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3 episodes with Performativity
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2 episodes with Performativity
2 episodes with Performativity
What happens to the speed of trading as technology advances? How do we move from automated button pressing machines to ultra-fast algorithms? What surprising impact does the rain have on the trading windows of financial markets?Donald MacKenzie is a professor of sociology at the University of Edinburgh and also the author of several books. His most recent works are Trading at the Speed of Light: How Ultrafast Algorithms Are Transforming Financial Markets and An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial Models Shape Markets.Greg and Donald discuss the intersection of sociology and finance, exploring how financial models not only describe markets but also actively influence them. Donald explains the concept of performativity, where financial theories shape market behavior, and contrasts qualitative sociological methodologies with quantitative financial studies. Their conversation also touches on the history and impact of technologies and regulatory environments that have transformed financial trading, highlighting contributions from notable academics and instances of feedback loops between theory and practice.*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:Chicago pits vs. algorithms28:34: For, say, investment management firms that have to buy and sell large portfolios of assets, there's little doubt that the modern world of automated trading has benefits, but it also has downsides. I mean, the benefit is, quite simply, of course, that automated systems are a lot cheaper than human beings in colored jackets running around in Chicago's pits or on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. But, at the same time, of course, if you are trying to sell or buy a very large position, then you do leave electronic traces that trading algorithms can pick up on and make money out of.Why financial models shapes markets like engine not camera04:31: An engine does things, it's not a camera—at least in our ordinary thinking about cameras, where you take the photograph and the landscape remains the same. An engine does stuff, it changes its environment.The power of shared signals in trading success34:11: The secret of my success is I realized quite early on that there were things—signals, as they would be called in the field—inputs to algorithms that everybody knew about and that everybody knew that everybody knew about. So it wasn't like I had an unsuccessful attempt, way back to research statistical arbitrage and dare nobody would tell you what exactly they were trading off of. But I think they're trading because everybody knows that if you're trading shares, then a move in the relevant index future is a very, very important signal. Everybody knows that, and everybody knows that. Everybody knows that.Finance beyond numbers, the human side of quantitative work02:30: Finance as an academic field, and indeed of course finance as a practice, is typically highly quantitative. And to get into the technology, quantitative work can be great, but to really get into it you've got to talk to people. Ideally, you want to go see things, so the methodology is more qualitative than quantitative, and it probably would not be the best of ideas.Show Links:Recommended Resources:William F. SharpeThomas MortonFischer BlackCoase TheoremMark RubinsteinEric BudishJohn O'BrienPortfolio InsuranceMilton FriedmanCommodity Futures Trading CommissionU.S. Securities and Exchange CommissionLeo MelamedThe Library of MistakesGuest Profile:Faculty Profile at the University of EdinburghForbes.com ProfileWikipedia ProfileHis Work:Amazon Author PageTrading at the Speed of Light: How Ultrafast Algorithms Are Transforming Financial MarketsAn Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial Models Shape MarketsDo Economists Make Markets? On the Performativity of EconomicsMaterial Markets: How Economic Agents are ConstructedInventing Accuracy: An Historical Sociology of Nuclear Missile Guidance
Despite your bad memories from the Block Size war, you should support Roger Ver's campaign for clemency – or at least this is what Layer Two Labs CEO Paul Sztorc thinks you should do. In this episode, we discuss why Roger deserves to stay free. Time stamps: Introducing Paul Sztorc (00:00:54) The host welcomes listeners and introduces guest Paul Sztorc, discussing Roger Ver's situation. Paul's Connection with Roger Ver (00:01:42) Paul shares his connection to Roger Ver and his experiences in the Bitcoin community. Roger Ver's Contributions (00:02:54) Discussion on Roger's significant investments and efforts in early Bitcoin companies. Challenges at Mt. Gox (00:03:59) Paul recounts Roger's volunteer work during the Mt. Gox crisis, highlighting his dedication. Bitcoin's Early Days (00:05:05) Reflections on Bitcoin's obscurity before mainstream recognition, including the Financial Times article. The Evolution of Bitcoin Conferences (00:06:18) Paul reminisces about early Bitcoin conferences and their small scale compared to today. Tax Evasion Claims and Bitcoin's Value (00:08:23) Discussion on misconceptions about Bitcoin's value and Roger's tax situation during its early days. Roger's Generosity and Alliances (00:10:34) Highlighting Roger's contributions to various libertarian causes and his personal sacrifices. The Block Size War (00:11:39) Introduction to the block size debate and its impact on Roger's reputation in the Bitcoin community. Michael Saylor's Skepticism (00:12:29) The host references a tweet from Michael Saylor expressing doubts about Bitcoin in 2013. Roger's Early Bitcoin Investments (00:13:13) Paul shares a story about Roger's commitment to Bitcoin, selling his Lamborghini for more BTC. Roger's Influence and Marketing (00:14:26) Discussion on Roger's positive energy and efforts to promote Bitcoin to the public. The Role of BitPay (00:15:38) Explaining how BitPay helped businesses accept Bitcoin, making it more accessible. Roger's Vision for Bitcoin (00:18:48) Paul discusses Roger's motivations during the block size war and his vision for Bitcoin's future. Aftermath of the Block Size War (00:20:06) Reflections on the complacency of the Bitcoin community post-war and the resulting divisions. Playing the Villain (00:20:45) The host introduces a playful debate format, questioning Roger's promotion of Bitcoin Cash. The Scammer Accusation (00:21:18) Discussion about accusations against Roger Ver being labeled a scammer due to perceived financial losses. The Block Size Debate (00:21:35) Debate on the implications of hard forks and naming conventions in the context of Bitcoin's block size. Satoshi's Conflicted Views (00:22:22) Exploration of Satoshi Nakamoto's ambiguous stance on block sizes and their impact on Bitcoin. Mt. Gox Video Controversy (00:24:23) Reference to Roger Ver's video on Mount Gox and its perceived implications for Bitcoin's credibility. Self-Custody Awareness (00:25:03) Discussion on the understanding of self-custody in Bitcoin during the early days compared to now. Roger's Involvement with Mt. Gox (00:26:57) Analysis of Roger Ver's proactive attempts to assist Mount Gox during its crisis. Historical Context of Criticism (00:29:06) Reflection on how hindsight alters perceptions of Roger's actions during the Mt. Gox incident. Debate Dynamics (00:31:00) Insights into Roger Ver's debate style and the challenges faced by opponents like Jimmy Song. Roger's Support of Craig Wright (00:36:22) Discussion on Roger Ver's past support for Craig Wright and subsequent regrets regarding that decision. Legal Battles with Craig Wright (00:40:14) Mention of Roger Ver's successful lawsuit against Craig Wright as a potential redemption. Romance Scams and Reporting (00:40:53) Discussion on how victims of romance scams often feel ashamed and do not report incidents. Karmic Justice and Roger Ver (00:44:16) Exploration of public anger towards Roger Ver and perceptions of justice regarding his past actions. Chaos Climbers in the Bitcoin Community (00:45:03) Analysis of individuals rising in influence by criticizing opposing factions during the block size war. Debate Analysis: Samson vs. Roger (00:46:02) Reflection on the 2018 debate between Samson and Roger, highlighting performance over substance. Clipping and Public Perception (00:48:11) Discussion on how clipped statements can distort public perception and impact reputations. Economic Growth and Human Welfare (00:49:07) The importance of economic growth for human welfare and the misunderstanding surrounding its implications. Performativity in Bitcoin Discourse (00:50:26) Critique of the performative outrage in Bitcoin discussions and its effects on community dynamics. Debate Takeaways and Misrepresentation (00:51:08) Observations on how the narrative from the debate overshadowed substantive discussions about Bitcoin. Scaling Solutions: Lightning vs. Bitcoin Cash (00:52:13) Comparison of the Lightning Network and Bitcoin Cash as competing solutions to Bitcoin's scaling issues. Hard Forks and Community Splits (00:54:43) Discussion on the implications of hard forks on community cohesion and the future of Bitcoin. Victimless Crimes in Forks (00:57:54) Reflection on the benefits of Bitcoin forks and the perception of them as victimless crimes. Toxic Bitcoin Maximalism (00:58:41) Analysis of how toxic maximalism emerged as a reaction to the proliferation of altcoins and forks. Conception of Money and Community (00:59:03) Discussion on the importance of a unified currency and the challenges posed by multiple forks. Ethereum as the Opposition (01:00:28) Exploration of Ethereum's role as a competing force against Bitcoin and its community dynamics. Network Effects and Complacency (01:00:52) Discussion on how dominant networks can lead to complacency and hinder competition in the crypto space. Block Size War and Ethereum's Rise (01:01:40) Exploration of Ethereum's growth during the block size debate and its impact on the crypto landscape. Scaling Challenges in Bitcoin (01:02:52) Overview of scaling solutions and the failures that led to external developments outside Bitcoin. Layer Two Labs Promotion (01:04:00) Introduction of Layer Two Labs and its mission to scale Bitcoin through sidechains. Drive Chains vs. Tree Chains (01:05:15) Comparison of Drive Chains and Tree Chains, highlighting conceptual differences and critiques. Bitcoin.com News Collaboration (01:08:40) Discussion about Bitcoin.com News and its valuable coverage of cryptocurrency topics. Critique of Current Thought Leaders (01:09:46) Speaker expresses disappointment in the insights provided by prominent figures in the crypto community. Exit Tax Controversy (01:11:20) Debate on the legitimacy and implications of the U.S. exit tax in relation to Roger Ver. Berlin Wall Explanation (01:21:19) Description of the Berlin Wall's historical significance and its role in the Cold War. The Berlin Wall Discussion (01:23:06) The speakers discuss the historical significance and implications of the Berlin Wall and its impact on families. Roger Ver's Moral Responsibility (01:27:02) A conversation about Roger Ver's rejection of the social contract based on his moral beliefs regarding taxation. Exit Tax Controversy (01:27:30) Debate on the fairness of the exit tax and its implications for individuals like Roger Ver. Roger Ver's Legal Representation (01:28:09) Discussion on Roger Ver's legal situation and the role of his law firm in his tax issues. Greg Maxwell's Threats (01:29:33) Mention of Greg Maxwell's threats towards Roger Ver and the potential consequences of such actions. Birthday Surprise (01:30:18) A light-hearted moment as the host celebrates a birthday surprise during the podcast. Tax Law Complications (01:32:07) The complexity of tax law and its implications for Roger Ver's financial situation are explored. Jameson Lopp's Tweet (01:35:14) Analysis of a tweet discussing Roger Ver's tax issues and the IRS's claims against him. CoinFlex Bankruptcy Discussion (01:37:01) Exploration of Roger Ver's financial troubles related to CoinFlex and the implications of his legal battles. Roger's Video Explanation (01:39:14) Discussion about a video Roger Ver released explaining his situation with CoinFlex and legal constraints. Legal Challenges and Persecution (01:42:43) Reflections on Roger Ver's past legal challenges and the perception of him as a criminal in the Bitcoin community. Vindictiveness of the Blocksize War (01:43:46) Commentary on the negative attitudes and tactics used by some during the blocksize debate against Roger Ver. Discussion on Roger Ver's Bitcoin Contributions (01:44:56) We discuss Roger Ver's early contributions to Bitcoin and the controversies surrounding him. Twitter Controversies and Public Perception (01:46:00) The conversation touches on Twitter dynamics and public perceptions of Roger Ver's financial status. Taxation and IRS Issues (01:49:02) Concerns are raised about the lack of clarity from the IRS regarding tax obligations for Roger Ver. Critique of Tax System (01:50:05) A critique of the U.S. tax system and the complexities faced by