightparticularly in the mobilization, representation, and sustenance of structural white supremacy on television. Nygaard and Lagerwey examine a cycle of dark television comedies, the focus of which are horrible white people, Trade ReviewHorrible White People examines contemporary TV’s preoccupation with White people’s anxieties and fears. Taylor Nygaard and Jorie Lagerway define what they call the Horrible White People cycle as a group of shows that emerged after the Great Recession between 2014 and 2016, mostly starring White actors in 30 minute comedies or satires. * Ethnic and Racial Studies *Makes an important contribution to television and media studies, which is in the beginning stages of grappling with its own Whiteness. Cannily, Nygaard and Lagerwey focus on series that appear less nakedly racist, even liberal, to show how White supremacy is more common and insidious than most scholarship recognizes. Yet they never forget to attend to the nuances of representation, how race intersects with other indices of identity -- class, gender, etc. -- and how representationally groundbreaking series can simultaneously reinforce norms and obfuscate systemic privilege. This book fills a much-needed gap in media studies and will find a place in my syllabi for the foreseeable future. * Aymar Jean Christian, author of Open TV: Innovation Beyond Hollywood and the Rise of Web Television *A bold, insightful analysis of what Nygaard and Lagerwey identify as a key cycle of sitcoms: ‘horrible White people’ shows. With an insistently anti-racist and feminist lens, they connect this cycle to shifts in the contemporary media industry and U.S. culture in order to show how Whiteness, yet again, reinvents itself. * Sarah Projansky, author of Spectacular Girls: Media Fascination and Celebrity Culture *

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Book SynopsisWinner, 2020 American Book Award, given by the Before Columbus FoundationHow games have been used to establish and combat Asian American racial stereotypes As Pokémon Go reshaped our neighborhood geographies and the human flows of our cities, mapping the virtual onto lived realities, so too has gaming and game theory played a role in our contemporary understanding of race and racial formation in the United States. From the Chinese Exclusion Act and Japanese American internment to the model minority myth and the globalization of Asian labor, Tara Fickle shows how games and game theory shaped fictions of race upon which the nation relies. Drawing from a wide range of literary and critical texts, analog and digital games, journalistic accounts, marketing campaigns, and archival material, Fickle illuminates the ways Asian Americans have had to fit the roles, play the game, and follow the rules to be seen as valuable in the US. Exploring key momentsTrade ReviewRevealing the orientalist origins of game studies and locating the very tenants of game theory in Japanese internment, Tara Fickle engages racialization as game-play itself. In doing so, Fickle explodes our understanding of economic survival and success by revealing the centrality of gambling rhetoric—and a willingness for risk-taking—in the appraisal of Japanese Americans as the ultimate model minority. An original and timely intervention that at last accounts for the dominant representation of Asian Americans as both the hard-worker and the obsessed gamer. -- Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, author of Updating to Remain the Same: Habitual New MediaRevealing the mutual constitution of gaming and racialization, The Race Card’s concept of ‘ludo-Orientalism’ offers a significant new way of understanding the historical discourse of Asian exclusionism, as well as more subtle forms of post-1960s anti-Asian racism. Focusing on representations of Asian Americans as pathological players, Fickle shows how racial discourse is linked to the speculative logic of American exceptionalism. -- Colleen Lye, author of America's Asia: Racial Reform and American Literature, 1893–1945Games of chance, video games, and game theory converge in this examination of the relationship between gamification and racialization in exploring the Asian American experience. ... argues that games are used as a form of soft power geared toward advancing an exclusionary view of national identity. * CHOICE *Fickle brilliantly illuminates the many facets of games as a rich site of potentiality for thinking about Asian and Asian American identity, and how they co-constitute parts of the same problem. The Race Card is both a scathing excoriation of the Orientalist roots of the study of play and games, and an intellectual framing of games as a critical access point for understanding power relations concerning constructions of Asian identity. Witty, controlled, righteously outraged, inspired and incredibly persuasive, The Race Cardsets a new bar for understanding the role of games and play, broadly defined, in the struggle of race relations. -- Soraya Murray * American Literary History *

