The Immigrants Who Supplied the Smithsonian’s Fish Collection
The Smithsonian’s fish collection preserves not just specimens but the labor and knowledge of immigrant fishermen on the California coast.
Tagged: Race and Ethnicity
How’d We Get So Cheap? A Conversation with Bryant Simon
The author of “The Hamlet Fire” discusses a deadly blaze at a chicken-processing facility and the logics of cheapness which provided the kindling.
Zozobra & Me: Performance and Place at the Santa Fe Fiesta
A meditation on how the annual burning of a 51-foot marionette forges connections to a city and its complex, violent past.
The Monuments We Never Built
Charlottesville reminds us that a full reckoning with our landscapes of commemoration requires we ask not only what stories they tell, but also what stories they don’t.
NASA and the Explosive 1960s: A Conversation with Neil Maher
The author of the new book “Apollo in the Age of Aquarius” shows how NASA shaped, and was shaped by, 1960s environmentalism, feminism, conservatism, counterculture, antiwar protests, and the black freedom struggle.
Black Branding and Gentrification in Washington, D.C.
Who should be allowed to brand a neighborhood? A review of Derek Hyra’s new book, “Race, Class, and Politics in the Cappuccino City,” examining transformations in the Shaw/U Street neighborhood of the nation’s capital.
Ole Miss and the Shadow of Slavery: A Conversation with Jeffrey Jackson and Charles Ross
Ivy League institutions are scrambling to uncover their links to the history of slavery. But the University of Mississippi—built by slaves, amid slave plantations, for slaveowners to teach future slaveowners—might offer the richest insights into the nation’s unshakable ties to centuries of bondage.
“Stop Calling Me Resilient”: Addressing Environmental Degradation in Louisiana
Louisiana’s coast restoration project, and its underlying framework of climate resiliency, is generating pushback from environmental justice organizations.
Suburban Commuters, Urban Polluters
The migration of African Americans to cities and the rise of a commuter culture in the suburbs were shaped by one transformative technology: the automobile.
Transparent Walls: The Work of Do Ho Suh
Four graduate students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison share their reflections on the work of Do Ho Suh.