taxpayers is presented. Roger Ver's Future and Clemency (01:52:39) Discussion on Roger Ver's potential return to the U.S. and the implications of his clemency. Plea Deals and Coercion in Legal System (02:01:29) The speakers examine the coercive nature of plea deals in the U.S. legal system. Justice System Inequities (02:03:59) A reflection on the inequities in the justice system and the challenges of sentencing. Introduction to Alexander Vinnik (02:05:07) Discussion about Vinnik's arrest and his connection to the Mount Gox hack. Comparison with Roger Ver (02:06:18) Contrasting Vinnik's criminal actions with the legal troubles faced by Roger Ver. Plea Deals and Legal System Issues (02:06:39) Exploring the coercive nature of plea deals in the justice system. Vinnik's Sentencing and Release (02:08:39) Details about Vinnik's sentencing and the circumstances of his release. Negotiations for Prisoner Exchange (02:09:50) Discussion about the political implications of Vinnik's negotiation for freedom. Details on the Trade (02:10:46) Information about the American teacher traded for Vinnik and her situation. Question from the Audience (02:12:54) Transition to audience questions regarding Bitcoin's scalability and potential forks. The Exodus Question (02:13:02) Audience inquiry about the potential migration to alternative cryptocurrencies. Forking Bitcoin Discussion (02:15:17) Analysis of the challenges and implications of forking Bitcoin. Cultural Apathy in Bitcoin Community (02:20:15) Reflection on the disconnection between miners and Bitcoin's philosophical discussions. Future of Bitcoin and Sidechains (02:22:33) Speculation on Bitcoin's ability to scale and the role of sidechains in its future. Discussion on Bitcoin Market Dynamics (02:27:41) Exploration of Bitcoin's market behavior and the implications of pricing strategies in a competitive landscape. Contention in Bitcoin Governance (02:28:31) Debate on the contentious nature of Bitcoin governance and the challenges of achieving consensus within the community. Concerns Over Bitcoin's Cultural Issues (02:30:31) Discussion on potential cultural problems within Bitcoin and the implications for its future success. Measuring Decentralization (02:31:58) Introduction to the concept of decentralization and its measurement within cryptocurrency contexts. Critique of Mining Centralization (02:32:08) Examination of the complexities and contradictions in defining mining centralization in Bitcoin. Transparency and Decentralization (02:34:03) Discussion on the importance of transparency and the peer-to-peer nature of Bitcoin versus traditional systems. State Rejection of Bitcoin Reserves (02:40:55) Insights into states rejecting Bitcoin reserve bills due to volatility concerns, reflecting on societal attitudes toward Bitcoin. Bitcoin's Role in Black Market Transactions (02:44:27) Analysis of Bitcoin's potential as a payment system in both legal and illegal markets, emphasizing its dual utility. Roleplay Request on BTC vs BCH (02:48:10) Engagement in a roleplay scenario discussing the market's preference for BTC over BCH and its implications. Orthodox Plan for Scaling (02:49:21) Discussion on the orthodox plan for Bitcoin scaling and competition with Ethereum and other altcoins. Competition and Market Share (02:50:39) Analysis of market competition and the declining market share of Bitcoin compared to Ethereum and Monero. Libertarian Party Dynamics (02:53:11) Exploration of the fragmentation within the Libertarian Party and its implications for political strategy. Libertarian Vote in Elections (02:54:52) Investigation into the percentage of votes received by the Libertarian Party in recent elections. Trump's Influence on Libertarians (02:56:40) Discussion on Trump's appeal to Libertarians and its impact on voting patterns. Free Ross Campaign Strategy (02:59:17) Strategy for political advocacy, focusing on the Free Ross campaign and leveraging support for major candidates. Comparing Cryptocurrency Market Positions (03:01:56) Examination of the market positions of various cryptocurrencies and their relative values. Bitcoin Cash Capabilities (03:02:50) Discussion on the capabilities of Bitcoin Cash and its potential for innovation in the crypto space. Historical Context of Bitcoin Development (03:04:12) Reflection on Bitcoin's development history and the missed opportunities for innovation. Language and Technological Change (03:06:27) Analogy between language evolution and cryptocurrency dominance, emphasizing technological impacts. Early Bitcoin Innovations (03:09:39) Revisiting early innovations in Bitcoin and their relevance to today's cryptocurrency landscape. Ossification and Innovation in Blockchain (03:11:36) Discussion on the ossification of blockchain and the need for innovation in Layer 2 solutions. Programming Languages Debate (03:12:43) Comparison of programming languages used in Bitcoin and Ethereum, referencing Steve Jobs' philosophy. Bitcoin's Imperfections (03:14:15) Discussion on Bitcoin's evolution and the ongoing need for improvements despite claims of perfection. Vulnerabilities in Bitcoin (03:15:21) Concerns over the delayed disclosure of vulnerabilities in Bitcoin's code and its implications. Power Dynamics in Bitcoin Development (03:16:41) Analysis of the influence of Bitcoin Core on development and the challenges faced by forks. John Dillon's Controversial Emails (03:18:00) Exploration of accusations against John Dillon and the implications for Bitcoin's governance. Coinjoin Bounty Scandal (03:20:19) Revelation of John Dillon's involvement with a bounty fund and its impact on project funding. The Role of Competition in Development (03:22:14) Importance of competition among software in driving innovation and user satisfaction. Roger Ver's Legal Troubles (03:25:28) Discussion about the potential consequences for those prosecuting Roger Ver and the nature of his accusations. Mail Fraud Charges Against Roger Ver (03:27:12) Overview of the legal accusations against Roger Ver, particularly concerning mail fraud. Hypothetical Perspective on Roger Ver (03:28:44) A thought experiment about how perceptions of Roger Ver would change based on exposure to propaganda. Thoughts on Taxation and Consent (03:32:32) Discussion on the ethics of taxation and Roger Ver's views on consent in financial matters. Tax Dollars and Freedom (03:33:53) Discussion on how American tax dollars fund IRS enforcement and the implications for those wanting to leave the country. Exit Tax Debate (03:35:06) Debate on the fairness of an exit tax and its implications for American citizens leaving the country. Roger Ver's Legal Battle (03:36:04) Analysis of Roger Ver's resources and challenges in his ongoing legal issues with tax authorities. Future Tax Laws and Risks (03:36:30) Concerns about potential future tax laws and their impact on individuals' financial situations. Legal Precedents and Justice (03:37:53) Discussion on how Roger Ver's case may set precedents for others facing similar legal challenges. Political Influence on Justice (03:38:58) Exploration of the arbitrary nature of legal sentences and political influences on the justice system. Dignity in Departure (03:39:29) Reflections on the emotional toll of leaving the U.S. while maintaining dignity and facing potential repercussions. Logistics of a Pardon (03:40:30) Speculation on the political motivations behind a potential pardon for Roger Ver. Tax Law Evolution (03:41:53) Discussion on how tax laws have changed over time, affecting the classification of Bitcoin. Legal Advice and Accountability (03:43:14) Questioning the responsibilities of tax attorneys in guiding clients through complex legal issues. Closing Remarks and Thanks (03:44:15)
Life admin often refers to the overwhelming and mundane paperwork that surrounds contemporary living. However, Oriana Bernasconi, a sociology professor at the Alberto Hurtado University in Chile, joins Uncommon Sense to talk about a more serious side of the term – that of paperwork documenting human rights abuse – as well as a living, breathing archive and the analogue spreadsheet.Author of “Resistance to Political Violence in Latin America: Documenting Atrocity”, Oriana talks about her substantial research in human rights archives documenting the atrocities that took place during the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile. She also talks us through “technologies of memory” and how archives have allowed the living to connect with the dead.Plus: Oriana introduces us to the works of Judith Butler and Jacques Derrida around performativity and gives her pop culture recommendation for the 16-part TV series “Una historia necesaria”.Guest: Oriana BernasconiHosts: Rosie Hancock, Alexis Hieu TruongSeries Executive Producer: Alice BlochEpisode Guest Producer: Emma HoultonSound Engineer: David CracklesMusic: Joe GardnerArtwork: Erin AnikerFind more about Uncommon SenseEpisode ResourcesRosie, Alexis and Oriana recommendedWINHANGANHA – film by Jazz MoneyInside/Out: A Prison Memoir – theatre production by Patrick KeatingUna Historia Necesaria – TV series by Hernán CaffieroBy Oriana BernasconiResistance to Political Violence in Latin America: Documenting AtrocityPolitical Technologies of Memory: Uses and Appropriations of Artefacts that Register and Denounce State Violence (co-authored with Elizabeth Lira and Marcela Ruiz)Archives of Violence: Case studies from South America (co-authored with Vikki Bell, Jaime Hernández-García and Cecilia Sosa)From The Sociological ReviewThe aesthetics of memory: Ruins, visibility and witnessing – Margarita PalaciosThe digital writing of human rights narratives: Failure, recognition, and the unruly inscriptions of database infrastructures – Josh BowsherFurther resourcesthe publications of the Tecnologías Políticas de la Memoria project“Documenting Dictatorship: Writing and Resistance in Chile's Vicaría de la Solidaridad” – Vikki Bell“Documentality: Why it is Necessary to Leave Traces” – Maurizio Ferraris“Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory” – Judith ButlerRead more about the concept of Speeach Acts, as well as the work of Michel Foucault, Hannah Arendt and Jacques Derrida.Support our work. Make a one-off or regular donation to help fund future episodes of Uncommon Sense: donorbox.org/uncommon-sense
I kriminallitteraturen är lesbisk kärlek ofta något destruktivt och kan fungera som en oväntad twist. Deckarläsaren Anna Nygren försöker lösa mysteriet med sin dragning till mordgåtornas mörka begär. Lyssna på alla avsnitt i Sveriges Radio Play. ESSÄ: Detta är en text där skribenten reflekterar över ett ämne eller ett verk. Åsikter som uttrycks är skribentens egnaJag är författare och litteraturvetare. Alltså läser jag mycket. Men ibland ljuger jag om mina läsvanor. Jag har nämligen fastnat i ett deckarträsk och jag kommer inte ut ur det. Det låter kanske som om deckarna skulle vara mitt guilty pleasure, ett hemligt begär. Det är sant, men sanningen är att det är mer än så. Deckarna är mitt sätt att försöka förstå mitt begär. Och det skrämmer mig.Det började när jag var 13 år och hittade Maria Langs deckare ”Mördaren ljuger inte ensam” från 1949 i mammas bokhylla. Där är twisten i mordhistorien att mördaren är lesbisk: Viveka. Hennes replik ”Det var inte Rutger jag älskade, det var Marianne” är nyckelrepliken i boken. Den motiverar alla hennes destruktiva handlingar. Detta var den första queera gestalt jag hittade i litteraturen. Jag lärde mig då, att skulle jag fortsätta älska mina tjejkompisar på det här sättet, så kunde det sluta med ond bråd död. Nästan samtidigt läste jag Åsa Larssons deckare ”Svart stig”. Där är inte mördaren, men mordoffret lesbisk. Och efter att hon mördats tar hennes hemliga flickvän livet av sig – efter att först också ha dödat fyra hundar. Jag lärde mig: Det är inte lätt att vara lesbisk. Det är farligt.21 år senare har jag ännu inte mördat eller blivit mördad. Men mitt begär efter kärlek blandas samman med ett begär efter the dark side, efter något obehagligt, blodigt, skadligt. I läsningen känner jag både bekräftelse och bestraffning. Den dubbla känslan är ett mysterium som triggar mig, en gåta som kräver en lösning.I deckare ses det lesbiska ofta som något ondskefullt, farligt och destruktivt. Det skriver Emma Donoghue i en bok om lesbiska motiv i litteraturen, ”Inseparable. Desire between women in literature”. Det historiskt sett omoraliska och olagliga queera begäret ligger i linje med mördarens karaktär. Samtidigt är den kvinnliga homosexualiteten, till skillnad från den manliga, ofta osynliggjord – och i brottsberättelsen är kvinnogestalter oftast offer snarare än förövare. Den hemliga lesbiska kärleken som ett mordmotiv blir därför en fantastisk twist i deckarintrigen. Ingen kunde ana detta! Ett begär som ingen kunde se! Alla blir lurade! Det lesbiska begäret fungerar som en mörk drivkraft och leder mot döden.Jag tänker på hur jag själv aldrig känt kärleken som god och enkel: Var det för att Viveka och Marianne lärde mig att det kommer sluta med död och elände? Handlar det om att vara farlig eller vara i fara?Jag börjar tänka på faran i att skriva. Maria Lang, eller Dagmar Lange som namnet bakom pseudonymen lyder, var inte bara deckardrottning utan också litteraturvetare. Hon disputerar 1946 med avhandlingen ”Pontus Wikner som vitter författare”. Men det är konfliktfyllt, eftersom hon skriver om det homosexuella hos Wikner, och det gillas inte av akademin, inte då, inte ännu – hon kan först inte lägga fram avhandlingen, utan måste vänta på en lite mer progressiv universitetsledning. I ”Mördaren ljuger inte ensam” låter Maria Lang mördaren Viveka skriva i sin bekännelse: ”Min kärlek var stark och normal för mig, och att den ledde mig till svåra brott berodde inte på att den var särpräglad.” Hon vänder sig alltså bort från en kategorisering av kärleken, och ser dess styrka som viktigare.Efter debuten ”Främlingar på ett tåg” fick Patricia Highsmith beteckningen ”spänningsförfattare”, trots att hon själv inte ansåg att romanen tillhörde en specifik genre. Det skrämde inför publiceringen av romanen ”Carol”, som ofta ses som en queer kultbok. Skulle den göra henne till en lesbisk författare? Hon väljer, precis som Lange, en pseudonym: Claire Morgan. ”Carol” är inte en deckare, och den handlar inte om den lesbiskas död – tvärtom. Läsarbreven strömmar snart in. Och läsarna tackar för att de slipper skära upp handlederna, dränka sig i swimmingpoolen, bli hetero eller kollapsa i helvetet. Highsmith skriver i ett efterord till en senare utgåva att hon föredrar att undvika etiketter. Som lesbisk deckarläsare, tänker jag att hon menar etiketter både som i genrebeteckning och namngiven sexualitet. Jag tror att Highsmiths skeptiska hållning kommer av att det som får ett specifikt namn lätt anses som mindre allmängiltigt. Men kanske är det tvärtom vad vi väljer att kalla saker, som gör dem angelägna?Två centrala begrepp inom den queera litteraturvetenskapen är paranoid läsning och queera läckage. Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick skriver i essän ”You're So Paranoid You Probably Think This Ess Is About You” om hur den paranoida läsningen försöker avslöja fällor och något som finns underliggande, en maktordning. För queers handlar det om att uppfatta hur texter som på ytan ser ut att vara homovänliga, kan ha ett dolt budskap om att man egentligen inte blir någon riktig människa förrän man blivit straight. En sån läsning skapar känslan av att man kan inte lita på någon. Queera läckage handlar istället om att visa hur det även i dom mest heteronormativa texter finns små glipor där queera begär sipprar in, och lyfta fram dom som det allra viktigaste.Jag tänker att något av det farliga queera i ”Carols” lesbiska otrohetsberättelse läcker in i Highsmiths deckare. Kanske är det mitt queera hjärta som inte kan fatta att en heteroromans kan innehålla begär starka nog för mord? Jag läser Highsmiths ”Januaris två ansikten”, som en queer love-hate-berättelse, mellan Rydal och Chester, två amerikanska män involverade i ett triangeldrama och ett mord i Aten. Dom är förhäxade av varandra, dom drabbas av begäret som av blixten, ett starkt sken, som kanske också är döden.På 1500-talet myntades begreppet ”lilla döden”, om det som idag kallas orgasm. Roland Barthes använder samma uttryck för att beskriva en stor läsupplevelse. Det är något med läsningen, med dess njutning. Och något med döden. Jag tror att jag funnit en viktig ledtråd, det känns underbart, men farligt.Kriminalromanen har lästs på många sätt, inte minst som en samhällskritisk eller moralistisk genre. Att läsa genom en queer lins innebär att jag kan förstå deckaren som en möjlig öppning mot en omtolkning av godhet, ondska och begär. Det finns en motsats till den paranoida läsningen: den reparativa. Den är inte misstänksam. Den tror inte att någon är ute efter att straffa en. Eller, den vet att någon är det, men tillåter sig att njuta i stunden. Den tar tillvara på små ögonblick av skeva begär och låter läsaren känna igen sig. Det är därför jag följer mitt hemliga begär till deckarna och brotten, för att de tillåter mig att för en stund omfamna ondskan. Visst är det så att den lesbiska dör, eller straffas, men det är bara en grej som läggs på i slutet, för att kunna tillåta ett förbjudet begär. Jag har hittat en lösning på mitt mysterium. Jag slutar läsa innan bokens gåta har lösts och straffet utdelats.Anna Nygrenförfattare, litteraturvetare och konstnärProducent: Ann Lingebrandt LitteraturMaria Lang: Mördaren ljuger inte ensam, Norstedts 1949Åsa Larsson: Svart stig, Albert Bonniers förlag 2006Emma Donoghue: Inseparable. Desire between women in literature, Knopf 2010Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick: You're So Paranoid You Probably Think This Essay Is About You, i Touching Feeling: Affect, Pedagogy, Performativity, Duke University Press 2002Patricia Highsmith: Carol. Översättning: Karin Lindeqvist, Modernista 2017Patricia Highsmith: Januaris två ansikten, översättning Anne-Marie Edéus, Modernista 2021
I have a poor eye for specific sociological detail but a good brain for psychology and the things that drive people to block and hurt others. —Matthew GasdaMy guest on this episode of the podcast is poet, novelist, essayist and playwright Matthew Gasda, with playwright being the most salient of those descriptors. His play Denmark just finished up a short run at the Brooklyn Center for Theatre Research, which Gasda founded and runs, and he is best known for his play Dimes Square, which helped fix the notorious New York downtown microneighborhood in the public imagination.In 2022, The New York Times published a very substantive profile of Gasda, tracking his emergence into hipster prominence during Covid:In the spring of 2021, he fell into a downtown social scene that was forming on the eastern edge of Chinatown, by the juncture of Canal and Division Streets. What he witnessed inspired his next work, “Dimes Square.”“Dimes Square became the anti-Covid hot spot, and so I went there because that's where things were happening,” Mr. Gasda said.Named after Dimes, a restaurant on Canal Street, the micro scene was filled with skaters, artists, models, writers and telegenic 20-somethings who didn't appear to have jobs at all. A hyperlocal print newspaper called The Drunken Canal gave voice to what was going on.Mr. Gasda, who had grown up in Bethlehem, Pa., with the dream of making it in New York, threw himself into the moment, assuming his role as the scene's turtlenecked playwright. And as he worked as a tutor to support himself by day, and immersed himself in Dimes Square at night, he began envisioning a play.Set in a Chinatown loft, “Dimes Square” chronicles the petty backstabbing among a group of egotistic artists and media industry types. It's filled with references to local haunts like the bar Clandestino and the Metrograph theater, and its characters include an arrogant writer who drinks Fernet — Mr. Gasda's spirit of choice — and a washed up novelist who snorts cocaine with people half his age.Matt and I talk about a great number of things over the course of this quite long and I think quite rich conversation, which we recorded in two separate sessions. He helps me come asymptotically closer to understanding what the Dimes Square scene is or was (I'm pretty sure it's was at this point).We talk about his very middle-class youth in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and the difficulties of making the transition from that world, and the world of his middle-class degrees from Syracuse and Lehigh, to the very specialized set of manners and expectations that structure life and society in New York City.We talk about the general challenges of making it in as playwright (and by extension as screenwriter or tv writer), as well as the specific challenges of making it when you've been classified as politically suspect, as Matt has.We end, more or less, with my expressing my hope that Matt can continue to protect and nurture his talent and his desire to connect even as, of necessity, he has to live and work in various scences in New York that can be quite toxic. AI-generated show notes. They seem mostly accurate.00:00 Introduction to Eminent Americans00:32 Meet Matthew Gazda: Playwright Extraordinaire01:10 The Dime Square Phenomenon02:29 Exploring Denmark and Other Plays03:37 Defining Dime Square05:26 The Scene and Its Key Figures08:07 The Evolution of Dime Square21:03 The Genesis of the Play27:43 Matthew Gazda's Background39:36 Navigating Social Classes and Upbringings40:58 The Art of Performativity and Banter42:55 Algorithmic Conversations and AI's Impact44:04 Flirting and Social Dynamics46:14 Authenticity vs. Performativity in Plays48:26 Cynicism and Artistic Integrity57:13 Challenges of a Playwright's Career01:00:40 Exploring Dimes Square and Its Impact01:19:22 The HBO Deal and Dimes Square01:19:49 Canceled Party and Industry Politics01:21:24 Theater World Challenges01:25:08 Class and Credentials in the Arts01:28:52 Navigating Bitterness and Cynicism01:33:28 The Reality of Artistic Success01:44:00 Final Thoughts and Future PlansSome of the questions I prepared in advance, many but not all of which I ended up asking:In the most concrete, least abstract terms possible: What was Dimes Square and who were the major players within it? And should I be talking about it in the past tense? Tell me about Bethlehem? You seem like a hustler from the provinces, much much more driven than the people around you. True? One of the tensions in your plays, at least in the ones I've read, is between what I guess I'd just call earnestness, or authenticity, and the alternatives to that—on the one hand a kind of ironic performativity, which is what constitutes much of Dimes Square, and then on the other hand just a zoned out deflection of emotion, which is what you get so much of in your play Zoomers. Does that sound right to you? You just wrote this piece, "Credentialist Cretins," that is just immensely cynical about the people around you. But then you seem like a fairly earnest person, interested in connecting. And you've been pretty protective of your friends in the scene, people who a lot of others would like to see as ironic performative too cool for school types. Square that circle for me. My brother always says that theater will be the last refuge of wokeness, that it will be land acknowledgements until we all sink into the sea. Is that right? How do you fit into the scene? Are you endangering your career prospects either through the plays, and their use of certain language and expression of certain ideas, or through your political writing? Are you cutting yourself off from the money flows? What the hell is going on with Zoomers? I found it an interesting read, but I wasn't sure what you were doing? Am I too old? Would it have been more apparent if I saw the play in person?Excerpts from Matt's essay “Downtown Demons,” about the development and meaning of the Dimes Square scene:The creation of scenes was aided and accelerated by temporarily cheaper rents and inflated tech wages (and crypto fortunes). Large apartments and lofts were secured, sometimes in two-year leases. A new, politically ambiguous patron class appeared at the same time that subscriber-supported writers and podcasters were challenging mainstream news and opinion. You could listen to a podcast or read a Substack, and meet the podcaster or writer the same night at a party or a bar (though these shuttered in the early evening, for those who remember, on the totally scientific theory that the virus hunts at night); shifts in perspective were happening in real time.Old political boundaries were temporarily porous and fluid and ideological lines could be crossed and retraced again. At a given party, you might meet—to name a few examples at random—a liberal New York Times columnist, a Big Five novelist with a forthcoming debut (typically less daring than her conversation), a dirtbag podcaster, a powerful editor, an out-of-work actor, a fashion model, a filmmaker, an influencer, a Thiel Fellowship winner, a grad student on a stipend, a union organizer, a Bitcoin multimillionaire; the melange was the message.In effect, the pandemic downtown moment was, from the very beginning, infected with spirit of the very-online, which, while latent for a long time, never went away; there was a tension between those who really truly wanted to leave the internet behind, and those who instinctively wanted to integrate the online into the fabric of nightlife—and the latter won out.The mimetic violence of downtown discourse—the denunciations, the trollings, the doxxings, the terroristic threats—that is manifest in the way people talk to, and more often, about one another, presages real political conflict in the future. Get full access to Eminent Americans at danieloppenheimer.substack.com/subscribe
Dr. Jeanine Staples-Dixon is the CEO and Founder of coaching company Literacy for Life and a Professor of Literacy and Language, African American Studies, and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the Pennsylvania State University. She focuses on dismantling supremacist patriarchies through research, teaching, and coaching. Jeanine recently started The Supreme Love Project movement to support marginalized people, mainly women and people of color, to heal the relational and social terrors in their souls and launch revolutions in their lives.