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Book Synopsis2023 C. Wright Mills Award FinalistHow race and racism shape middle-class families' decisions to homeschool their childrenWhile families of color make up 41 percent of homeschoolers in America, little is known about the racial dimensions of this alternate form of education. In The Color of Homeschooling, Mahala Dyer Stewart explores why this percentage has grown exponentially in the past twenty years, and reveals how families' schooling decisions are heavily shaped by race, class, and gender. Drawing from almost a hundred interviews with Black and white middle-class homeschooling and nonhomeschooling families, Stewart's findings contradict many commonly held beliefs about the rationales for homeschooling. Rather than choosing to homeschool based on religious or political beliefs, many middle-class Black mothers explain their schooling choices as motivated by their concerns of racial discrimination in public schools and the school-to-prison pipeline. Indeed, these mothers often voicedTrade Review"In this remarkable book, Mahala Dyer Stewart demystifies the increasingly popular option of homeschooling in the United States. Rather than arguing for or against this alternative to traditional schooling, Stewart situates her study at the crossroads of schools and families to show how Black and white mothers embrace homeschooling but with radically different political aims. Written with great clarity and empathy, The Color of Homeschooling shows how homeschooling emerges as a key site for protecting children and privilege, with many important lessons for families, educators, and researchers." * Freeden Blume Oeur, author of Black Boys Apart: Racial Uplift and Respectability in All-Male Public Schools *"The Color of Homeschooling is a careful and nuanced examination of the sometimes wrenching decisions mothers make to ensure their children receive a good education. This beautifully written book will shape future academic and policy discussions about the choices families make when attempting to navigate public education." * Victor Ray, author of On Critical Race Theory *"Applying an intersectional lens to the question of homeschooling, Stewart offers fresh insight into the at-once classed, gendered, and racialized processes shaping Black and white mothers’ schooling decisions. With careful attention to how power, privilege, and oppression shape the work of motherhood, The Color of Homeschooling is an essential contribution to the literature on race and school choice." * Kate Henley Averett, author of The Homeschool Choice: Parents and the Privatization of Education *"A fascinating read. Stewart shows how both race and class are critical in shaping parents’ decision-making with ‘class-advantaged’ Black parents, for example, often describing feeling pushed out of traditional schooling by racism while white parents describe being pulled into homeschooling in search of a more individualized educational experience. Set in the context of larger public and academic conversations about social class, race, and childrearing, The Color of Homeschooling captures the different priorities, constraints, and resources families are operating with in trying to raise children and navigate educational systems today" * Amanda E. Lewis, co-author of Despite the Best Intentions: How Racial Inequality Thrives in Good Schools *

