Search results for ""University Press of Florida""

Larrier breaks new ground in analyzing first-person narratives by five Francophone Caribbean writers--Joseph Zobel, Patrick Chamoiseau, Gisele Pineau, Edwidge Danticat, and Maryse Conde--that manifest distinctive interaction among narrators, protagonists, characters, and readers through a layering of voices, languages, time, sources, and identities. Employing the Martinican combat dance--danmye--as a trope, the author argues that these narratives can be read as testimony to the legacy of slavery, colonialism, and patriarchy that denied Caribbean people their subjectivity. In chapters devoted to Zobel, Chamoiseau, Pineau, Danticat, and Conde--who come from Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Haiti--Larrier probes the presence, construction, and strategy of the first-person narrator, which sometimes shifts within the text itself. Providing a perspective different from European travel literature, these texts deliberately position the "I" as a witness and/or performer who articulates experiences ignored or misinterpreted by sojourners' more widely circulated chronicles. While not purporting to speak for others, the "I" is concerned with transmitting what he or she saw, heard, experienced, or endured, therefore disrupting conventional representations of the Francophone Caribbean. Moreover, in modeling authenticity and agency, autofiction is also a form of advocacy.

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Historical archaeology studies once relied upon a binary view of colonialism: colonizers and colonized, the colonial period and the postcolonial period. The contributors to this volume scrutinize imperialism and expansionism through an alternative lens that rejects simple dualities and explores the variously gendered, racialized, and occupied peoples of a multitude of faiths, desires, associations, and constraints. Colonialism is not a phase in the chronology of a people but a continuous phenomenon that spans the Old and New Worlds. Most important, the contributors argue that its impacts—and, in some instances, even the same processes set in place by the likes of Columbus—are ongoing.Inciting a critical examination of the lasting consequences of ancient and modern colonialism on descendant communities, this wide-ranging volume includes essays on Roman Britain, slavery in Brazil, and contemporary Native Americans. In its efforts to define the scope of colonialism and the comparability of its features, this collection challenges the field to go beyond familiar geographical and historical boundaries and draws attention to unfolding colonial futures.

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Rewriting Joyce's Europe sheds light on how the text and physical design of James Joyce's two most challenging works, Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, reflect changes that transformed Europe between World War I and II. Looking beyond the commonly studied Irish historical context of these works, Tekla Mecsnóber calls for more attention to their place among broader cultural and political processes of the interwar era.Published in 1922 and 1939, Ulysses and Finnegans Wake display Joyce's keen interest in naming, language choice, and visual aspects of writing. Mecsnóber shows the connections between these literary explorations and the real-world remapping of national borders that was often accompanied by the imposition of new place names, languages, and alphabets. In addition to drawing on extensive research in newspaper archives as well as genetic criticism, Mecsnóber provides the first comprehensive analysis of meanings suggested by the typographic design of early editions of Joyce's texts.Mecsnóber argues that Joyce's fascination with the visual nature of writing not only shows up as a motif in his books but also can be seen in the writer's active role within European and North American print culture as he influenced the design of his published works. This illuminating study highlights the enduring—and often surprising—political stakes in choices regarding the use and visual representation of languages.A volume in the Florida James Joyce Series, edited by Sebastian D. G. Knowles

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Focusing on three communities in North, Central, and South America, Earth Politics and Intangible Heritage layers archaeological research with local knowledge in its interpretations of these cultural landscapes. Using the perspective of earth politics, this book demonstrates a way of reconciling the tension between Western scientific approaches to history and the more intangible heritage derived from Indigenous oral narratives and social memories.Jessica Christie presents case studies from Canyon de Chelly National Monument on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona, United States; the Yucatec Maya village of Coba in Quintana Roo, Mexico; and the Aymara town of Copacabana on Lake Titicaca, Bolivia. Each of these places is home to a longstanding community located near ancient archaeological sites, and in each case residents relate to the ruins and the land in ways that anchor their histories, memories, identities, and daily lives. Christie's dual approach shows how these ancestral groups have confronted colonial power structures over time, as well as how the Christian religion has impacted traditional lifeways at each site.Based on extensive field experiences, Christie's discussions offer productive strategies for scientific and Indigenous wisdoms to work in parallel directions rather than in conflict. The insights in this book will serve as building blocks for shaping a regenerative future—not only for these important heritage sites but also for many others across the globe. A volume in the series Cultural Heritage Studies, edited by Paul A. Shackel

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This volume brings together archaeologists working in Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia to construct a new prehistory of the upper Amazon, outlining cultural developments from the late third millennium B.C. to the Inca Empire of the sixteenth century A.D. Encompassing the forested tropical slopes of the eastern Andes as well as Andean drainage systems that connect to the Amazon River basin, this vast region has been unevenly studied due to the restrictions of national borders, remote site locations, and limited interpretive models.The Archaeology of the Upper Amazon unites and builds on recent field investigations that have found evidence of extensive interaction networks along the major rivers—Santiago, Marañon, Huallaga, and Ucayali. Chapters detail how these rivers facilitated the movement of people, resources, and ideas between the Andean highlands and the Amazonian lowlands. Contributors demonstrate that the upper Amazon was not a peripheral zone but a locus for complex societal developments. Reaching across geographical, cultural, and political boundaries, this volume shows that the trajectory of Andean civilization cannot be fully understood without a nuanced perspective on the region's diverse patterns of interaction with the upper Amazon.