This week Ione and Gina are joined for an extra special long episode with writer, actor, producer and all round internet legend Tavi Gevinson! The three centre their conversation around class differences in the dying days of influencer culture, the changing face of fandom, and the performance of life online. Tavi's newest project, the Audible Original series Glimpses Of The Moon, an adaptation of the 1922 Edith Wharton novel of the same name, is available to listen to now. Support our work and become a Polyester Podcast member
The phrases "evil" and "sociopathic" (not to mention "indecent") were some of the responses to a passing joke about Jordan Peterson's crying in the episode on his 2005 manifesto "Peacemaking Among Higher Order Primates". In this episode we explore why some people find it funny to laugh at a grown man crying when so much work has been done to destigmatise male shows of vulnerability. We look at the three explanations for Peterson's crying and who believes which explanation and which justifies memes and jokes. ____________________
Çağlar Öztürk: My first question concerns populism. Populism has become a fashionable term in recent years which has led to quite some confusion even among political scientists and political science students. First of all, what qualifies a politician or party as populist? How do they differ from others, from non-populist ones? What was your motivation in choosing populism as a key concept and what contribution did you intend to make with the book? Giorgos Venizelos: There's indeed a lot of confusion about populism, even though there's so much literature about it. Without going too deep in this heated debate, I should say that scholars agree that populism is organised around two notions: people- centrism and anti-elitism. Of course, there are very different approaches to these two operational criteria related to the people and the elite. For me, populist communication is not just about rhetoric, but also bodily gestures, accents and aesthetics that resemble, represent and enact ‘the people.' When we talk about populism, we also talk about a certain logic, a certain style or performance. And it can also be said that populism operates with a political cleavage that is distinct from the typical left-right political cleavage – it's a cleavage between ‘the populists' or ‘the people' at the bottom and ‘the elite' or ‘the anti-populists' at the top. There is non-populist politics as well, of course, politics or discourses that do not have these characteristics or have just one of those two characteristics. For example, they talk to ‘the voter' or ‘the citizen' instead of ‘the people,' or they use ‘the people' as a term, but there's no antagonistic dimension. Vice versa, we might identify certain types of challenger parties, especially on the far right, that articulate a strong anti-establishment discourse, so there is an exclusionary element there, however, the notion of ‘the people' as a collective identity that can supposedly fit the 'whole society' is absent. Arguably, besides these two categories, populist and non-populist, we can have anti-populist discourses as well: politicians, journalists, and other actors may be showing a very open and clear aversion towards the notions of ‘the people,' popular sovereignty, populist politicians, and so on. These discourses often reveal degrees of ‘democratic elitism.' Why did I choose the concept of populism? I wanted to explain how popular identities, or mass identities, are constructed. It was at a time of mass mobilizations against austerity politics that I started thinking about Populism in Power. Discourse and Performativity in Syriza and Donald Trump. I wanted to study how electorates are mobilized in moments of crisis, how emotions are involved in such processes of political identification, and how populism is not exactly and always a negative, a mystifying or exceptional phenomenon, but rather part of everyday political life. We have been talking mostly about populism until now, but my book is specifically about populism in power. You asked me what the intended contribution of the book is. I initially wanted to examine what happens when populists get into power – because when I was thinking about the project, prominent cases were emerging, like Syriza in Greece, but also Podemos in Spain and then later Donald Trump in the US. I started reading into the literature of populism in power and the assumptions about what happens to populism when it moves from the opposition to government did not really convince me. The way populism – and consequently also populism in power -were conceptualized left me puzzled because I thought that scholars focused too much on the consequences of populism for democracy. For example, they would say things like “populists turn authoritarian.” Scholars also focused too much on what happens to populism itself. For example, they would say that “populism fails in power.” However, these are possibilities for other, non-populist actors as well, so why should they be so central in the debate about populism? When talking about populism, all these assumptions end up defining the concept. I don't think that they're defining it well, but these assumptions seem to be very much discernible in the discourse of scholars. So, the idea behind my project was that in order to rethink populism in power we first have to rethink populism, re-work the way we approach it. ÇÖ: Which theories and concepts do you draw on and how do you position your book and scholarship in the existing literature? GV: I draw on theories of discourse and the so-called Essex School of Discourse Analysis in particular, but also theories of political style and socio-cultural approaches to politics. I draw on theories of affect, emotions, and collective identities. Just to name a few authors here, Ernesto Laclau, Chantal Mouffe and Yannis Stavrakakis have all had an important influence on me. Benjamin Moffitt and Pierre Ostiguy have also been important to me, but so have more traditional theories of affect, such as Freud's or Lacan's. I also draw on populism studies, of course. ÇÖ: It's often maintained that there are two main strands of populism: left-wing and right-wing. What separates those two strands from each other, and why is it nonetheless adequate to refer to both as populist? More concretely, why have you chosen to study Trump and Syriza in the same framework? And what does such a juxtaposition and comparison yield? GV: It can be argued that there are many more strands of populism besides left and right. There's also a centrist type of populism, but there are also more peculiar or even idiosyncratic formations that are hard to place on the left-right axis. However, there are indeed two main strands, left- and right-wing. I mentioned earlier that populism is about ‘the people' and ‘the elite,' but it's never just that. There's always an ideology that comes with populism. Ideology is defined by certain programmatic features, certain ideas that have to do with equality or distribution, with inclusion and exclusion in social and political processes. For example, a left populist might be for redistribution of wealth while a right-wing populist might be pro-business. We have these programmatic ideas of the left and the right that can, however, be communicated in different ways. In the case of populism, such classic ideas are communicated in a ‘common-sense' way, in the name of ‘the people' and against ‘the elites.' ‘The people' are suffering because ‘the elites' push for certain policies that don't allow redistribution of wealth. Therefore, ‘the people' should rise and take power, regulate, and achieve the redistribution they want. That's an example of communicating a programmatic leftist agenda in a populist manner. I should add though that there are many different types and subtypes of populism, even among the two main families that we have just been speaking about. Not all left populists are the same, nor all right-wing populists. I chose to study Trump and Syriza because, in my view, they were populists in power who had emerged during the same conjuncture. They emerged as a response to the crisis of neoliberalism, understood not just in the economic, but also in the political sense. Technocrats appeared to be very dominant in politics, and certain types of actors or voters rejected this state of affairs. Of course, the case of Trump is not as straightforward because Trump is a pro-capitalist politician. You also asked me about the difference between Syriza and Trump and whether the results of the comparison were surprising. One could sensibly argue that the comparison of left- and right-wing populism, such as Syriza and Trump, is not very original. However, I wanted to pursue this comparison precisely because it's quite provocative. Even if scholars, politicians, and quality journalists would typically agree that there's a difference between a left-wing and a right-wing populist, there are still many uncritical assumptions in public discourse that fail to make this basic distinction. They use a notion of populism which is little more than a synonym for bad. What I therefore wanted to do was to show that there is a fundamental difference, and that ideology plays a key role: the way they construct the people is different, the content of their discourses and the framing of collective identities are really different in the two cases. ÇÖ: Donald Trump and Syriza were both backed by social movements that may well have been triggered by the financial and social crisis of the preceding years. How similar or different were the respective social movements that led to their rise? Do you see social movements as essential factors in their rise, or have they merely contributed to the political momentum that was unfolding? GV: In both cases, we saw social movements emerge as a response to the crisis of neoliberalism and to the collapse of the markets in the two countries. This may have happened at different times, but the two were part of the same conjuncture: in Greece, this took place a bit later, in 2010 and 2011, while in the US already in 2008 and 2009. At this early stage, the movements had similar demands. There was an internationalist dimension. They somehow communicated with one another, and they even had similar slogans. There was a desire for change among participants in these ‘movements of the squares,' ‘occupy movements,' and so forth. In the US, the representative of that movement to the mainstream political arena was not Donald Trump, but Bernie Sanders. However, Sanders did not make it to be the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party. At the same time, we saw the rise of the Tea Party in the US, which was closer to Trump and his agenda. The Tea Party indeed played a very significant role in supporting Trump and mainstreaming his discourse. Despite such differences, we can say that such social movements might be projecting certain social and political attitudes from below. They might also function as some kind of omen for what is about to come. After all, both movements called out the political establishment, created new opportunities, and revealed a desire for change. ÇÖ: In chapter four, you discuss how Syriza's retreat from its key economic promises damaged the party, especially when it comes to the emotional or effective bond between the party and its supporters. Did Syriza's populist promise fail with Alexis Tsipras' capitulation to the demands of the Troika? GV: I could probably offer a simple answer here and say “yes, it did” but I actually think the question is much more complicated. Recall that left-wing populism is constituted by two different elements: a populist one and a leftist one. Of course, Syriza's discourse was centred around the cancellation of austerity, neoliberalism, and so forth, which managed to mobilize the electorate in a populist way. That's why Syriza eventually won power in 2015. When it failed to deliver the key promise around which the affective climate of the time – its whole populist vibe, if you wish – was organized, we could observe a decline of emotions and identifications with the party. The question is whether that failure had to do with populism or with the leftist component of Syriza's politics? The promise to cancel neoliberal austerity actually had to do with Syriza's anti-neoliberalism. Alexis Tsipras in fact continued to speak as a populist even after the capitulation. Does that mean that he remained a populist? That's difficult to answer. If we understand populism as some sort of communication strategy, then we can argue that Alexis Tsipras had to maintain it. However, if we understand populism as an affective bond between ‘the people' and ‘the elites,' then this was no longer there. I personally think that it was a combination of the two. To understand populism in power, we need to look at notions such as hegemony. The question would then be: did Syriza manage to establish hegemony after its capitulation? The answer is clearly “no, they did not.” ÇÖ: What do you think about the actual policies of populists in power? Do they govern differently? And would you agree that we seem obsessed with what populist leaders or parties represent rather than focusing on what they actually do? Last but not least, how did the policies Syriza and Trump adopt influence their image? GV: That's another difficult question to answer because it doesn't apply to all populists; different populists implement different policies. Some are more successful than others and this often has little to do with populism. It rather has to do with the context and the relative autonomy that they have. For example, Greece is part of the European Union. When Syriza was governing, Greece was subjected to various austerity packages and memoranda, so the room for manoeuvre was limited. Certain populists simply have greater difficulties developing their own policies. But there is also a very interesting contradiction here. Although Syriza did not manage to implement its key promise and reject austerity in Greece, it did implement policies that benefitted lower social strata. However, former supporters of Syriza on the left were not satisfied with these achievements because the party's “big betrayal” was still on their minds and in their hearts. Syriza's efforts to introduce a bit of social policy within a rather restricted economic and political framework did not translate into electoral support. We have seen the popularity of the party decline. As opposed to that, Trump was much more autonomous in power. Many scholars have shown that he did not manage to pass many new policies. I remember that even The Atlantic called Donald Trump the worst president in US history. And if we consider how he handled COVID-19 and other important areas, his policy record was very poor indeed. Despite his poor policy record, his base continued to identify passionately with him. Politics is not necessarily about rationality, it is not necessarily about policy choices, and how well politicians do in terms of implementing them. It's more about the ways in which people identify with a political actor. In 2020, Trump in fact received twelve million more votes than in 2016 – which is not to overlook that there was much more polarization, and many more people went to vote in 2020
Our work as relationship therapists invites couples to consider the variety of ways that their relationship could look, based on the values, traits, and preferences of the people in that relationship. Plenty of couples choose monogamy because it best aligns with these characteristics. However, performative monogamy refers to cultural aspects that reinforce explicit and implicit expectations of sexual exclusivity. On that note, we're talking this week about the performativity of weddings. Evangelical weddings take this a step further as the marriage and wedding ceremony represent the socially sanctioned way for two people to become sexual persons. We're joined by our marketing and communications director, Maddie, for this episode. The three of us talk about: Weddings as a status symbol The quirks of Evangelical wedding KitchenAid Mixers and other ways that society rewards those who get married Giving away the bride and patriarchy The cringey practices of weddings, like morning after breakfasts and garters. Surviving weddings Check out Episode #75: Summer Series...Taking a Break from the Performativity of Weddings on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Show notes and transcript are on the Sexvangelicals website.