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Book SynopsisThe fullest account to date of African American young people in a segregated cityComing of Age in Jim Crow DC offers a complex narrative of the everyday lives of black young people in a racially, spatially, economically, and politically restricted Washington, DC, during the 1930s. In contrast to the ways in which young people have been portrayed by researchers, policy makers, law enforcement, and the media, Paula C. Austin draws on previously unstudied archival material to present black poor and working class young people as thinkers, theorists, critics, and commentators as they reckon with the boundaries imposed on them in a Jim Crow city that was also the American emblem of equality. The narratives at the center of this book provide a different understanding of black urban life in the early twentieth century, showing that ordinary people were expert at navigating around the limitations imposed by the District of Columbia's racially segregated politics. Coming of Age in Jim Crow DC Trade Review"A superlative analysis [...] Austin restores the humanity of poor and working-class black youth, who lived through the Jim Crow era in Washington, D.C., by reading against the grain. She locates the ideas, thoughts, and intellectual frameworks of youths such as seventeen-year-old Louise Freely, who wrote twelve poems that were simply discarded by the social science investigators who deemed her thoughts unimportant to their larger sociological analysis of black youths in the district at the time. Coming of Age in Jim Crow DC might be easily used in several courses in the humanities and social sciences." * The Journal of Southern History *"An excellent roadmap for the elusive quest to illuminate the everyday lives of black children in the nation’s capital [...] Her methodological insights will be of great value to scholars of the African-American experience." * The Journal of Interdisciplinary History *"Coming of Age is an invaluable addition to Washington, DC social and cultural studies, which are a constant dialogue among history, symbol, access, inclusion—a clash between lofty promises and failed ideals." * Washington History *"Austin makes a vital contribution to the history of race, youth, and urban studies by creatively mining the original interviews gathered by early social scientists E. Franklin Frazier and William Henry Jones and their assistants. Her book both reveals new dimensions of African American history and offers a generative method for interpreting the raw data of early twentieth century social science. An excellent, insightful, and engaging book." -- Corinne T. Field, University of Virginia."Paula C. Austin’s book provides fascinating insight into a much overlooked and understudied topic: the personal thoughts, social psychology and, most important, social analysis of black young adults during a formative period in American urban history. With this book’s treatment of young people as theorists, thinkers, critics, and commentators, Austin provides an important contribution to histories of cities and of African Americans during the interwar period, the age of the New Negro Renaissance, in which black people emerged as formative artists, intellectuals, and activists." -- Brian Purnell, Geoffrey Canada Associate Professor of Africana Studies and History, Bowdoin College

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Book SynopsisFinalist, 2020 Elliott P. Skinner Award, given by the Association of Africanist AnthropologyExamines why African care workers feel politically excluded from the United States Care for America's growing elderly population is increasingly provided by migrants, and the demand for health care labor is only expected to grow. Because of this health care crunch and the low barriers to entry, new African immigrants have adopted elder care as a niche employment sector, funneling their friends and relatives into this occupation. However, elder care puts care workers into racialized, gendered, and age hierarchies, making it difficult for them to achieve social and economic mobility. In The New American Servitude, Coe demonstrates how these workers often struggle to find a sense of political and social belonging. They are regularly subjected to racial insults and demonstrations of powerand effectively turned into servantsat the hands of other members of th

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Book SynopsisReveals how Christian colorblindness expanded white evangelicalism and excluded Black evangelicals In the decades after the civil rights movement, white Americans turned to an ideology of colorblindness. Personal kindness, not systemic reform, seemed to be the way to solve racial problems. In those same decades, a religious movement known as evangelicalism captured the nation's attention and became a powerful political force. In The Myth of Colorblind Christians, Jesse Curtis shows how white evangelicals' efforts to grow their own institutions created an evangelical form of whiteness, infusing the politics of colorblindness with sacred fervor. Curtis argues that white evangelicals deployed a Christian brand of colorblindness to protect new investments in whiteness. While black evangelicals used the rhetoric of Christian unity to challenge racism, white evangelicals repurposed this language to silence their black counterparts and retain power, arguing that all were equal in Christ andTrade ReviewPowerfully tells the story of how white evangelicals in a post-civil-rights era fashioned an allegedly colorblind evangelicalism ‘in which investments in whiteness continued in the name of spreading the gospel.’ Curtis tells us not so much about white evangelicals familiar from other histories, as about evangelical whiteness, a distinction that makes all the difference in this original and important work. -- Paul Harvey, Distinguished Professor, Presidential Teaching Scholar, University of ColoradoThis book shows how platitudes about equality and not seeing racial differences actually perpetuated the segregated and unequal status quo in many white evangelical churches, colleges, and institutions. It is vital reading for understanding just how salient race remains in some Christian circles. This is the book on the history of white evangelicalism I have been waiting for. -- Jemar Tisby, New York Times–bestselling author of The Color of Compromise and How to Fight RacismReligious history at its best. An immensely clarifying book, it should be required reading for all who seek to understand white evangelicals’ fraught engagement with race over the past half century. -- Kristin Kobes Du Mez, author of Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a NationCurtis eschews the world of formal politics and shows how the evangelical gospel of colorblindness was forged in more private spaces: homes, schools, and churches. Particularly interesting is his discussion of how the church growth movement emerged from the context of the civil rights movement. * Christian Century Book Review *