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This volume brings together specialists from different areas of medieval literary study to focus on the role of habits of thought in shaping attitudes toward women during the Middle Ages. The essays range from Old English literature to the Spanish Inquisition and encompass such genres as romance, chronicles, hagiography, and legal documents.

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Southeast Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians Award of Excellence for a Book.In Thatched Roofs and Open Sides, Carrie Dilley reveals the design, construction, history, and cultural significance of the chickee, the unique Seminole structure made of palmetto and cypress. Dilley illustrates how the multipurpose structure has developed over time to meet the changing needs of the Seminole Tribe.

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Nation within a Nation features cutting-edge work by lead scholars in the fields of history, political science, and human geography, who examine the causes--realand perceived--for the South's perpetual state of rebellion, which remains oneof its most defining characteristics.

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A Curious Peril examines the prose penned by modernist writer H.D. in the aftermath of World War II, a little-known body of work that has been neglected by scholars, and argues that the trauma H.D. experienced in London during the war profoundly changed her writing. Lara Vetter reveals a shift in these writings from classical "escapist" settings to politically aware explorations of gender, spirituality, nation, and imperialism.

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As complex societies emerged in the Maya lowlands during the first millen¬nium BCE, so did stable communities focused around public squares and the worship of a divine ruler tied to a Maize God cult. "E Groups," central to many of these settle¬ments, are architectural complexes: typically, a long platform supporting three struc¬tures and facing a western pyramid across a formal plaza. Aligned with the movements of the sun, E Groups have long been interpreted as giant calendrical devices crucial to the rise of Maya civilization. This volume presents new archaeological data to reveal that E Groups were constructed earlier than previously thought. In fact, they are the earliest identifiable architectural plan at many Maya settlements. More than just astronomical observatories or calendars, E Groups were a key ele¬ment of community organization, urbanism, and identity in the heart of the Maya lowlands. They served as gathering places for emerging communities and centers of ritual; they were the very first civic-religious public architecture in the Maya lowlands. Investigating a wide variety of E Group sites—including some of the most famous like the Mundo Perdido in Tikal and the hitherto little known complex at Chan, as well as others in Ceibal, El Palmar, Cival, Calakmul, Caracol, Xunantunich, Yaxnohcah, Yaxuná, and San Bartolo—this volume pieces together the development of social and political complexity in ancient Maya civilization.

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Disease and discrimination are processes linked to class in the early American colonies. Many early colonists fell victim to mass sickness as Old and New World systems collided and new social, political, economic, and ecological dynamics allowed disease to spread.Dale Hutchinson argues that most colonists, slaves, servants, and nearby Native Americans suffered significant health risks due to their lower economic and social status. With examples ranging from indentured servitude in the Chesapeake to the housing and sewage systems of New York to the effects of conflict between European powers, Hutchinson posits that poverty and living conditions, more so than microbes, were often at the root of epidemics.

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In Exile and Revolution, Gerald Poyo provides a comprehensive account of how his great-great-grandfather spurred the working-class community of Key West to transform their roles as supporting cast to become critical actors in the struggle for Cuban independence. The book reveals the depth of Cuba's longtime ties to Florida, the cigar industry, and its workers; the experience of Cubans in the American South; and the diplomatic intrigues involving Spain, Cuba, and the United States.

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Brazil's military dictatorship (1964-1985) launched seemingly apolitical official campaigns that were aesthetically appealing and ostensibly aimed to ""enlighten"" and ""civilize."" Some were produced as civilian-military collaborations and others were conducted by privately owned media, but undergirding them all was the theme of a country aspiring to become a developed nation.In Brazilian Propaganda, Nina Schneider examines the various modes of both official and unendorsed propaganda used by an authoritarian regime. Focusing primarily on visual media, she demonstrates how many short films of the period portrayed a society free from class and racial conflicts. These films espoused civic-mindedness while attempting to distract from atrocities perpetuated by the regime.Mining a rich trove of materials from the National Archives in Rio and conducting interviews with key propagandists, Schneider demonstrates the ambiguities of twentieth-century Brazilian propaganda. She also challenges the notion of a homogeneous military regime in Brazil, highlighting its fractures and competing forces. By analyzing the strategies, production mechanisms, and meanings of these films and reconstructing their effects, she provides an alternative interpretation of the propagandists' intentions and a new framework for understanding this era in Brazil's history.