Subscribe on Patreon and hear this week's full patron-exclusive episode here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/107278315 Beatrice and Jules are joined by Charlie Markbreiter to discuss how liberals dismiss protest as merely “performative”—youthful, “inauthentic,” or “virtue signaling”—and how allegations of performativity turn the act of politics into a problem of optics and manners. Get Health Communism here: www.versobooks.com/books/4081-health-communism Find Jules' new book here: https://www.versobooks.com/products/3054-a-short-history-of-trans-misogyny Runtime 1:16:47, 1 July 2024
From media to public education to social media campaigns, the American populace has been told from nearly every angle that the traditional distinction between male and female that is nearly universal in human cultural experience is mistaken. It did not take long for public conversation to move from a discussion of gender dysphoria, which refers to men experiencing confusion or distress about perceiving themselves as women and vice versa, to the contention that gender does not exist at all in any objective sense, and that, therefore, human persons can simply claim to be whatever gender they so desire. Further, it is asserted that there is a moral duty of all citizens to refer to people by their chosen pronouns, thereby affirming that gender identity is a matter of subjective social determination.An activist, professor of both comparative literature and philosophy, and a widely read-author, Butler has impacted a variety of academic fields and activist organizations. Through her many writings (both books and essays), she has touched on a variety of topics related to LGBTQ studies, geopolitical events, and American civil policy. The idea for which she is most widely known is that of gender performativity, whereby she argues that gender differences are not metaphysically essential, but socially constituted, as they consist in a series of ritual actions and roles.The writings of Butler may seem a bit esoteric for the average thinking Christian, and thus may seem to be of no significant concern. While these writings may indeed lack value in terms of academic rigor or logical coherence, the church must be ready to interact with someone who has such an impact upon the views of young people within our pews — even though most have not actually heard the name Judith Butler. What was once viewed as a radical fringe element within academia in the early 1990s became the accepted norm for social interaction within a period of thirty years. Had we been paying more attention earlier, perhaps the church could have done more to slow the tide.This Postmodern Realities episode is a conversation with JOURNAL author Jordan B Cooper about his online article, “Judith Butler's Theory of Gender Performativity: A Christian Response.” https://www.equip.org/articles/judith-butlers-theory-of-gender-performativity-a-christian-response/
In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Richard Prum about sex, gender, and biology. They talk about why sex and gender are sometimes controversial, defining sex, and sex as history. They discuss the materialist-feminist framework, gender as an extended phenotype, gender performativity, genes and chromosomes, Wolffian and Müllerian ducts, the role of hormones, the future of gender, and many more topics. Richard Prum is an Evolutionary Ornithologist at Yale University. His research interests are avian biology, behavioral evolution, sexual selection, and mate choice. He has been a main contributor to the theropod dinosaur origins of birds and the evolution of avian plumage coloration. He is the Curator of Ornithology and Head Curator of Vertebrate Zoology at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. Previously, he was the Chair of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale. He is the author of, The Evolution of Beauty: How Darwin's Forgotten Theory of mate Choice Shapes the Animal World—and Us, and his latest book, Performance All the Way Down: Genes, Development, and Sexual Difference. You can find his scholarly publications here. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe
Reza Negarestani has put together one of the strongest philosophical conceptions of Artificial General Intelligence. In this episode, Reza, Marek, and Roberto hit virtually every limit of AI theory -- from the outer banks of the "human", the boundaries of creativity and imagination, the borderlands of contemporary computation, and the social and political and aesthetic implications of all of the above. This episode is a great companion piece to not just Reza's chapter in Choreomata (Galatea Reloaded: Imagination Inside-Out Imagine) but his absolutely mindblowing work Intelligence and Spirit. We reference a few texts in the interview:Intelligence and Spirit (in our opinion, one of the most important treatises on AGI)Reza's work on the "inhuman" in The Labor of the Inhuman and Drafting the InhumanHis collaboration with the brilliant visual artist and theorist Keith Tilford, who also has a significant piece in Choreomata, but who most famously collaborated with Reza on ChronosisReza's conversation with one of our favorite political theorists, Nick Srnicek, via the awesome Impossible Object BooksWhile this episode is quite technical, we are confident that repeat listens are rewarding. Reza will uproot everything you believe about Artificial Intelligence in this incredible interview.
Isabel Espinal is a Research Services Librarian for Afro-American Studies, Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies, Spanish & Portuguese, and Native American & Indigenous Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She was born in New York City, two years after her parents immigrated from the Cibao countryside in the Dominican Republic. She has an AB in Romance Languages and Literature from Princeton University, a Masters in Library and Information Studies from UC Berkeley, and an MA and Ph.D. in American Studies, English department, from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is a past president of REFORMA, the National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking, and has written and given presentations on whiteness and diversity in librarianship, information literacy, the climate crisis and libraries, Dominican women writers in the United States, and Latinx literature, among other topics. Her most recent publication is the book chapter “Microaffections and Microaffirmations: Refusing to Reproduce Whiteness via Microaffirmative Actions,” in the book Dismantling Constructs of Whiteness in Higher Education, edited by Teresa Y. Neely and Margie Montañez and published by Routledge in 2022.
The execution of code, by its very nature, creates the conditions of a "strong legalism" in which you must unquestioningly obey laws produced without your say, invisibly, with no chance for appeal. This is a wild idea; today's essay is packed with them. In drawing parallels between law and computing, it gives us a new skepticism about software and the effect it has on the world. It's also full of challenges and benchmarks and ideas for ways that code can be reimagined. The conclusion of the essay is flush with inspiration, and the references are stellar. So while it might not look it at first, this is one of the most powerful works of FoC we've read: Interpreting the Rule(s) of Code: Performance, Performativity, and Production by Laurence Diver, 2001. Next episode, we're having an open-ended discussion about end-user programming. The reading is Bonnie Nardi's 1993 classic, A Small Matter of Programming, with the referenced articles from the 1991 Scientific American special issue Communications, Computers and Networks as extra background. Links Nova is the new code editor from Panic. Ivan is using it now that his beloved Atom has hit end-of-life. Ira Glass spoke about The Gap Ivan's unicorn-puke GUI Jimmy tried recreating the grainy effect used by The Browser Company's Arc Chris Granger's Light Table was an early Kickstarter success. iA Presenter has a clichéd video teaser. Mimestream, a great native Mac client for Gmail, also made one of these. Ivan first saw this style of video over a decade ago with Sparrow — and at least this one has a narrative. Occasionally, someone does a playful tweak on the formula, like this video that keeps getting interrupted for Dark Noise. But in general, this format is worn out, and it was never great to begin with. Here's the classic Atom 1.0 announcement video Very Bad Wizards and If Books Could Kill are podcasts that talk through a work from beginning to end sprinkling in reflections as they go, rather than jumping around randomly or separating recap from reflection. Speech act has a philosophy corner within the philosophy corner. Elephant 2000 by Lisp creator John McCarthy, and Dynamicland, both make use of speech acts. On The Expressive Power of Programming Languages by Matthias Felleisen The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis Black, a reflective Scheme by Kenichi Asai. Hollow Knight is a great game for a 4-year old, and a 40-year old. It's just a great game. Maybe the greatest? Doom Eternal, not so much — but the inventive soundtrack absolutely slays. Local-first software Tony Gilroy's Andor and Terry Gilliam's Brazil. In hindsight, I'm surprised we made it all the way to the final minutes of the show before mentioning Brazil. Get in touch, ask us questions, DON'T send us the sound of your knuckles cracking: Ivan: Mastodon • Email Jimmy: Mastodon • Twitter Join the Future of Coding Slack https://futureofcoding.org/episodes/065See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Sport and Spectacle Lecture 5 - Schechner Chapter 8 - Performativity. By Steve Granelli
Maybe you call it a daily stand up. Maybe it's a huddle, or even a status meeting. But has your team stopped to ask if these daily meetings are really working for them?Today's episode digs into the benefits and pitfalls of the remote stand up – from aligning with your team, to leading with empathy, to meetings that really could have been an email. You'll hear from Marshall Walker Lee in defence of daily stand ups, with support from Matan Talmi, the co-founder of Spinach.io, and Kate Sullivan, head of legal at EasyJet. New debater David Shaw says ditch the synced meetup, with support from corporate humor comedian and Supermeme.ai co-founder, Sanjeev Yencee.
This is The Briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview.Part I (00:13 - 15:48) Expand the Government. Extend Radical Abortion Rights.: President Biden's State of the Union AddressPart II (15:48 - 22:00) Politics is the Arena of the Performative — But How Do We Discern What Political Actions Are Genuine and Not Just for Show?Part III (22:00 - 24:03) Performativity is Never Enough: God's Desire for Sincere Devotion From HIs PeopleSign up to receive The Briefing in your inbox every weekday morning.Follow Dr. Mohler:Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | YouTubeFor more information on The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, go to sbts.edu.For more information on Boyce College, just go to BoyceCollege.com.To write Dr. Mohler or submit a question for The Mailbox, go here.
