Duke University Press Log

25th Anniversary Edition of M/E/A/N/I/N/G Available

Editors Susan Bee and Mira Schor have just announced that the 25th anniversary issue of the art journal M/E/A/N/I/N/G is now available online. Blogger Sharon Butler says it is "chockablock with interesting ideas about art, politics and culture." The issue is organized around two themes: the role of public trauma such as war in art and art criticism, and the role of artistic intuition, creativity, community, production, and distribution in the new digital world.  M/E/A/N/I/N/G was a print journal from 1986-1996 and we were pleased to publish an anthology of some its liveliest and most provocative pieces in 2000. In 2002, Bee and Schor began to publish the journal online. Check out the new issue and any back issues you may have missed!

Ousted Prime Minister on Greek economy

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou resigns today as the economic crisis in Greece continues to agitate European and global markets. Last year in the Mediterranean Quarterly, Papandreou assessed strategies for recovery in the eurozone, including government bailouts like the assistance that his successor is now tasked with securing from the European Union:
“It is essential to remember that it was not the public sector but the private financial sector — enabled by neoliberal governments —that caused the subprime bubble and speculative boom. And it was the bailouts and stimulus packages provided by governments that prevented the financial crisis from turning into another Great Depression. So it is only fair that the financial sector should bear some of the costs of the crisis, which was largely of its own making.” 
¾ George Papandreou in “A New Global Financial Architecture: Lessons from the Greek Crisis”

 Read the article for free here.

EASTS Article Wins 4S Award

We are pleased to announce that Kuo Wen-Hua's essay "The Voice on the Bridge: Taiwan's Regulatory Engagement with Global Pharmaceuticals" was awarded the David Edge Prize at the 4S Meeting, held last week in Cleveland.  The prize is awarded each year to the best article in the area of science and technology studies. Kuo Wen-Hua's excellent essay appeared in the journal East Asian Science, Technology and Society: An International Journal (EASTS), volume 3, number 1.The article is available for free here through the end of 2011.

Duke University Press congratulates Kuo Wen-Hua and EASTS on this honor.

High Stakes in Elections in Nicaragua Today

Longtime Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega seeks re-election in Nicaragua today despite a constitutional amendment prohibiting him from running for a third term. Despite the ban, Ortega has popular support as well as financial support outside the country from Venezuela's Hugo Chávez. Sergio Ramírez served as vice president under Ortega from 1985-1990 but became dissillusioned by the corruption within the Sandinista movement. He has written a book about his experiences during Nicaragua's revolution, Adiós Muchachos. First published in Spanish in 1999, we are pleased to bring the first English edition, including timely updates, into print. Ramírez told Le Monde that Ortega is leading because his family has the most economic power in Nicaragua. In an interview with La Vanguardia, Ramírez commented that although this may seem like political fiction, it's not. Ortega will limit civil liberties, and increase policy and military power. Nicaraguan democracy is at stake in today's elections. Read Adiós Muchachos to get an insiders account of Nicaraguan politics. They're about to get even more interesting.

Author Events Today

We've got five great author events going on today. Hope you can make one!

Today at the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia University catch Kellie Jones talking about her book EyeMinded: Living and Writing Contemporary Art. A signing follows. It's at 6:00 pm.

Also in New York today, you can hear poet and playwright Sonia Sanchez, author of I'm Black When I'm Singing, I'm Blue When I Ain't and Other Plays, speak at Lehman College in the Bronx. Her speech begins at 12:30 pm and she'll be singing books afterwards.

Today at 6 pm, Benjamin Lowy will speak about his work as a war photographer and his new book Iraq | Perspectives at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York. 

California readers can enjoy a reading and signing by Judith Halberstam at City Lights Books in San Francisco. She's promoting her new book The Queer Art of Failure. That event begins at 7:00 pm.

Tonight Canadian fans can see Ella Shohat speak at Ryerson University. Part of their Distinguished Speaker Series, she will give a lecture following a screening of the film Forget Baghdad. The film begins at 6:00 pm and the lecture at 8. Shohat is the author of Taboo Memories, Diasporic Voices.