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The history of the Wild West has long been fictionalized in novels, films, and television shows. Catering to these popular representations, towns across America have created tourist sites connecting such tales with historical monuments. Yet these attractions stray from known histories in favor of the embellished past visitors expect to see and serve to craft a cultural memory that reinforces contemporary ideologies.In Mythic Frontiers, Daniel Maher illustrates how aggrandized versions of the past, especially those of the “American frontier,” have been used to turn a profit. These imagined historical sites have effectively silenced the violent, oppressive, colonizing forces of manifest destiny and elevated principal architects of it to mythic heights. Examining the frontier complex in Fort Smith, Arkansas—where visitors are greeted at a restored brothel and the reconstructed courtroom and gallows of “Hanging Judge” Isaac Parker feature prominently—Maher warns that creating a popular tourist narrative and disconnecting cultural heritage tourism from history minimizes the devastating consequences of imperialism, racism, and sexism and relegitimizes the privilege bestowed upon white men.

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Most research into humans’ impact on the environment has focused on large-scale societies; a corollary assumption has been that small scale economies are sustainable and in harmony with nature. The contributors to this volume challenge this notion, revealing how such communities shaped their environment—and not always in a positive way.Offering case studies from around the world—from Brazil to Japan, Denmark to the Rocky Mountains—the chapters empirically demonstrate the substantial transformations of the surrounding landscape made by hunter-gatherer and limited horticultural societies. Summarizing previous research as well as presenting new data, this book shows that the environmental impact and legacy of societies are not always proportional their size.Understanding that our species leaves a footprint wherever it has been leads to both a better understanding of our prehistoric past and to deeper implications for our future relationship to the world around us.

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These essays explore the various manifestations of the heroine in medieval French literature and her multiple relationships with discourse, both medieval and modern. From a discussion of 12th-century saints' lives to an examination of 15th-century farce, they span the Middle Ages, both chronologically and generically. Focused yet considering a wide range of texts, they shine new light on the heroine and how she behaves, including how she herself uses discourse.

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At the outset of World War II, North Carolina was one of the poorest states in the Union. More than half of the land was rural. Over one-third of the farms had no electricity; only one in eight had a telephone. Illiteracy and a lack of education resulted in the highest rate of draft rejections of any state. The citizens desperately wanted higher living standards, and the war would soon awaken the Rip Van Winkle state to its fullest potential. Home Front traces the evolution of the people, customs, traditions, and attitudes, arguing that World War II was the most significant event in the history of modern North Carolina.Using oral history interviews, newspaper accounts, and other primary sources, historian Julian Pleasants explores the triumphs, hardships, and emotions of North Carolinians during this critical period. The Training and Selective Service Act of 1940 created over fifty new military bases in the state to train two million troops. Citizens witnessed German submarines sinking merchant vessels off the coast, struggled to understand and cope with rationing regulations, and used 10,000 German POWs as farm and factory laborers. The massive influx of newcomers reinvigorated markets--the timber, mineral, textile, tobacco, and shipbuilding industries boomed, and farmers and other manufacturing firms achieved economic success. Although racial and gender discrimination remained, World War II provided social and economic opportunities for black North Carolinians and for women to fill jobs once limited to men, helping to pave the way for the civil and women's rights movements that followed.The conclusion of World War II found North Carolina drastically different. Families had lost sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, and brothers and sisters. Despite all the sacrifices and dislocations, the once provincial state looked forward to a modern, diversified, and highly industrialized future.

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This is the first book in English to analyze the controversial language policies passed by the Puerto Rican government in the 1990s. It is also the first to explore the connections between language and cultural identity and politics on the Caribbean island.Shortly after the U.S. invasion of Puerto Rico in 1898, both English and Spanish became official languages of the territory. In 1991, the Puerto Rican government abolished bilingualism, claiming that ""Spanish only"" was necessary to protect the culture from North American influences. A few years later bilingualism was restored and English was promoted in public schools, with supporters asserting that the dual languages symbolized the island's commitment to live in harmony with the United States.While the islanders' sense of ethnic pride was growing, economic dependency enticed them to maintain close ties to the United States. This book shows that officials in both San Juan and Washington, along with English-first groups, used the language laws as weapons in the battle over U.S.-Puerto Rican relations and the volatile debate over statehood. It will be of interest to linguists, political scientists, students of contemporary cultural politics, and political activists in discussions of nationalism in multilingual communities.

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For centuries, men dreamed of cutting a canal across the Florida peninsula. Intended to reduce shipping times, it was championed in the early twentieth century as a way to make the mostly rural state a center of national commerce and trade.Rejected by the Army Corps of Engineers as ""not worthy,"" the project received continued support from Florida legislators. Federal funding was eventually allocated and work began in the 1930s, but the canal quickly became a lightning rod for controversy.Steven Noll and David Tegeder trace the twists and turns of the project through the years, drawing on a wealth of archival and primary sources. Far from being a simplistic morality tale of good environmentalists versus evil canal developers, the story of the Cross Florida Barge Canal is a complex one of competing interests amid the changing political landscape of modern Florida.Thanks to the unprecedented success of environmental citizen activists, construction was halted in 1971, though it took another twenty years for the project to be canceled. Though the land intended for the canal was deeded to the state and converted into the Cross Florida Greenway, certain aspects of the dispute - including the fate of Rodman Reservoir - have yet to be resolved.