A formal approach to anime rethinks globalization and transnationality under neoliberalism Anime has become synonymous with Japanese culture, but its global reach raises a perplexing question--what happens when anime is produced outside of Japan? Who actually makes anime, and how can this help us rethink notions of cultural production? In Anime's Identity: Performativity and Form Beyond Japan (U Minnesota Press, 2021), Stevie Suan examines how anime's recognizable media-form--no matter where it is produced--reflects the problematics of globalization. The result is an incisive look at not only anime but also the tensions of transnationality. Far from valorizing the individualistic "originality" so often touted in national creative industries, anime reveals an alternate type of creativity based in repetition and variation. In exploring this alternative creativity and its accompanying aesthetics, Suan examines anime from fresh angles, including considerations of how anime operates like a brand of media, the intricacies of anime production occurring across national borders, inquiries into the selfhood involved in anime's character acting, and analyses of various anime works that present differing modes of transnationality. Anime's Identity deftly merges theories from media studies and performance studies, introducing innovative formal concepts that connect anime to questions of dislocation on a global scale, creating a transformative new lens for analyzing popular media. Jingyi Li is a PhD Candidate in Japanese History at the University of Arizona. She researches about early modern Japan, literati, and commercial publishing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
A formal approach to anime rethinks globalization and transnationality under neoliberalism Anime has become synonymous with Japanese culture, but its global reach raises a perplexing question--what happens when anime is produced outside of Japan? Who actually makes anime, and how can this help us rethink notions of cultural production? In Anime's Identity: Performativity and Form Beyond Japan (U Minnesota Press, 2021), Stevie Suan examines how anime's recognizable media-form--no matter where it is produced--reflects the problematics of globalization. The result is an incisive look at not only anime but also the tensions of transnationality. Far from valorizing the individualistic "originality" so often touted in national creative industries, anime reveals an alternate type of creativity based in repetition and variation. In exploring this alternative creativity and its accompanying aesthetics, Suan examines anime from fresh angles, including considerations of how anime operates like a brand of media, the intricacies of anime production occurring across national borders, inquiries into the selfhood involved in anime's character acting, and analyses of various anime works that present differing modes of transnationality. Anime's Identity deftly merges theories from media studies and performance studies, introducing innovative formal concepts that connect anime to questions of dislocation on a global scale, creating a transformative new lens for analyzing popular media. Jingyi Li is a PhD Candidate in Japanese History at the University of Arizona. She researches about early modern Japan, literati, and commercial publishing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/east-asian-studies
A formal approach to anime rethinks globalization and transnationality under neoliberalism Anime has become synonymous with Japanese culture, but its global reach raises a perplexing question--what happens when anime is produced outside of Japan? Who actually makes anime, and how can this help us rethink notions of cultural production? In Anime's Identity: Performativity and Form Beyond Japan (U Minnesota Press, 2021), Stevie Suan examines how anime's recognizable media-form--no matter where it is produced--reflects the problematics of globalization. The result is an incisive look at not only anime but also the tensions of transnationality. Far from valorizing the individualistic "originality" so often touted in national creative industries, anime reveals an alternate type of creativity based in repetition and variation. In exploring this alternative creativity and its accompanying aesthetics, Suan examines anime from fresh angles, including considerations of how anime operates like a brand of media, the intricacies of anime production occurring across national borders, inquiries into the selfhood involved in anime's character acting, and analyses of various anime works that present differing modes of transnationality. Anime's Identity deftly merges theories from media studies and performance studies, introducing innovative formal concepts that connect anime to questions of dislocation on a global scale, creating a transformative new lens for analyzing popular media. Jingyi Li is a PhD Candidate in Japanese History at the University of Arizona. She researches about early modern Japan, literati, and commercial publishing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/film
A formal approach to anime rethinks globalization and transnationality under neoliberalism Anime has become synonymous with Japanese culture, but its global reach raises a perplexing question--what happens when anime is produced outside of Japan? Who actually makes anime, and how can this help us rethink notions of cultural production? In Anime's Identity: Performativity and Form Beyond Japan (U Minnesota Press, 2021), Stevie Suan examines how anime's recognizable media-form--no matter where it is produced--reflects the problematics of globalization. The result is an incisive look at not only anime but also the tensions of transnationality. Far from valorizing the individualistic "originality" so often touted in national creative industries, anime reveals an alternate type of creativity based in repetition and variation. In exploring this alternative creativity and its accompanying aesthetics, Suan examines anime from fresh angles, including considerations of how anime operates like a brand of media, the intricacies of anime production occurring across national borders, inquiries into the selfhood involved in anime's character acting, and analyses of various anime works that present differing modes of transnationality. Anime's Identity deftly merges theories from media studies and performance studies, introducing innovative formal concepts that connect anime to questions of dislocation on a global scale, creating a transformative new lens for analyzing popular media. Jingyi Li is a PhD Candidate in Japanese History at the University of Arizona. She researches about early modern Japan, literati, and commercial publishing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/art
A formal approach to anime rethinks globalization and transnationality under neoliberalism Anime has become synonymous with Japanese culture, but its global reach raises a perplexing question--what happens when anime is produced outside of Japan? Who actually makes anime, and how can this help us rethink notions of cultural production? In Anime's Identity: Performativity and Form Beyond Japan (U Minnesota Press, 2021), Stevie Suan examines how anime's recognizable media-form--no matter where it is produced--reflects the problematics of globalization. The result is an incisive look at not only anime but also the tensions of transnationality. Far from valorizing the individualistic "originality" so often touted in national creative industries, anime reveals an alternate type of creativity based in repetition and variation. In exploring this alternative creativity and its accompanying aesthetics, Suan examines anime from fresh angles, including considerations of how anime operates like a brand of media, the intricacies of anime production occurring across national borders, inquiries into the selfhood involved in anime's character acting, and analyses of various anime works that present differing modes of transnationality. Anime's Identity deftly merges theories from media studies and performance studies, introducing innovative formal concepts that connect anime to questions of dislocation on a global scale, creating a transformative new lens for analyzing popular media. Jingyi Li is a PhD Candidate in Japanese History at the University of Arizona. She researches about early modern Japan, literati, and commercial publishing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/communications
A formal approach to anime rethinks globalization and transnationality under neoliberalism Anime has become synonymous with Japanese culture, but its global reach raises a perplexing question--what happens when anime is produced outside of Japan? Who actually makes anime, and how can this help us rethink notions of cultural production? In Anime's Identity: Performativity and Form Beyond Japan (U Minnesota Press, 2021), Stevie Suan examines how anime's recognizable media-form--no matter where it is produced--reflects the problematics of globalization. The result is an incisive look at not only anime but also the tensions of transnationality. Far from valorizing the individualistic "originality" so often touted in national creative industries, anime reveals an alternate type of creativity based in repetition and variation. In exploring this alternative creativity and its accompanying aesthetics, Suan examines anime from fresh angles, including considerations of how anime operates like a brand of media, the intricacies of anime production occurring across national borders, inquiries into the selfhood involved in anime's character acting, and analyses of various anime works that present differing modes of transnationality. Anime's Identity deftly merges theories from media studies and performance studies, introducing innovative formal concepts that connect anime to questions of dislocation on a global scale, creating a transformative new lens for analyzing popular media. Jingyi Li is a PhD Candidate in Japanese History at the University of Arizona. She researches about early modern Japan, literati, and commercial publishing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/japanese-studies
A formal approach to anime rethinks globalization and transnationality under neoliberalism Anime has become synonymous with Japanese culture, but its global reach raises a perplexing question--what happens when anime is produced outside of Japan? Who actually makes anime, and how can this help us rethink notions of cultural production? In Anime's Identity: Performativity and Form Beyond Japan (U Minnesota Press, 2021), Stevie Suan examines how anime's recognizable media-form--no matter where it is produced--reflects the problematics of globalization. The result is an incisive look at not only anime but also the tensions of transnationality. Far from valorizing the individualistic "originality" so often touted in national creative industries, anime reveals an alternate type of creativity based in repetition and variation. In exploring this alternative creativity and its accompanying aesthetics, Suan examines anime from fresh angles, including considerations of how anime operates like a brand of media, the intricacies of anime production occurring across national borders, inquiries into the selfhood involved in anime's character acting, and analyses of various anime works that present differing modes of transnationality. Anime's Identity deftly merges theories from media studies and performance studies, introducing innovative formal concepts that connect anime to questions of dislocation on a global scale, creating a transformative new lens for analyzing popular media. Jingyi Li is a PhD Candidate in Japanese History at the University of Arizona. She researches about early modern Japan, literati, and commercial publishing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/popular-culture
Grace Schwindt is a German artist working with film, live performance, sculpture, and drawing. As part of Evening of Performances 2018, Grace presented The Boxer. The Boxer proposed the intimate moment of sharing physical and mental wounds as a possibility to create open social relations.Belgian curator and academic Katleen Van Langendonck joins Grace Schwindt in conversation about Grace's practice and the crossovers between Katleen's current research into performance and the translation of the medium between visual arts and theatre.The pair discuss the transmission of trauma and the translation of performance within different contexts with reference to Schwindt's work. They unpick the mechanisms and methodologies used by museums and theatres to understand how each can achieve better working models when it comes to cross-disciplinary performance work.This special edition of our 'On Togetherness' series is part of Recall: Evening of Performances (2008–2019), a year-long programme of interviews, podcasts and contributions from some of the artists who participated in the twelve editions of the celebrated Evening of Performances. Highlighting the evenings' extraordinary legacies, we will be exploring what the next wave of contemporary performance can become with the artists who have shaped it so far.Have questions, comments or want to see more of what the Roberts Institute of Art does? Reach us via therobertsinstituteofart.com, @therobertsinstituteofart and subscribe to our newsletter!
In this podcast, we take a tour with Dr. Brent Talbot on Talbot and Mantie's research into American collegiate a cappella singing through the lens of agency, performativity, and leisure. Our performances of gender, sexuality, and identity are often rooted within larger frameworks and can be liberated from these frameworks in exploring new ways of being through musical practices. We close this two part series with the replay of a powerful speech that ties together agency, narrative, performativity, and Balinese collectivism.
Returning guests: Philosopher, writer, and PhD student Anisha Sankar and soon to be Assistant Professor of Pacific Island Studies at the University of Oregon and author of Bloody Woman Lana Lopesi. Contents: This episode gives some background to the anthology project Towards a Grammar of Race in Aotearoa New Zealand to be published by Bridget Williams Books in Sept/Oct 2022. We reflect back on the beginning of a reading group that culminated into this project, drawing from Jodi Byrd's The Transit of Empire: Indigenous Critiques of Colonialism, Frank B. Wilderson III's Afropessimism, Lisa A. Lowe's The Intimacies of Four Continents, Otherwise Worlds: Against Settler Colonialism and Anti-Blackness, and more. Reading and thinking with challenging theoretical perspectives, through different points of views and disciplines, offered productive tensions that better spoke to the messy and complex realities of our modern world. This background assisted us in finding language to navigate the local and global discourse and experience of race and power, such as debates between ethnicity vs. race in a New Zealand context. This project sought to bring together different authors, understandings, ideas, and experiences of race together. We confront a lack of societal consensus or shared language to even discuss race by putting these diverse positions together in what we call, ‘towards a grammar of race'. Grammar is both linguistic and philosophical, as the rules that give structure to language and to society. Ani and Lana also share a bit about their chapters in the book and we end with a critical reflection on ‘accessibility'. Terms: Incommensurability is a term borrowed from mathematics that refers to having no common measure, and is used in reference to Afropessimism, which uses the term to confront the inadequacies to theorise Black suffering and Blackness in other theoretical camps, positions, or traditions; Paranoid and reparative reading are references to Eve Sedgwick's book Touching Feeling – Affect, Pedagogy, Performativity and particularly the chapter ‘Paranoid reading and reparative reading, or you're so paranoid, you probably think this essay is about you.'; Colonial imaginary refers to the intellectual, aesthetic, and historical production of a modern euro-imperial consciousness and reality.
In this podcast, we take a tour with Dr. Brent Talbot Balinese gamelan through the lens of agency and performativity. Exploring diverse cultures of Bali and the US, we ask questions of how we construct agency and stories of our performances in collectivist and individualistic contexts. We take the time to explore Talbot's resource, Gending Rare and the work of Made Taro. While US notions of agency assume individualistic contexts, we ask about the potential to live into agency that is embraced by community.
[Originally published on July 07, 2021] MJ Ortiz talks firework sound construction and our need for big and loud despite obvious sonic consequences in this month's Phenomena.
The Heidegger Files Focus: What is Called Thinking? By Martin Heidegger Lectures I, II, III With: Nate DeProspo, John Muckelbauer, & Nathaniel Street Opening Gambit: Thinking is not simply a mental event but always emerges in-relation; the irksome problem of essences; antagonistic progressivism (Start–11:00) Heidegger's Pedagogy, teaching, learning, thinking; example of the wordworker, authenticity and pluralism; involvement vs confrontation; Externality and Simulacrum vs Internality and Authenticity; Tuna Production (11:10–27:15) Pluralizing disclosures; the luxury of authenticity (27:20–32:30) The intimacy of reading and thinking – questions: answers and responses; Socrates' orientation to questions and responses, the dialectic; what is called thinking – "was heißt" vs "was ist"); “one track thinking” – it's not laziness, it's the essence of technology; Heidegger+ now with 10% more Performativity (affirmative reading required) (27:25–53:05) Posthumanism + Nostalgia = ??; Confrontation and Affirmation; Rerouting ruts; Challenging the forms that slumber within (53:10-1:03:35) Woodworking and Nathaniel's secret Heideggerianism (seriously, he's hand-making hammers now); Authenticity vs Difference; Nate's construction-worker mask; the role of telos in involvement; John's macro-agoraphobia (1:03:40–1:13:10) Thinking as the becoming-molecular of the molar (or the deconstruction of the model); the therapeutic value of the molar (thinking as the becoming-molar of the molecular?); Vertigo; thinking is only thinking in relation – should philosophy incorporate the biography of thinking?; Illustration vs Reflection (serial connection vs general/particular) (1:13:15-end)
What's postmodern feminism? In this episode we desperately try to answer that question! Show notes: "Explainer: What is Postmodernism" by David Palmer, 2014 Artland "What is Dadaism?" "On Judith Butler & Performativity" by Sarah Salih, 2007 Feminist thought : a comprehensive introduction" by Rosemarie Tong, 1989 Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 3. Feminist Postmodernism Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, 1999.
What's postmodern feminism? In this episode we desperately try to answer that question! Show notes: "Explainer: What is Postmodernism" by David Palmer, 2014 Artland "What is Dadaism?" "On Judith Butler & Performativity" by Sarah Salih, 2007 Feminist thought : a comprehensive introduction" by Rosemarie Tong, 1989 Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 3. Feminist Postmodernism Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, 1999.
