The nature of quilting implies a coming together of disparate elements to create a pleasing and cohesive whole. Rachel Clark’s quilt, These Colors Should Run, utilizes these formal qualities to reimagine the American flag, conveying an unsettling and paradoxical image of a nation in disrepair. Clarke is a Professor at Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies whose research focuses on...
In July 2018, the United States government formally pressed charges against Maria Valeryevna Butina for operating as an unregistered foreign agent operating in the service of the Russian state, a term that the news media quickly collapsed into the more provocative and instantly recognizable designation of “Russian spy.” Coupled with the revelation that the Russian government had covertly exerted...
Surveillance culture doesn’t crop up overnight. It is the result of social and political processes, which humans creatively adapt to and undermine. Last week, I looked at the ways in which early modern audiences and playwrights reacted to the increasing sense that their government was using spies to monitor their actions in and around the theater. Their plays explored how the threat of spying...
After the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in 1572,[1] the English government, particularly Principle Secretary Francis Walsingham (often credited as the father of English espionage), greatly increased the scope of their intelligence networks. This resulted in the foiling of a number of plots against the life of Queen Elizabeth, most notably the Babington Plot, which led to the execution of Mary...
In our contemporary social moment, the American public has come to possess a fairly blasé attitude towards the degree to which governments and corporations collect our data and monitor our actions. It has become almost an unfunny joke to acknowledge that, yes, Amazon and Google do monitor our internet habits and listen in upon our phone conversations in order to better sell us products. Popular...
This week, we look back at Vicky Cheng‘s December 2016 post on engaging with students in the classroom. Vicky will be back next week with more on teaching and writing. “A good teacher will lead the horse to water; an excellent teacher will make the horse thirsty first.” — Mario Cortes Inside the academic classroom, we instructors face a number of pedagogical challenges, ranging from...
“Next time someone tells Bronx girls to take off their hoops, they can just say they’re dressing like a Congresswoman.”Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) Every year, I make a feminist New Year’s resolution: apologize less; shut down more mansplaining; take up more space. Sometimes I mean this last one literally: I’ve learned to square my shoulders and stake my place in crowded subways, and to...
Over the last few weeks, I’ve explored the relationship between early modern fears of rhetoric and their relevance in our political climate. Thus far, I’ve focused on a specific kind of rhetoric, the anti-media rhetoric of President Trump, drawing parallels between his words and Henry II’s famous statement “will no one rid me of this troublesome priest.” This week, I want to look at a different...
Last week, I looked at Julius Caesar as a case-study for understanding early modern fears concerning rhetoric during the late 16th and early 17th century. I hope to have demonstrated the degree to which Shakespeare was wary of the relationship between rhetorical provocation and the violent potential of the crowd. However, representations of rhetorical provocation such as Marc Antony only tell...
Last year, while writing for Broadly Textual about the political implications of staging Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar under the Trump administration, I off-handedly suggested that the play could be read as one in “which a demagogue exploits a mob of Roman citizens and preys upon their anger and resentment to compel them to destructive violence.” Later that year, when teaching the play to my lower...