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In 1765 the father and son naturalists John and William Bartram first explored the natural wonders of the St. Johns River Valley in Florida. Traversing a landscape virtually unknown at the time, one that was subtropical in many ways and then a British territory, they collected plants and made extensive observations of local animal life, geography, ecology, and native cultures of this essentially uncharted region. The Bartrams chronicled their adventures and, in doing so, helped provide the world with an intimate look at La Florida.Travels on the St. Johns River presents writings by these pioneering naturalists, including selections from John Bartram’s Diary, family correspondence, and William’s description of the St. Johns River Valley from his celebrated Travels. It also provides valuable editorial notes and a modern record of the flora and fauna they once encountered, allowing readers to see the land through the explorers’ eyes. This volume helps us rediscover the Bartrams’ history, their findings, and their Florida—as well as the Florida of today.

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First-time travelers to Florida often imagine the state as just a vacationland or a swamp—a place to visit and to leave behind. But the writers in this collection discover the truth that everyone who’s lived in the state knows. When you venture into Florida you won’t find what you expect, and what you do find will stay with you forever. The authors of these essays come to Florida for different reasons. Love, fortune, family, rest, natural beauty, or a fresh start. They encounter a place so diverse that it defies easy categorization. Lauren Groff describes her experience settling in Florida after growing up in the Northeast and finds an affinity with the strong-willed writer Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, who grew to resent the cities of her past and embraced the wild lands that inspired The Yearling. Cuban-born Susannah Rodríguez Drissi travels to Miami and learns what the city does and doesn’t mean for Cuban Americans. Deesha Philyaw comes to the state to care for her mother, who is dying of cancer. Rick Bragg seeks out the beauty of the Gulf of Mexico and writes about how it was threatened by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. In these stories, Florida is more than a setting—it’s a character of its own. It stirs up hurricanes and rainstorms, enchants with natural springs and cypress forests, and endures in the face of pollution. For all of these writers, Florida is a force that brings about moments of personal insight and growth, a place where hard lessons are learned and true joy is experienced. Their essays illustrate that the places we inhabit put a stamp on us, even if we only call them home for a season.

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In this revised and expanded edition of Anna Kingsley’s remarkable life story, Daniel Schafer draws on new discoveries to prove true the longstanding rumors that Anna Madgigine Jai was originally a princess from the royal family of Jolof in Senegal. Captured from her homeland in 1806, she became first an American slave, later a slaveowner, and eventually a central figure in a free black community. Anna Kingsley’s story adds a dramatic chapter to the history of the South, the state of Florida, and the African diaspora.

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The Johns Committee, a product of the red scare in Florida, grabbed headlines and destroyed lives. Its goal was to halt integration by destroying the NAACP in Florida and smearing integrationists. Citizens were first subpoenaed under charges of communist tendencies and later for homosexual or subversive behaviour.Drawing on previously unpublished sources and newly unsealed records, Judith Poucher profiles five individuals who stood up to the Johns Committee. Virgil Hawkins and Ruth Perry were civil rights activists who, respectively, foiled the committee’s plans to stop integration at the University of Florida and refused to divulge Florida and Miami NAACP records. G.G.Mock, a bartender in Tampa, was arrested and shackled in the nude by police but would not reveal the name of her girlfriend, a teacher. University of Florida professor Sig Diettrich was threatened with twenty years in prison and being “outed,” yet he still would not name names. Margaret Fisher, a college administrator, helped to bring the committee’s investigation of the University of South Florida into the open, publicly condemning their bullying.By re-examining the daring stands taken by these ordinary citizens, Poucher illustrates not only the abuses propagated by the commit¬tee but also the collective power of individuals to effect change.

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Nowhere else can one read about how Brown v. Board of Education transformed higher education on campus after campus, in state after state, across the South. And no other book details the continuing struggle to change each school in the years that followed the enrollment of the first African American students.Institutions of higher education long functioned as bastions of white supremacy and black exclusion. Against the walls of Jim Crow and the powers of state laws, black southerners—prospective students, their parents and families, their lawyers and their communities—struggled to gain access and equity. Higher Education and the Civil Rights Movement examines an understudied aspect of racial history, revealing desegregation to be a process, not an event.

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From the early colonial period to the close of World War II, life in North America was predominantly agrarian and rural. Archaeological exploration of farmsteads unveils a surprising quantity of data about rural life, consumption patterns, and migrations across the continent.Mark Groover offers both case studies and an overview of current trends in farmstead archaeology in this exciting new work. He also proposes a research design and makes numerous suggestions for evaluating (and re-evaluating) the significance of farmsteads as an archaeological resource. His chronological survey of farmstead sites throughout numerous regions of North America provides fascinating insights to students, cultural resource management professionals, or general readers interested in learning more about what material culture remains can teach us about the American past.Farmstead archaeology is a rapidly expanding component of historical archaeology. This book offers important lessons and information as more sites become victims of ever-accelerating development and urbanization.