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Book SynopsisReveals how Christian colorblindness expanded white evangelicalism and excluded Black evangelicals In the decades after the civil rights movement, white Americans turned to an ideology of colorblindness. Personal kindness, not systemic reform, seemed to be the way to solve racial problems. In those same decades, a religious movement known as evangelicalism captured the nation's attention and became a powerful political force. In The Myth of Colorblind Christians, Jesse Curtis shows how white evangelicals' efforts to grow their own institutions created an evangelical form of whiteness, infusing the politics of colorblindness with sacred fervor. Curtis argues that white evangelicals deployed a Christian brand of colorblindness to protect new investments in whiteness. While black evangelicals used the rhetoric of Christian unity to challenge racism, white evangelicals repurposed this language to silence their black counterparts and retain power, arguing that all were equal in Christ andTrade ReviewPowerfully tells the story of how white evangelicals in a post-civil-rights era fashioned an allegedly colorblind evangelicalism ‘in which investments in whiteness continued in the name of spreading the gospel.’ Curtis tells us not so much about white evangelicals familiar from other histories, as about evangelical whiteness, a distinction that makes all the difference in this original and important work. -- Paul Harvey, Distinguished Professor, Presidential Teaching Scholar, University of ColoradoThis book shows how platitudes about equality and not seeing racial differences actually perpetuated the segregated and unequal status quo in many white evangelical churches, colleges, and institutions. It is vital reading for understanding just how salient race remains in some Christian circles. This is the book on the history of white evangelicalism I have been waiting for. -- Jemar Tisby, New York Times–bestselling author of The Color of Compromise and How to Fight RacismReligious history at its best. An immensely clarifying book, it should be required reading for all who seek to understand white evangelicals’ fraught engagement with race over the past half century. -- Kristin Kobes Du Mez, author of Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a NationCurtis eschews the world of formal politics and shows how the evangelical gospel of colorblindness was forged in more private spaces: homes, schools, and churches. Particularly interesting is his discussion of how the church growth movement emerged from the context of the civil rights movement. * Christian Century Book Review *In six tightly paced chapters, plus an introduction and conclusion, Curtis details the origins of evangelical colorblindness and how it manifested itself in the movement’s core institutions… he has written a powerful and provocative book that raises deep questions about the very nature of American evangelicalism. * Reading Religion *

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Book SynopsisFinalist, Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion, Constructive-Reflective Studies, given by the American Academy of ReligionExplores how Black Buddhist Teachers and Practitioners interpret Western Buddhism in unique spiritual and communal ways In Black Buddhists and the Black Radical Tradition, Rima Vesely-Flad examines the distinctive features of Black-identifying Buddhist practitioners, arguing that Black Buddhists interpret Buddhist teachings in ways that are congruent with Black radical thought. Indeed, the volume makes the case that given their experiences with racismboth in the larger society and also within largely white-oriented Buddhist organizationsBlack cultural frameworks are necessary for illuminating the Buddha's wisdom. Drawing on interviews with forty Black Buddhist teachers and practitioners, Vesely-Flad argues that Buddhist teachings, through their focus on healing intergenerational trauma, provide a vitally important foundation for achieving Black liberation. Trade ReviewAn important and powerful book. Vesely-Flad has done an immensely impressive job at allowing the voices of Black Buddhists to tell their own stories of faith and liberation. -- Larry Ward, author of America’s Racial Karma: An Invitation to HealAn extremely important and timely contribution to scholarship on Black religion in the US, and on Buddhist studies. Vesely-Flad’s ethnographic interviews, which are a fantastically rich part of the book, center the voices and interpretations of Black Buddhists in a way that is unparalleled and enables the author to effectively argue for the importance of Black Buddhist teachers’ insights into Buddhist wisdom. -- Sarah Jacoby, author of Love and Liberation: Autobiographical Writings of the Tibetan Buddhist Visionary Sera KhandroAn exciting project; hearing the voices of more than 70 multi-lineage Black Buddhists is itself a significant contribution to Buddhism in America. Vesely-Flad’s coverage of the Black Radical Tradition is superb—the history and breakdown of the different threads of the Black Radical Tradition is compelling and impressive. -- Ann Gleig, author of American Dharma: Buddhism Beyond Modernity

