Cultural Resources

Multi-Issue

Advocates/Services
—Amplifier
—Empathy Museum
—StoryCorps — “to preserve and share humanity’s stories in order to build connections between people and create a more just and compassionate world. We do this to remind one another of our shared humanity, to strengthen and build the connections between people, to teach the value of listening, and to weave into the fabric of our culture the understanding that everyone’s story matters.”

Articles/Op-eds/Essays
—Facebook reportedly ignored its own research showing algorithms divided users, Nick Statt. “Facebook fears harming engagement or enraging conservatives.”
—How to Actually Make America Great, David Brooks. “Reversing 50 years of social decline…. The frequency of the word “I” in American books, according to Putnam and Garrett, doubled between 1965 and 2008.”
—The Dos and Don’ts of Cultural Appropriation, Jenni Avins and Quartz. “Borrowing from other cultures isn’t just inevitable, it’s potentially positive.”
—Every Culture Appropriates, David Frum. “The question is less whether a dress or an idea is borrowed, than the uses to which it’s then put.” —What Does 'Cultural Appropriation' Actually Mean?, Conor Friedersdorg. “An Atlantic writer and a Cato Institute scholar debate the value and limits of the term.”
—The passing of the postmodern in pop? Epochal consumption and marketing from Madonna, through Gaga, to Taylor, Brendan Canavan and Claire McCamley
—Post-postmodernism
—An American Writer for an Age of Division, Alexandra Schwartz. “The playwright and novelist Ayad Akhtar has never been afraid of provoking audiences. His latest work explores the origins of Trump’s toxicity, the tensions of Muslim identity, and the splintering of a family and a country.”
—Psychoanalysis shapes consumer culture, Lisa Held. Or how Sigmund Fretzud, his nephew and a box of cigars forever changed American marketing.
—How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future, Jill Lepore. “When J.F.K. ran for President, a team of data scientists with powerful computers set out to model and manipulate American voters. Sound familiar?…the mission of nearly every corporation. Collect data. Write code: if/then/else. Detect patterns. Predict behavior. Direct action. Encourage consumption. Influence elections.” —How Wagner Shaped Hollywood, Alex Ross. "The composer has infiltrated every phase of movie history, from silent pictures to superhero blockbusters....Hollywood films and other forms of popular culture can be complicit in the exercise of American hegemony—its chauvinist exceptionalism, its culture of violence, its pervasive economic and racial inequities."
—-Should We Cancel Aristotle?, Agnes Callard. “He defended slavery and opposed the notion of human equality. But he is not our enemy.... What we want, when we want free speech, is the freedom to speak literally.”
—What’s Behind the Nursing Home Horror, Charles C. Camosy. “After decades of mistreatment, older Americans are bearing the worst of the pandemic…. If we do take a hard look, we may change more than just the way we ”
—What We Pretend to Know About the Coronavirus Could Kill Us, Charlie Warzel
—Superfans: A Love Story, Michael Schulman — From “Star Wars” to “Game of Thrones,” fans have more power than ever to push back. But is fandom becoming as toxic as politics?
—George the Poet Is Pushing Podcasting’s Limits, Tara Joshi
—Adrian Piper Speaks! (for Herself), Lauren O’Neill-Butler
—I’m a Black Feminist. I Think Call-Out Culture Is Toxic, Loretta Ross

Books
—Postmodernism: A Very Short Introduction (2002), Christopher Butler
—Camus: Portrait of a Moralist (1999), Stephen Eric Bronner
—The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things: Crime, Drugs, Minorities, Teen Moms, Killer Kids, Mutant Microbes, Plane Crashes, Road Rage, & So Much More (1999), , Barry Glassner
—Culture & Power: The Sociology of Pierre Bourdieu (1997), David Swartz

Journals
Brain Pickings

Video