Duke University Press Log

Catherine Ramirez Mentioned in Bitch Magazine

The Woman in the Zoot Suit: Gender, Nationalism, and the Cultural Politics of Memory by Catherine S. Ramirez made The Bitch List in the current issue of Bitch Magazine. According to the reviewer, "It's a compelling look at the politics of style and the resistance enacted when young women of color refused to be invisible to mainstream culture."

Lauren M.E. Goodlad on Goth and Mad Men

In today's Chronicle of Higher Education, Lauren M.E. Goodlad, co-editor of Goth: Undead Subculture, reviews the television series, Mad Men. While Goodlad looks at why audiences love Mad Men, she primarily focuses on the character Don Draper. "I have been intrigued by the mysteries of culture before. In the 1990s, I was writing on gothic subculture and the phenomenon of 'men who feel and cry'...all of whom beckoned young men to dramatize emotion in ways that previous generations had scorned as unmasculine. Alongside those men in black were harsher specimens of masculinity in crisis.... While superficially different, both kinds of men were desperate to feel, through catharsis or brutal violence. Yet most of these tales focused on men's relationships with one another.... They were men searching for their feelings in the company of other men. And now comes Don Draper, icon of masculinity-in-crisis for the 21st century. Don is in pain, yes, and hurting himself, too (for all his spectacular emotional reserve). But he is also different. No tears or blood on that impeccably pressed suit. No close ties to other men. What is it that makes this odd blend of Jay Gatsby, the American Gigolo, and the Man in the Gray Flannel Suit so captivating a figure for today?" To read more of the article, please visit here.

Deborah Paredez on Texas Public Radio

Deborah Paredez was interviewed on Texas Public Radio's Texas Matters program on August 28, 2009. To listen to the segment, please visit here. Deborah Paredez is the author of the recently released book, Selenidad: Selena, Latinos, and the Performance of Memory. In Selenidad, Paredez explores the significance and broader meanings of the posthumous celebration of Selena, which she labels “Selenidad.”

Scott McLemee Discusses Karen Ho's Liquidated

In last Thursday's The National, Scott McLemee discussed Karen Ho's new book, Liquidated: An Ethnography of Wall Street. McLemee distinguishes Liquidated from the other recent titles on Wall Street by saying, "Ho's approach is not to expose the nefarious doings of the investment banks but to analyse the culture that has taken shape within them." 

He claims "the really interesting dimension of Liquidated comes from its account of how the financial sector's members understand their own daily experience." While McLemee commends Ho for her insider's take on Wall Street (Ho herself spent some time as an investment banker in the late 1990s), he does not care for the result of the elitist culture of Wall Street. "The customs and legends of Wall Street are not, unfortunately, quaint and local; they communicate their effects across the map. It is the ethnographer's task to show how a particular culture creates and sustains a little cosmos for itself. This Karen Ho has done--except that the world she reconstructs is one the rest of us are obliged to live in, as well."

Shalini Shankar Interviewed in DNA Mumbai

 Anthropologist Shalini Shankar, author of Desi Land: Teen Culture, Class, and Success in Silicon Valley,  was interviewed for Sunday's DNA Mumbai. Between 1999 and 2001, Shankar spent many months “kickin’ it” with Desi teenagers at three Silicon Valley high schools, and she has since followed their lives and stories. Shankar spoke with DNA Mumbai about her experiences with the teens and what she learned in spending time with them. "I was expecting desi teens to be more angst-ridden, but I was pleasantly surprised....I have to admit I really liked them. They were fun and connected to their families. They weren't the kind of teenagers who were embarrassed to be seen with their parents or loathing community events."

Senator Kennedy, Health Care Reform, and the Single Payer Model

The New York Times recently published an article highlighting Senator Edward Kennedy’s impact on the health care debate and how his death has become a “rallying point” for politicians on the left and right. In the article, Kennedy’s Senate colleagues discuss how deeply Kennedy’s skill in seeking bipartisan compromise will be missed in the weeks ahead.

The concept of a single payer model remains one of the most volatile points of debate for both parties in the discussion about national health care reform. In the 1970s, Kennedy strongly supported the single payer system, but in recent years moved away from that approach in an effort to reach political compromise.

Furthering the conversation on whether the “single payer” model is politically viable, Deborah Stone, author of the article “Single Payer—Good Metaphor, Bad Politics,” offers provocative reflections on why the Left’s focus on the single payer model may be detrimental to the quest for a comprehensive and fair system of social insurance. She also investigates why advocates might want to abandon the term “single payer” altogether in the quest for health care reform. This article appears in “Exploring the Concept of Single Payer,” a special issue of the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law.

To continue the discussion on the concept of single payer, the journal would like to offer free access to Stone’s article, as well as the introduction to the special issue edited by Michael S. Sparer, Lawrence D. Brown, and Lawrence R. Jacobs.

This special issue of Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law is a collection of papers presented at a conference hosted by the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, and the Academic Health Center at the University of Minnesota in 2008.

Jayna Brown Wins TLA Award

Jayna Brown, author of Babylon Girls: Black Women Performers and the Shaping of the Modern, has just been announced as the winner of the Theatre Library Association's George Freedly Memorial Award. The George Freedley Memorial Award honors excellence in writing on theatre during 2008. The Freedley Award is named for George Freedley, the first Curator of the New York Public Library's Theatre Collection, and first President of the Theatre Library Association. According to the press release from the Theatre Library Association, "Professor Brown's book is a groundbreaking study of African-American women performing in cabaret acts, chorus lines and burlesque revues between 1890 and 1945."

Congratulations, Jayna!

Happy Women's Equality Day!

Happy Women's Equality Day! In honor of this day, first established in 1971, we thought we would draw attention to all the great women's studies books out there, such as Kathy Davis' The Making of Our Bodies, Ourselves: How Feminism Travels across Borders. This book tells of the feminist success story of the book Our Bodies, Ourselves (1970). Using interviews and responses to the original book, Davis shares the story of this remarkable book’s global circulation. Want to win a copy? Check out our contest on our Facebook page!

Jeffrey H. Jackson Interviewed for New Jazz Documentary

Jeffrey H. Jackson, author of Making Jazz French: Music and Modern Life in Interwar Paris, was recently interviewed for the new documentary, Harlem in Montmartre.

Harlem in Montmartre tells the story of the jazz age in Paris between the first and second World Wars, exploring an often neglected era in African-American cultural history. After peace was signed at Versailles, many black Americans remained in Europe rather than return to the brutal segregation and racism of America. Over the next two decades, they created an expatriate community of musicians, entertainers and entrepreneurs, primarily congregating in Paris's hilly Montmartre neighborhood. Some achieved enduring fame, while others have faded into history.

To see a preview of the documentary or to learn more information, please visit here. Harlem in Montmartre airs as part of PBS’ Great Performances series and is on tonight at 8 p.m. EST (check local listings).

Kristin Bumiller Wins APSA Award

Kristin Bumiller, author of In an Abusive State: How Neoliberalism Appropriated the Feminist Movement against Sexual Violence, has just been announced as the winner of the American Political Science Association's Victoria Schuck Award. Awarded for the best book published in the previous calendar year on women and politics, this award will be presented at the 105th APSA Annual Meeting in Toronto on September 3, 2009. Congratulations, Kristin!