In Episode 16 of A is for Architecture, I speak with Johnny Rodger, Professor of Urban Literature in the Mackintosh School of Architecture at the Glasgow School of Art. We discuss his new book, Key Essays: Mapping the Contemporary in Literature and Culture, published by Routledge in 2021. The written essay has a key role in the education of architects and designers, so understanding its function is a worthwhile endeavour. Johnny addresses this, discussing the essay's identity as a distinct literary form and its function as a critical practice and academic activity. We also touch on ideas of performativity, the capacity of language to effect change in the world, and the idea of ‘the contemporary'. I worked alongside Johnny when up in Glasgow at the School of Art, at an inflection point it now seems, in that fine place. It was good to have him there then, to teach me how to teach and to give me a foot up, which he did. He is a prolific writer, so seek out his other works, and see him lecture live if you can. For more on Johnny: w. gsa.ac.uk/johnny_rodger w. thedrouth.org Cheers. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Music credits: Bruno Gillick
The Ark of E Network is Proud to Present The Triumphant Return of Bending Not Breaking. Sunshine & Ben are back and all geared up for SEASON 5! Join Them Every Tuesday for their journey through Season 2 of The Legend of Korra, Each Week, Sunshine & Ben will also look at the given episode through a unique lens. For Episode 5 : Peacekeepers, they chose to discuss PERFORMATIVITY, with 3rd Time Returning Guest Cameron Feuerhelm! We hope You enjoy the episode, whether You're a Die-Hard Fan or a Total Newcomer; The Legend of Korra is a unique and wonderful series with so much depth to explore, We hope You'll join us for the journey ahead... AND A HUGE THANK YOU to Everyone Who Listened to Seasons 1-4 and has supported us here on our very own feed! Intro / Outro Music : ("Fantasy Battle Music" from Creative Commons) Bumper Music : ("bell weather" by nARK) Produced By : Noah Blanchard Follow Sunshine & Ben On Instagram : @mayfieldja & @nebfabulous , Twitter : @Mr_Sun_Shine & @nebfabulous Send Feedback : thearkofe@gmail.com
We invited Phyllida Barlow, whose work is featured in the David and Indrė Roberts Collection, to choose a piece from the collection as the starting point for a conversation about influences and objects of interest. She chose Bethan Huws' Untitled, 2002. Untitled is from Huws' Word Vitrine series and is a text-based work of sculptural form, using standard office word vitrines made from aluminium, glass, rubber and plastic letters. First created in 1999, her Word Vitrines reference Marcel Duchamp's ready-mades, though they alter this concept with the addition of an evocative text.Barlow discusses that what drew her to Huws' work is the sentience she imbues in her sculptures. She joins Ned McConnell from her London home for a conversation about memory, the ‘performativity' of sculpture and the difference between someone and something.British artist Phyllida Barlow takes inspiration from her surroundings to create imposing installations that can be at once menacing and playful. Creating anti-monumental sculptures, she uses inexpensive, low-grade materials such as cardboard, fabric, plywood, polystyrene, scrim and cement. Her constructions are often testing the limits of a space whether through height, mass or volume and balance engage the audience by blocking straddling or precariously balancing in the space.Have questions, comments or want to see more of what the Roberts Institute of Art does? Reach us via therobertsinstituteofart.com, @therobertsinstituteofart and subscribe to our newsletter!
In this episode, guest host Stevie Scheurich speaks with Dr. Angela Ahlgren, professor of theatre and film at BGSU, and Dr. Kareem Khubchandani, professor of women's, gender, and sexuality studies at Tufts University, about how their lives as performers and professors inform each other. Angela and Kareem discuss their research as both performers and performance studies scholars exploring how political, economic, and transnational power structures shape individual and communal performances of racial, gendered, and sexual identities. Announcer: From Bowling Green State University and the Institute for the Study of Culture & Society this is BG Ideas.Musical Intro:I'm going to show you this with a wonderful experiment.Stevie:Welcome back to the BiG Ideas Podcast, a collaboration between the Institute for the Study of Culture & Society and the school of media and communication at Bowling Green State University. I am Stevie Scheurichm, A PhD student in BGSU's American Culture Studies program and a graduate assistant at the Institute for the Study of Culture & Society. Due to the ongoing pandemic we are not recording in the studio, ultimately by phone and computer. As always the opinions expressed on this podcast are those are the individuals involved and do not necessarily represent those of BGSU or its employees. Bowling Green State University, and its campuses are situated in the Great Black Swamp and the Lower Great Lakes region.Stevie:This land is a home land of the Wyandot, Kickapoo, Miami Potawatomi, Odawa and multiple other Indigenous tribal nations, present and past, who were forcibly removed to and from the area. We recognize these historical and contemporary ties in our efforts toward decolonizing history and we honor the indigenous individuals and communities who have been living and working on this land from time in memorial. Today we are joined by Dr. Kareem Khubchandani and Dr. Angela Ahlgren. Kareem is a Mellon Bridge Assistant Professor in theater, dance and performance studies and women's gender and sexuality studies at Tufts University. He is the author of Ishtyle, Accenting Gay Indian Nightlife, co-editor of Queer Nightlife and creator of criticalauntystudies.com. Kareem is currently working on two new book projects, Decolonize Drag and Ontologies, Queer Aesthetics and South Asian Aunties.Stevie:Kareem has just finished a digital residency at BGSU, including a critical drag workshop and a lecture entitled Divas, Drag Queens, Aunties and other academic personas. Angela is an assistant professor and graduate coordinator in the department of theater and film at Bowling Green State University. She is the author of Drumming Asian America, Taiko, Performance and Cultural Politics, which focuses on the racial, gender, and cultural politics woven into the practice and performance of taiko, Japanese ensemble drumming in the US and Canada. Her research interests include Asian American theater and performance, critical dance studies, queer and feminist theater and performance, and the politics of mourning. Thank you both so much for joining today.Angela:Thank you. Kareem:Thank you. Stevie: So we'll just start by doing some introductions. Kareem, you're a scholar of performance studies and a performer yourself. Can you give us a little background about what it is that you study, who you study, how you study and how do you see your identities as an academic and a performer sort of entwined?Kareem:So my recent book is a study of nightlife in LGBT communities, primarily gay male communities in India and in the south Asian diaspora. And it looks at how people move across national borders and are forced to move across national borders by economic projects of globalization. And it thinks about how nightlife and queer nightlife spaces offer these migrant subjects, places to practice their identities and places to feel beautiful and places to find desire and love. It's somewhat of a reenactment of my own journey moving to the US when I was 17 years old and finding these incredible spaces of dance and pleasure and play in New York city and in San Francisco. So when I moved to Chicago to start graduate school in a performance studies program, I started organizing queer Bollywood nights there. Modeled on what I'd seen in other cities.Kareem:And it was my beginning as a graduate student. It was also the first time I had lived in a big city and all of these things coming together, it just sort of all folded on each other. My research, my teaching, my study and my social life all sort of became intertwined with each other and it's hard for me to separate them. To me, I try to bring queer nightlife into the classroom. I'm currently teaching class on queer nightlife. I'm editing a book called Queer Nightlife. I wrote about this transnational Indian nightlife, and I try to practice it. And I perform in online drag shows right now in the pandemic and had performed at bars, et cetera. So for me, all of these things are laid on each other and are integrated into each other.Stevie:Thank you. And then Angie, you're also a performer, performance studies scholar. Could you give us background on your research and how your life as a researcher, performer and educator are connected?Angela:So the research that I did as a taiko player culminated in a book that you mentioned, Drumming Asian America, and this book looks at what I'm terming cultural politics as opposed to sort of international politics or partisan politics. But I'm really looking at race, gender, and sexuality, kind of both in different chapters, one or the other of those things as foregrounded, but they're really all connected across the book. I was actually a taiko player before I was a taiko scholar, but it was also actually my work in theater that put me in contact with taiko in the first place. So when I was an undergraduate student, I was a theater major and an English major in Minneapolis. And when I graduated, I was waitressing. So I started stage managing for an Asian American theater company called Theater Mu in the late 90s.Angela:And it was through my work there that A, I really got exposed to sort of Asian American history through theater. And it was also there that they had been starting a taiko group just around the time that I started stage managing. So that was really my introduction to taiko and I was really captivated by it and I really wanted to try it. And I took some classes thinking that I would have a kind of four week class and have an interesting experience and then go about my life. But I really loved it and I kept up with it. And that sort of turned into a whole... I guess I started performing with the group. It made me think about things in many different ways beyond the kinds of things that we may have learned in school. Didn't really think all that hard about race especially my own.Angela:So that really was a kind of new experience for me that I ended up exploring in much greater depth as I kind of moved into my work as a scholar. So it was really my experience as a taiko performer that when I went to graduate school as a master's student in English, led me to take some Asian American studies classes that again, accumulated and helped me think about my experiences as a taiko player in a different way. So I really knew that once I went to graduate school, I wanted to write about taiko as my dissertation project, but that I wanted to do it, not in a theater program. And I wasn't a musician. So that was never really an option, but that performance studies seemed to me to be the place where I could do that, because it thinks about performance really expansively.Angela:And because at least the things that I was exposed to there, I felt that performance studies had an affinity with critical race theory and queer theory, feminist theory and that, that would really be a field that could sort of accommodate the project that I had when I was going into graduate school. So my sort of life as a performer and my life as a scholar, especially of taiko are deeply intertwined in that sense that it's not something I ever would have written about if I never had performed it, even though I would have found it interesting, I think. In a sense, there's a way that the things that I feel most passionate about or feel that I can really get into the crevices of in a certain way are things that I have done myself and know what it feels to be in that world.Stevie:Kareem, yesterday in your talk you partially focused on academic personas and you detailed how your drag persona, LaWhore Vagistan, occasionally visits your classes. And so to both of you, since you're both performers, you're both in class, right? Could you both speak to how you use your experience as performers, your knowledge of performance and navigate the classroom, which is really right in an environment built by and for white cisgender or straight men?Kareem:Yeah. I mean, my second year of graduate school, I was really intimidated to teach the sort of core class in our performance studies department at Northwestern, because I didn't know how they would react to a small brown queer person teaching them about performance, right? I was really self-conscious about what especially straight men would think of me trying to teach them how to use their bodies and turn poetry into performance. In retrospect, I realized I needed to take control over myself and my body to enter that space and to feel like I had some command over it. Again, performance studies is a place that accommodates issues of gender, sexuality, race post-colonial histories, things like that. So it is a comfortable space, but in general, the academy doesn't.Kareem:So when I teach these kinds of core classes that expose me to students that I don't already know or don't have affinities with, I feel like I have to put on a persona, right? I have to lean into things I'm good at to feel confident in front of students and to do new things in the classroom. And one of the ways I've done that is doing drag and bringing my drag persona, LaWhore Vagistan to teach classes. And what that has done has made me realize that I was right all along that students are seeing me through my body. It matters who they see in front of them. And women of color have been telling us this for a long time. Women of color in the academy have been telling us this for a long time, that their labor is devalued because of their race and their gender and their sexuality.Kareem:When LaWhore walks into the classroom, I'm treated differently and it brings out a different reaction, but really drawing on drag's history of playfulness and camp and lack of sincerity, I get to be as boisterous as I want, right? So really leaning into drag as a tradition, I get to make fun of my students back to their faces. And we all laugh together because they're in on the joke in that moment. But again, it makes me realize that performance can really work for us in the classroom to defamiliarize the space and say, "Last week was a whole other moment when we were talking to Kareem. How do we talk about that moment as a time where we learned something very specific?" How do we re-explain it now to LaWhore who "doesn't know" what's going on here, right?Kareem:So being authentic isn't what I'm most interested in. Creating opportunities for learning and discussion and troubling what we think we already know is what I'm actually most interested in. So performance can do that. And then there are other ways that I use performance in the classroom asking folks to interpret ideas through gesture, or asking them to develop their own drag personas. So I think there are other ways that we can use performance in the classroom. But bringing my drag persona into the classroom is this way of appending what they think they know the classroom is supposed to be doing and appending who they think I am. And making them realize, and myself realize that it matters who you're learning from and asking as to interrupt our biases as well.Angela:Yeah. I think that's really awesome and I love that idea. I feel like hearing you talk a little bit about that at the talk yesterday too made me think about sort of developing personas in a way that I think that we sort of do it in a half conscious way in certain ways, but really taking that to another level and using it to be able to destabilize identity. I think that's really awesome. One of the wonderful and tricky things about teaching performance studies is that it's sort of everything and also nothing at the same time. It's so capacious and flexible, which is awesome. But it also, I think, thinking about when I first started teaching this class at BGSU, I also had a