Description
Book SynopsisIn Media Res is a manifold collection that reflects the intersectional qualities of university programming in the twenty-first century. Taking race, gender, and popular culture as its central thematic subjects, the volume collects academic essays, speeches, poems, and creative works that critically engage a wide range of issues, including American imperialism, racial and gender discrimination, the globalization of culture, and the limitations of our new multimedia world. This diverse assortment of works by scholars, activists, and artists models the complex ways that we must engage university students, faculty, staff, and administration in a moment where so many of us are confounded by the “in medias res” nature of our interface with the world in the current moment. Featuring contributions from Imani Perry, Michael Eric Dyson, Suheir Hammad, John Jennings, and Adam Mansbach, In Media Res is a primer for academic inquiry into popular culture; American studies; critical media literacy; women, gender, and sexuality studies; and Africana studies.
Trade ReviewWith this collection, James Braxton Peterson brings together an amazing group of scholars, who collectively grapple with issues of race, identity, media, and popular culture. In Media Res embodies a scholarly cypher, whereupon each brilliant contribution elevates the other, challenging each of us to step up our game, to expand the intellectual horizons, and to push the scholarly conversation toward real change. Instructive and engaging, this work bridges the scholarly and educational missions, the traditions of literary theory and hip-hop, and the cultural productions and ongoing struggles for inclusion, each of which are transforming America’s colleges and universities in profound ways. -- David Leonard, Washington State University
Table of ContentsContents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction: Into the Midst of Things James Braxton Peterson Part I: Head Matter: The Mind and the Mask Chapter 1: An Empire State of Mind Imani Perry Chapter 2: Consolidating a Hip Hop Nation: Revisiting the Videotaped Police Beating of Rodney King, 20 Years Later Tanji Gilliam Chapter 3: Head on Straight, Mask on Crooked: MF DOOM and the Trope of the Mask Nicholas James Chapter 4: The Superhero Aesthetics in Hip Hop Culture Will Boone Part II: Visual Matter Chapter 5: I Have a Meme: Photography, Memory, and Digital Commemorations of the March on Washington Paul M. Farber Chapter 6: How Deep? Skin Deep? A Case Study on Shameful National Orientations Emily Churilla Chapter 7: Faggoty/White/Uniform: Gays in the Military and A Few Good Men Scott St. Pierre Part III: Global Flows Chapter 8: Selected Poems Suheir Hammad Chapter 9: The Communal Womb in Haile Gerima’s Sankofa Belinda Monique Waller-Peterson Chapter 10: South Asian Hip Hop Wannabes and the Chavs Who Love Them: The Blackening of British Culture in Gautam Malkani’s Londonstani Delores B. Phillips Chapter 11: “A True and Faithful Account of Mr. Ota Benga the Pygmy,” written by M. Berman, Zookeeper, a short story Adam Mansbach Part IV: Culture of Personality Chapter 12: Richard Pryor’s Pain: From Stand-Up Comedy to Hollywood Film Sean Springer Chapter 13: You Are Now Tuned Into the ... Greatest: Jay-Z and the Spectacle of the Cool Wilfredo Gomez Chapter 14: Disassembling the “Matrix of Domination”: Janelle Monae’s Transformative Vision Carrie Walker Chapter 15: “Dreams of the Drum”: A Keynote Address Michael Eric Dyson Bibliography Sound Recordings About the Contributors Index