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From the forewords: "At a time when Cuba is undergoing immense economic and social changes, race becomes a kind of cultural litmus test for the national identity. . . . This anthology illustrates fully that it is possible to be both revolutionary and black in Cuba." - Manning Marable, Columbia University "The authors of Afro-Cuban Voices, also key actors in the new, unfolding dialogue about race in Cuba, make a seminal contribution through a forthright critique of 'racial blind spots' in official history and present-day racial discrimination." - James Early, director of cultural studies and communication, Smithsonian Institution From the series editor: "A courageous attempt to deal head-on with the issue of race in Cuba today. . . . PÉrez Sarduy and Stubbs [seek to] put a human face on this debate, and do so well. The book will be received with relief by some and with frustration by others. Controversial it will undoubtedly be, since - as with most things Cuban-strong emotions are a given assumption. It will be an admirable beginning for the series and, it is hoped, will spark a much-needed debate in the United States on many aspects of the 'Cuban question.' It is about time." - John M. Kirk Based on the vivid firsthand testimony of prominent Afro-Cubans who live in Cuba, this book of interviews looks at ways that race affects daily life on the island. While celebrating their racial and national identity, the collected voices express an urgent need to end the silences and distortions of history in both pre- and postrevolutionary Cuba. The 14 people interviewed - of different generations and from different geographic areas of Cuba - come from the arts, the media, industry, academia, and medicine. They include a doctor who calls for joint U.S.-Cuban studies on high blood pressure and a craftsman who makes the batÁ drums used in Yoruba worship ceremonies. All responded to four controversial questions: What is it like to be black in Cuba? How has the revolution made a difference? To what extent is that difference true today? What can be done? Exposing the contradictions of both racial stereotyping and cultural assimilation, their eloquent answers make the case that the issue of race in Cuba, no matter how hard to define, will not be ignored.

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The first volume to synthesize the vast amount of archaeological and historical research on the mythic status of bears in Indigenous North American societies. Bears charts the special relationship between the American black bear and humans in eastern Native American cultures across thousands of years.

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This richly illustrated volume highlights the history of Islamic cosmopolitanism as documented through works of art from the eighth century to the present; from the Mediterranean, North Africa, South Asia, and the United States; and including painting, architecture, textiles, calligraphy, photography, and animation. These essays examine Muslim artists, patrons, and collectors' engagement with global influences, as well as artistic exchange between Muslim and non-Muslim societies.Drawing on Kwame Anthony Appiah's view of cosmopolitanism as respect for the differences among people and acknowledgment of a shared community across those differences, leading scholars offer case studies of art objects that illustrate such dynamics in the Islamic cultural sphere. In doing so, they bring Islamic art history into dialogue with Western European medieval art, Byzantine art, African art, global modern art, and American art and architecture. This timely volume demonstrates the importance of cultivating coexistence, becoming citizens of the world, and recognizing the possibilities of cultural intersections. It offers historical examples of such intersections, for which works of art provide a visual testament.

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Martha Ullman West illustrates how American ballet developed over the course of the twentieth century from an aesthetic originating in the courts of Europe into a stylistically diverse expression of a democratic culture. West places at center stage two artists who were instrumental to this story: Todd Bolender and Janet Reed.Lifelong friends, Bolender (1914–2006) and Reed (1916–2000) were part of a generation of dancers who navigated the Great Depression, World War II, and the vibrant cultural scene of postwar New York City. They danced in the works of choreographers Lew and Willam Christensen, Eugene Loring, Agnes de Mille, Catherine Littlefield, Ruthanna Boris, and others who West argues were just as responsible for the direction of American ballet as the legendary George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins.The stories of Bolender, Reed, and their contemporaries also demonstrate that the flowering of American ballet was not simply a New York phenomenon. West includes little-known details about how Bolender and Reed laid the foundations for Seattle's Pacific Northwest Ballet in the 1970s and how Bolender transformed the Kansas City Ballet into a highly respected professional company soon after.Passionate in their desire to dance and create dances, Bolender and Reed committed their lives to passing along their hard-won knowledge, training, and work. This book celebrates two unsung trailblazers who were pivotal to the establishment of ballet in America from one coast to the other.

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Honorable Mention, Latin American Studies Association Mexico Section Best Book in the HumanitiesA Revolution in Movement is the first book to illuminate how collaborations between dancers and painters shaped Mexico’s postrevolutionary cultural identity. K. Mitchell Snow traces this relationship throughout nearly half a century of developments in Mexican dance—the emulation of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in the 1920s, the adoption of U.S.-style modern dance in the 1940s, and the creation of ballet-inspired folk dance in the 1960s.Snow describes the appearances in Mexico by Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova and Spanish concert dancer Tortóla Valencia, who helped motivate Mexico to express its own national identity through dance. He discusses the work of muralists and other visual artists in tandem with Mexico’s theatrical dance world, including Diego Rivera’s collaborations with ballet composer Carlos Chávez; Carlos Mérida’s leadership of the National School of Dance; José Clemente Orozco’s involvement in the creation of the Ballet de la Ciudad de México; and Miguel Covarrubias, who led the “golden age” of Mexican modern dance. Snow draws from a rich trove of historical newspaper accounts and other contemporary documents to show how these collaborations produced an image of modern Mexico that would prove popular both locally and internationally and continues to endure today.