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Book SynopsisFinalist, Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion, Constructive-Reflective Studies, given by the American Academy of ReligionExplores how Black Buddhist Teachers and Practitioners interpret Western Buddhism in unique spiritual and communal ways In Black Buddhists and the Black Radical Tradition, Rima Vesely-Flad examines the distinctive features of Black-identifying Buddhist practitioners, arguing that Black Buddhists interpret Buddhist teachings in ways that are congruent with Black radical thought. Indeed, the volume makes the case that given their experiences with racismboth in the larger society and also within largely white-oriented Buddhist organizationsBlack cultural frameworks are necessary for illuminating the Buddha's wisdom. Drawing on interviews with forty Black Buddhist teachers and practitioners, Vesely-Flad argues that Buddhist teachings, through their focus on healing intergenerational trauma, provide a vitally important foundation for achieving Black liberation. Trade ReviewAn important and powerful book. Vesely-Flad has done an immensely impressive job at allowing the voices of Black Buddhists to tell their own stories of faith and liberation. -- Larry Ward, author of America’s Racial Karma: An Invitation to HealAn extremely important and timely contribution to scholarship on Black religion in the US, and on Buddhist studies. Vesely-Flad’s ethnographic interviews, which are a fantastically rich part of the book, center the voices and interpretations of Black Buddhists in a way that is unparalleled and enables the author to effectively argue for the importance of Black Buddhist teachers’ insights into Buddhist wisdom. -- Sarah Jacoby, author of Love and Liberation: Autobiographical Writings of the Tibetan Buddhist Visionary Sera KhandroAn exciting project; hearing the voices of more than 70 multi-lineage Black Buddhists is itself a significant contribution to Buddhism in America. Vesely-Flad’s coverage of the Black Radical Tradition is superb—the history and breakdown of the different threads of the Black Radical Tradition is compelling and impressive. -- Ann Gleig, author of American Dharma: Buddhism Beyond Modernity[Vesely-Flad's] book stands to become a classic ethnographic study for the field of Buddhist studies and should be consulted by those looking to do further research on Black Buddhists in America and elsewhere. * Religion *

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Book SynopsisHow media propagates and challenges racismFrom Black Panther to #OscarsSoWhite, the concept of race, and how it is represented in media, has continued to attract attention in the public eye. In Racialized Media, Matthew W. Hughey, Emma González-Lesser, and the contributors to this important new collection of original essays provide a blueprint to this new, ever-changing media landscape. With sweeping breadth, contributors examine a number of different mediums, including film, television, books, newspapers, social media, video games, and comics. Each chapter explores the impact of contemporary media on racial politics, culture, and meaning in society. Focusing on producers, gatekeepers, and consumers of media, this book offers an inside look at our media-saturated world, and the impact it has on our understanding of race, ethnicity, and more. Through an interdisciplinary lens, Racialized Media provides a much-needed look at the role of race and ethnicity in all phases of media productTrade ReviewRacialized Media presents a timely collection of readings investigating the complex relationship between race and media. A diverse mix of established and emerging scholars highlight contemporary topics, issues, and controversies concerning media production, circulation, and consumption. From traditional media forms like film, television, and news to social media and online artifacts, the book covers a broad array of cultural objects. An informative and thorough book, Racialized Media makes a convincing case for why media and race matter and how they are essential to understanding our social world. -- Maryann Erigha, author of The Hollywood Jim Crow: The Racial Politics of the Movie Industry