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Queering the Redneck Riviera recovers the forgotten and erased history of gay men and lesbians in North Florida, a region often overlooked in the story of the LGBTQ experience in the United States. Jerry Watkins reveals both the challenges these men and women faced in the years following World War II and the essential role they played in making the Emerald Coast a major tourist destination.In a state dedicated to selling an image of itself as a "family-friendly" tropical paradise and in an era of increasing moral panic and repression, queer people were forced to negotiate their identities and their places in society. Watkins re-creates queer life during this period, drawing from sources including newspaper articles, advertising and public relations campaigns, oral history accounts, government documents, and interrogation transcripts from the state's Johns Committee.He discovers that postwar improvements in transportation infrastructure made it easier for queer people to reach safe spaces to socialize. He uncovers stories of gay and lesbian beach parties, bars, and friendship networks that spanned the South. The book also includes rare photos from the Emma Jones Society, a Pensacola-based group that boldly hosted gatherings and conventions in public places.Illuminating a community that boosted Florida's emerging tourist economy and helped establish a visible LGBTQ presence in the Sunshine State, Watkins offers new insights about the relationships between sexuality, capitalism, and conservative morality in the second half of the twentieth century.

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Seven hundred million years of time go whizzing by in this beautifully illustrated account of Florida's geologic history. The story centers on the long and intimate relationship between Florida and her enveloping seas, beginning with wandering continents, continuing through the ‘carbonate factory' in the sea that produced much of the volume of the Florida Peninsula, and ending with the story of sand grains on Florida beaches hundreds of miles from their points of origin. For those curious about their natural surroundings, Albert Hine's book will surely open a new window and a new appreciation for the complexity and beauty of nature in Florida.”—Orrin Pilkey, coauthor of Global Climate Change: A Primer The saga of Florida's geological development started approximately 700 million years ago. It began as the state's basement rocks migrated nearly 12,600 kilometers from their position within a supercontinent at the Earth's South Pole to their present location north of the equator, participating in the assembly and disassembly of one of Earth's greatest supercontinents, Pangea. In this complete geologic history of the Sunshine State, Albert Hine takes the reader on a journey that begins with the breaking apart of Pangea and ends with the emergence of south Florida and the Keys; explaining the shape and form of the state as we know it today. Geologic History of Florida chronicles the creation of the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, the western Atlantic Ocean, and other major events in Florida's geologic past. It looks back 160 million years, to a time when the ancient igneous and metamorphic basement rocks were covered by a large sedimentary carbonate platform nearly 3 miles thick, known as the Florida Platform. Today, Florida still rests upon this larger geologic feature, fifty percent of which is submerged. Consequently, the geologic story of the state includes what lies beneath the seafloor as much as it involves the land surface.Writing in a clear and accessible manner, Hine discusses the geologic changes of the Florida Platform, from dissolution tectonics, which formed great underwater caverns and sinkholes, to the plate collision with Cuba. Hine explains geological phenomenon like the influx of quartz-rich sand from the southern Appalachian Mountains that made Florida's white-sand beaches a destination for tourists from around the world. He examines the state's phosphate-rich deposits, which account for thirty percent of the world's phosphate production, and other hot-button issues such as oil drilling and climate change. With a glossary of essential terms at the end of each chapter, Geologic History of Florida will be an invaluable resource for geologists, students of Earth history, and anyone interested in how the Sunshine State physically came to be.

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An unprecedented examination of NASA's strong ties to the American South, exploring how the space program and the region have influenced each other over 60 yearsDuring the Cold War, federal funding for the space program transformed the southern United States as NASA built most of its major new facilities in the region and invested heavily in Project Apollo. This volume examines the economic, social, political, and cultural impacts of NASA on the South since the space program was founded in 1958 and explores how the program's strong relationship to the region has affected NASA's organizational culture, technological development, and programmatic goals.Featuring contributions by scholars from a range of backgrounds, including space historians as well as specialists in many other fields, NASA and the American South offers perspectives on how NASA provided a springboard for the complete restructuring of communities that were home to its facilities in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, New Orleans, and Texas. These changes unsettled previous patterns of life, and the chapters in this volume include assessments of NASA's influence on regional development, tourism, art and architecture, religion, and Black institutions of higher education.Bridging the gap between the history of technology and its geographical and cultural contexts, this book offers an unprecedented reevaluation of the impact of the space program on its surrounding landscape, introducing a new framework for interpreting the agency's legacy.

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First-person accounts that show the expanding demographics of African-descended religions. In this focused portrayal of global dispersal and spiritual sojourning, Martin Tsang draws together first-person accounts of the evolving Afro-Atlantic religious landscape. Spirited Diasporas offers a glimpse into the frequently misunderstood religions of Afro-Cuban Lukumí, Haitian Vodou, and Brazilian Candomblé, adding to the growing research on the transnational yet personal nature of African diasporic religions.In these accounts, practitioners from many origins illustrate the workand commitment they undertook to learn and become initiated in these traditions. They reveal in the process a variety of experiences that are not often documented. Their perspectives also show the expanding contemporary demographics of African-descended religions, many of whose members identify as LGBTQ or are part of other minoritized populations, and they counter inaccurate and often racialized portrayals of these religions as being anti-modern and geographically limited.Through the voices of the professionals, scholars, and activists gathered here, readers will appreciate the purpose and belonging to be found in the far-reaching communities of these Latin American and Caribbean spiritualities. As the seekers in these stories discover and come home to their new religious families, Spirited Diasporas displays the relevance and generative power of these traditions.

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Exploring the impacts of NASA's space program on American society and cultureAfter Apollo explores how NASA’s space program impacted American society during and after the race to the Moon, looking back at the 1969 Apollo 11 Moon landing from the perspective of the present day. Centering on the human dimension of spaceflight, this multidisciplinary book contains chapters that address the effects of the space race on science, politics, art, fashion, and popular culture. Several essays cover themes that directly touch on the space program itself, such as the sheer improbability of the Moon landing, the hidden chemistry behind human spaceflight, and the critical role played by immigrants in making space exploration a reality. Others consider societal repercussions, such as how immense space expenditures drew attention to underfunded social programs and paved the way for Great Society social legislation, as well as how cultural narratives of exploration and the frontier evolved as the program’s goals changed. Many of the authors look at the interplay between art and space exploration, beginning with the role of popular entertainment in selling spaceflight to the public.Showcasing the work of contributors representing diverse areas of study, After Apollo details the many and varied human impacts and cultural spin-offs that came to pass as the mythology and eventual reality of space travel permeated American society.

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Using storytelling and performance to explore shared religious expression across continentsThrough a revolutionary ethnographic approach that foregrounds storytelling and performance as alternative means of knowledge, Situated Narratives and Sacred Dance explores shared ritual traditions between the Anlo-Ewe people of West Africa and their descendants, the Arará of Cuba, who were brought to the island in the transatlantic slave trade.The volume draws on two decades of research in four communities: Dzodze, Ghana; Adjodogou, Togo; and Perico and Agramonte, Cuba. In the ceremonies, oral narratives, and daily lives of individuals at each fieldsite, the authors not only identify shared attributes in religious expression across continents, but also reveal lasting emotional, spiritual, and personal impacts in the communities whose ancestors were ripped from their homeland and enslaved. The authors layer historiographic data, interviews, and fieldnotes with artistic modes such as true fiction, memoir, and choreographed narrative, challenging the conventional nature of scholarship with insights gained from sensorial experience.Including reflections on the making of an art installation based on this research project, the volume challenges readers to imagine the potential of approaching fieldwork as artists. The authors argue that creative methods can convey truths deeper than facts, pointing to new possibilities for collaboration between scientists and artists with relevance to any discipline.Publication of the paperback edition made possible by a Sustaining the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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The intertwined stories of two archipelagos and their diasporasThis volume is the first systematic comparative study of Cuba and Puerto Rico from both a historical and contemporary perspective. In these essays, contributors highlight the interconnectedness of the two archipelagos in social categories such as nation, race, class, and gender to encourage a more nuanced and multifaceted study of the relationships between the islands and their diasporas.Topics range from historical and anthropological perspectives on Cuba and Puerto Rico before and during the Cold War to cultural and sociological studies of diasporic communities in the United States. The volume features analyses of political coalitions, the formation of interisland sororities, and environmental issues. Along with sharing a similar early history, Cuba and Puerto Rico have closely intertwined cultures, including their linguistic, literary, food, musical, and religious practices. Contributors also discuss literature by Cuban and Puerto Rican authors by examining the aesthetics of literary techniques and discourses, the representation of psychological space on the stage, and the impacts of migration.Showing how the trajectories of both archipelagos have been linked together for centuries and how they have diverged recently, Cuba and Puerto Rico offers a transdisciplinary approach to the study of this intricate relationship and the formation of diasporic communities and continuities.Publication of this work made possible by a Sustaining the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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Honorable Mention, Latin American Studies Association Mexico Section Best Book in the HumanitiesAfter the end of the Mexican Revolution in 1917, postrevolutionary leaders hoped to assimilate the country's racially diverse population into one official mixed-race identity—the mestizo. This book shows that as part of this vision, the Mexican government believed it could modernize "primitive" Indigenous peoples through technology in the form of education, modern medicine, industrial agriculture, and factory work. David Dalton takes a close look at how authors, artists, and thinkers—some state-funded, some independent—engaged with official views of Mexican racial identity from the 1920s to the 1970s.Dalton surveys essays, plays, novels, murals, and films that portray indigenous bodies being fused, or hybridized, with technology. He examines José Vasconcelos's essay "The Cosmic Race" and the influence of its ideologies on mural artists such as Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco. He discusses the theme of introducing Amerindians to medical hygiene and immunizations in the films of Emilio "El Indio" Fernández. He analyzes the portrayal of indigenous monsters in the films of El Santo, as well as Carlos Olvera's critique of postrevolutionary worldviews in the novel Mejicanos en el espacio.Incorporating the perspectives of posthumanism and cyborg studies, Dalton shows that technology played a key role in race formation in Mexico throughout the twentieth century. This cutting-edge study offers fascinating new insights into the culture of mestizaje, illuminating the attitudes that inform Mexican race relations in the present day.A volume in the series Reframing Media, Technology, and Culture in Latin/o America, edited by Hector Fernandez L'Hoeste and Juan Carlos Rodriguez