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Book SynopsisWinner of the 2023 National Book Critics Circle Award for CriticismWinner of the 2023 ASAP Book Prize, given by the Association for the Study of the Arts of the PresentExplores expressionlessness, inscrutability, and emotional withholding in Black cultural productionArguing that inexpression is a gesture that acquires distinctive meanings in concert with blackness, Deadpan tracks instances and meanings of deadpana vaudeville term meaning dead faceacross literature, theater, visual and performance art, and the performance of self in everyday life.Tina Post reveals that the performance of purposeful withholding is a critical tool in the work of black culture makers, intervening in the persistent framing of African American aesthetics as colorful, loud, humorous, and excessive. Beginning with the expressionless faces of mid-twentieth-century documentary photography and proceeding to earlTrade Review"In this startlingly original, theoretically nuanced, wide-ranging exploration of inexpressiveness as an underexamined performance repertoire in Black arts and culture, Tina Post makes a landmark contribution to the field of race and aesthetics. Deadpan explores the fine structure of a rhetorically intricate aesthetic technique as malleable in its uses as affect itself, and it does so with remarkable wit and precision." * Sianne Ngai, author of Theory of the Gimmick: Aesthetic Judgment and Capitalist Form *"A stellar study filled with dazzling prose, poignant persuasion, ethical intervention, and intellectual adventure. While dominant US culture regards blackness as hyper-expressive, melodramatic, and spectacular, Tina Post carefully directs our attention to the subtle and sometimes inscrutable art of black inexpression. Across a sweeping repertoire—from nineteenth- century daguerreotypes to twentieth-century avant-garde performance to twenty-first century memes and beyond—she affirms ‘illegibility’s efficacy for the black subject.’ She knows and shows that expressionlessness has been vital to black aesthetics, resistance, refusal, self-defense, self-making, and world-making. As I read about deadpan, my own face was anything but: Post’s arresting arguments and gorgeous sentences made my black visage light up with intrigue, wonder, and delight." * La Marr Jurelle Bruce, author of How to Go Mad without Losing Your Mind: Madness and Black Radical Creativity *"Tina Post’s Deadpan: The Aesthetics of Black Inexpression reconsiders the historical legacy of the concept outside of traditional accounts of comedy and humor studies by offering an impressive “investigation of the aesthetic affects at work at the intersection of blackness and embodied inexpressions”… the study provides an intelligent contribution to the strands of literature on black performance studies, humor studies, and visual studies at large." * Film Quarterly *"The text pulses with creativity as Post locates deadpan in theater, visual and performance art, performances of the self, and more ... With the ambition of her project and immense catalog of works, Post generates momentum for further study of Black aesthetics, affect, and modes of reserve." * Black Perspectives *"It is in Post’s creative and heterogenous readings that the force of her argument best comes across. From the surveilled, violated, and exploited black figure (Louis Agassiz’s daguerreotypes of enslaved people); to the display of black respectability (Richard Avedon’s group portrait William Casby and family, 1963); to black refusals of photographic capture (Rashid Johnson’s Jonathan with Hands, 1997); to the work of Robert Morris, who, without consciously invoking black imagery or cultural markers, embraced an “aesthetics of looming” linked to a racialized “paradigm of black threat”; to discomfiting fusions of dramatic realism and minstrelsy (Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s first play, 2010’s Neighbors); to affective indeterminacy in contemporary rap (Atlanta’s aforementioned Rich Homie Quan), Post’s readings include both “black subjects who perform expressionlessness” and white artists whose work flirts with and feeds on the imaginary of blackness." * Artforum *

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