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The Lost Cinema of Mexico is the first volume to challenge the dismissal of Mexican filmmaking during the 1960s through 1980s, an era long considered a low-budget departure from the artistic quality and international acclaim of the nation's earlier Golden Age. This pivotal collection examines the critical implications of discovering, uncovering, and recovering forgotten or ignored films.This largely unexamined era of film reveals shifts in Mexican culture, economics, and societal norms as state-sponsored revolutionary nationalism faltered. During this time, movies were widely embraced by the public as a way to make sense of the rapidly changing realities and values connected to Mexico's modernization. These essays shine a light on many genres that thrived in these decades: rock churros, campy luchador movies, countercultural superocheros, Black melodramas, family films, and chili westerns.Redefining a time usually seen as a cinematic "crisis," this volume offers a new model of the film auteur shaped by productive tension between highbrow aesthetics, industry shortages, and national audiences. It also traces connections from these Mexican films to Latinx, Latin American, and Hollywood cinema at large.

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This book is freely available in an open access edition thanks to TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem)—a collaboration of the Association of American Universities, the Association of University Presses, and the Association of Research Libraries—and the generous support of Duke University. A portrait of the game of capoeira and its practice across borders.Originating in the Black Atlantic world as a fusion of dance and martial art, capoeira was a marginalized practice for much of its history.Today it is globally popular. This ethnographic memoir weaves together the history of capoeira, recent transformations in the practice, and personal insights from author Katya Wesolowski’s thirty years of experience as a capoeirista.Capoeira Connections follows Wesolowski’s journey from novice to instructor while drawing on her decades of research as an anthropologist in Brazil, Angola, Europe, and the United States. In a story of local practice and global flow, Wesolowski offers an intimate portrait of the game and what it means in people’s lives. She reveals camaraderie and conviviality in the capoeira ring as well as tensions and ruptures involving race, gender, and competing claims over how this artful play should be practiced. Capoeira brings people together and yet is never free of histories of struggle, and these too play out in the game’s encounters.In her at once clear-sighted and hopeful analysis, Wesolowski ultimately argues that capoeira offers opportunities for connection, dialogue, and collaboration in a world that is increasingly fractured. In doing so, capoeira can transform lives, create social spheres, and shape mobile futures.Publication of this work made possible by a Sustaining the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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The Lost Cinema of Mexico is the first volume to challenge the dismissal of Mexican filmmaking during the 1960s through 1980s, an era long considered a low-budget departure from the artistic quality and international acclaim of the nation's earlier Golden Age. This pivotal collection examines the critical implications of discovering, uncovering, and recovering forgotten or ignored films.This largely unexamined era of film reveals shifts in Mexican culture, economics, and societal norms as state-sponsored revolutionary nationalism faltered. During this time, movies were widely embraced by the public as a way to make sense of the rapidly changing realities and values connected to Mexico's modernization. These essays shine a light on many genres that thrived in these decades: rock churros, campy luchador movies, countercultural superocheros, Black melodramas, family films, and chili westerns.Redefining a time usually seen as a cinematic "crisis," this volume offers a new model of the film auteur shaped by productive tension between highbrow aesthetics, industry shortages, and national audiences. It also traces connections from these Mexican films to Latinx, Latin American, and Hollywood cinema at large.

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In this volume, contributors show how stylistic and iconographic analyses of Mississippian imagery provide new perspectives on the beliefs, narratives, public ceremonies, ritual regimes, and expressions of power in the communities that created the artwork. Exploring various methodological and theoretical approaches to pre-Columbian visual culture, these essays reconstruct dynamic accounts of Native American history across the U.S. Southeast. These case studies offer innovative examples of how to use style to identify and compare artifacts, how symbols can be interpreted in the absence of writing, and how to situate and historicize Mississippian imagery. They examine designs carved into shell, copper, stone, and wood or incised into ceramic vessels, from spider iconography to owl effigies and depictions of the cosmos. They discuss how these symbols intersect with memory, myths, social hierarchies, religious traditions, and other spheres of Native American life in the past and present. The tools modeled in this volume will open new horizons for learning about the culture and worldviews of past peoples.

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In Black Women, Citizenship, and the Making of Modern Cuba, Takkara Brunson traces how women of African descent battled exclusion on multiple fronts but played an important role in forging a modern democracy. Brunson takes a much-needed intersectional approach to the political history of the era, examining how Black women's engagement with questions of Cuban citizenship intersected with racial prejudice, gender norms, and sexual politics, incorporating Afro-diasporic and Latin American feminist perspectives.Brunson demonstrates that between the 1886 abolition of slavery in Cuba and the 1959 Revolution, Black women-without formal political power-navigated political movements in their efforts to create a more just society. She examines how women helped build a black public sphere as they claimed moral respectability and sought racial integration. She reveals how Black women entered into national women's organizations, labor unions, and political parties to bring about legal reforms. Brunson shows how women of African descent achieved individual victories as part of a collective struggle for social justice; in doing so, she highlights how racism and sexism persisted even as legal definitions of Cuban citizenship evolved.

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