certain trepidation more because there's a sense of, "Well, what is my performance studies understanding?"Angela:Because I think that everybody could teach it in a very different way and still be right or correct and within the boundaries of what it is. Because it's also made up of so many different lineages from sociology, anthropology, theater studies, ethnography. I felt like especially the first couple of times that I taught this classes that students would continually ask, "But what is performance studies?" Or, "Is this thing we're doing performance studies or is that thing performance studies?" And I think that that is a little bit of a tricky line. But I think that ultimately my own, I think sort of as I'm continuing to teach it is to really rely on my own lineage in performance studies and theater studies to be able to bridge that sort of perceived gap, I guess.Stevie: I was listening yesterday, I was thinking about my first time as instructor of record. I was sort of like, I'm all over the place on how I present my gender and I was immediately navigating all of these assumptions that I hadn't really thought about, about sort of who the professor is and how they sort of present themselves. The first time I taught I skewed towards sort of the traditional sort of set up and it didn't work. It didn't work. This time, teaching this semester, I just worked something I thought it was neutral and I had a student be like, "You're not buying it, right? I can tell."Stevie:And I was like, "Okay, they know." They're going to know. That's the second time I showed up and I was like, "Just put it all out on the table." And the response to me being like, "Y'all know I'm a queer non-binary femme." The response was so much more positive and so much more when I was able to just kind of like... it was just so much more. You're being read. I definitely think of professing as a performer.Kareem:Well, you're making me think of my early days as a graduate student who was solo teaching classes. I went out and bought khaki pants and belts and ties just to feel professional, but also I would end up awkward sweating into them because they're just not what I used to wear. But I think that we understand the professor as this straight white man with elbow patches on his tweed blazer, but femme embodiment in the classroom is just not in our public imagination. And so just taking seriously gender, race, sexuality altogether can help us reflect on how we want to bring our bodies into classroom spaces and what that can do to distribute power. The way you were talking about a student seeing you as non-binary and what that does for them to feel like they're inside of the... that they belong, I think it matters.Stevie:We're going to take a quick break. Thank you for listening to BiG Ideas podcast.Announcer :If you are passionate about big ideas, consider sponsoring this program. To have your name or organization mentioned here, please contact us at ics@bgsu.edu.Stevie:So you both are studying at the intersection of race, gender, and sexuality performance. Performativity is a big word that gets thrown around in our field. So I was wondering if we could all take a shot at unpacking both the difference and the connection between performance and performativity, and also thinking about how performance helps us understand the ideas that are performative.Angela:Sure I can say, I can take a stab at this. I mean, I want to echo what I said to the last question is that these are both really capacious and flexible terms and that there are ongoing conversations and debates about what each of them means, but I'm thinking on one level, that performance is something that happens all the time on stages, in the classroom as we were just discussing, in a wide variety of social context like sports, religion, digital space. But I think the word performativity can be a little bit more slippery. And in particular, because I think that recently it's become a pejorative term for showy, fake, theatrical. And that this in some ways runs really counter to the way that performance studies have theorized the term performative or performativity, which is often based on JL Austin. Angela:The linguist, JL Austin's idea of the performative utterance, a thing that you say that makes something happen, right? I do. When you're married means that you're placing a bet. And that a lot of scholars have taken that in different ways to mean that if something is performative it's something that actually causes something to happen or make something new happen, or urges an audience to do something. There's a lot of different ways that this kind of takes shape in scholarship. So in that sense, the term performative in the way that people in the field use it is really different from this sort of more colloquial understanding of what performative means, which often I think comes to mean theatrical or dramatic. I mean, these ended up all being such terms that people in the field have problems with.Angela:But in another sense I think the term performative it sort of means both fake and real in the sense that if we think about the way that Judith Butler talks about gender as performative, she's saying that gender is a kind of series of acts that happen and repeat so much that we take them to be natural or to have an origin and some biological fact. That in fact, gender is performative because it's actually fake, but it has real effects on the world. So there's sort of this tension, I think in thinking about that word between what is real and what is not real, and whether it's fake and showy. I'm thinking about the ways that people are using performative as performative allyship, like when you just post on Facebook a lot, but you don't actually get out there and do the work.Kareem:You hit the nail on the head. It is shocking to me to hear the word performative said so often outside the academy, but especially since last summer during Black Lives Matter protests, a lot of people were also calling out what they saw as insufficient activism as performative allyship or performative activism, where performative is assumed to be the adjective of performance. Friends of mine like to say... Actually, I think what you're trying to say is performancy, performance like. But it assumes that performance is a bad thing. And that to me is really dangerous because so much activism has actually relied on performance to have its effect in the world. When we think about the role of dress in civil rights activism, or even the hoodie in the Black Lives Matter movement and the hands up, don't shoot gesture, right?Kareem:All of these are performance practices and they're not fake, right? They have this viral effect of inviting more folks into activism, allowing them to be legible to each other. The public conversation doesn't take account how powerful performance can be, whether it's how people present themselves in the world every day. But one of the ways I think the field has shifted a little bit through the work of critical race studies scholars like, Saidiya Hartman and E. Patrick Johnson and Joshua Chambers-Letson and Jose Esteban Munoz is to say, actually performance is also something people are compelled and forced to do, especially minoritarian subjects are required to use their bodies in particular ways. Kareem:And how do we take stock of the ways that performance is actually a means of managing labor, managing life, and therefore takes serious of the way people use their bodies to survive, to find pleasure, to access wealth in ways that they're denied, right? I think it's important to take performance seriously and a deeper understanding of performativity, which I understand is, performance is ability to work in the world. Can really help us understand performance is power. Stevie:What does your research and performance work reveal about the ways in which race, nationality, class shape the way we understand and perform our gender and sexual identities?Kareem:So maybe one of the simplest ways I'll put it is in the nightclub, we think we're going there to dance and be free and feel the music. But in fact, there are very regimented rules to how we're supposed to be in the nightclub. All of those things are being controlled from the bouncer to the DJ, to lights, to what's on the walls, to the size of a space. All of these are cues that are telling us how we're supposed to be in those spaces. So we think we're going into the nightclub to feel free and feel the music and in fact, we are going in there to follow a bunch of rules. What I found is that folks who are migrants to the city whether it's from the small town in India to a bigger city or folks who are migrating from south Asia to the US, suddenly find themselves not knowing the rules when they enter the club.Kareem:The way they move, the way they dress, the way they style themselves runs up against the dominant aesthetics, right? And what I'm saying is that these aesthetics are in fact controlling devices. The donut aesthetics are what gives us capital. So if we look like what the club is supposed to be, we're great. People might talk to us. When we start thinking about what are the dominant aesthetics, we start to see how people of color, sexual minorities, gender minorities don't always fit with that dominant way of bringing your body into the world and fitting into environments. That's sort of the method that I take to my research is to ask, well, who's doing the wrong thing in the club? Because we think that just sort of stepping side to side is the natural way we dance. But in fact, people only started dancing solo in club environments in the '60s onwards with the rise of disco.Kareem:So the ways that people move in clubs together is actually quite organized. So who's going to change the layout of it. So one of the things I write about is how South Asian dancers in Chicago clubs bring their Indian dance styles like Panera or Bollywood to disrupt what is expected of the space. They don't necessarily know they're doing the wrong dance, but in doing the wrong kind of movement, they help us see what the dominant movement is. You suddenly see the contrast and you're like, "Oh, I didn't know that this is what the dominant was until I saw the contrast." And what else is possible when you have these kinds of frictions inside of the club, it's sort of thinking about dominant aesthetics as they're tied to race, gender, coloniality that rub up against minority practice of the body that people just come in wanting to practice because it's what they know.Stevie:Thank you. And for you, Angie, what have you learned from your research and performance work about how racial identity and gender norms are negotiated by the different groups of people participating in taiko drumming?Angela:I mean, one of the things I would say is that there's not a really neat way to sort of define how sort of taiko is practiced or thought about. The kind of responses that I had from people that I interviewed, especially when I was asking them specifically about how race or gender or other aspects of their identity sort of inform their practice of taiko or perhaps instigated their practice of taiko, it was really quite diverse. And part of this I think is because Asian American itself is a contested term and it's always being negotiated. But I guess the best way for me to answer this is maybe to think about a couple of specific examples. So one of the examples that I kind of point to is in Minnesota, in the group that I performed with.Angela:Because of the sort of geography and history of Asian America in Minnesota, a lot of the participants in my group were Korean adoptees. That's because there is a high number of Korean adoptees in Minnesota for reasons that to do with Lutheran churches and the sort of way that social welfare works in Minnesota as a state. But nonetheless, that's a significant population. So in my interviews with this particular couple of people talked about how Asian-American identity worked with them was often quite compelling because they were people who were mostly raised by white Midwesterners. So in some ways, taiko was a way of practicing Asian-American identity.Angela:That was I won't necessarily say new, but that was an intentional choice as a way to sort of forge community with other Asian-Americans. And I think that isn't that necessarily different from the ways that other, maybe Japanese Americans in California, for example, practice. But it has a sort of different context because of the ways that there are not sort of long established geographical enclaves of AsianAmerican communities in Minnesota the way that there are in California and New York, for example. Stevie:Another question for both of you, and we've kind of hinted at this, right? Talking about power and performance. So some people might think that drag, dancing, drumming are activities that are just recreational fun outside if they're all in politics. How does looking at performance help us identify how power that work in these almost invisible ways that we navigate our everyday life that we're not necessarily thinking about when we're in the moment, right?Angela:Yes. So I think one of the things that I would think about is this sort of ability to participate based on money and access for certain people. Another scholar of taiko, Debra Wong said to me once that, "Taiko is really an elaborate leisure activity for people who have the means to participate in it." She and I are both taiko players and very passionate about the way that it can be so powerful visually sonically in its embodied form. But I think to be able to acknowledge that starting a taiko group, for example, you need drums and those drums are quite expensive, at least $1,000 for each one.Angela:And if you are wanting to have a group, you need a lot of drums. But not only that, the sort of space that you need to be able to practice in, the space that you need to perform, or even just having the time to have a leisure activity like that, that requires a lot of practice. So thinking about the ways that leisure itself is very much tied up in class and therefore power is one of the things to think about. I think I'll pause there.Kareem:That's a perfect place to pause, because that's where I want to pick up. Fun is always measured in relation to work. I don't deserve to go out because I haven't done enough, right? And that's precisely what I'm thinking about in relation to nightlife is that I'm thinking about these global laborers who one, are only in nightlife spaces because patterns of globalization have given them mobility to enter these spaces. But again, like I was talking about before, they're not aesthetically trained to be inside of them, right? So now they're made precarious subjects. They're made to feel awkward. They're made to feel shame.Kareem:All these larger political economies that produce the very small encounter in the club where you're like, "Oh, my hair is not cut like that. I feel awkward about myself," right? Even the most minor transactions in these leisure spaces actually have to do with processes of global labor, if we look closely enough and if we think historically enough. Also, when it comes to drag. One, drag is a leisure practice for a lot of people, but for a lot of folks it's also work, right? So we go to the club to have fun, but they're actually bartenders and bouncers and bar backs and drag artists and go-go dancers working, right?Kareem:Trying to get paid in that time where we are having our leisure moment. So work is always at play in those contexts. And lastly, I think any conversation about drag in gender binaries and gender in general, has to think about the history of managing gendered bodies. That is massive economy from advertising to medicalization. When we're talking about how people dress, how people present their bodies in the world, we're actually talking about all these industries that have tried to produce gender binaries and sell the gender binary as attractive. I want to add also, so I'm working on this book called Decolonized Drag, and there are so many drag artists who are making performance about colonization.Kareem:So they're responding to political and economic violence through performance in very explicit ways. One person, Ms. Shumai in California takes Britney Spears as a womanizer, womanizer and turns it into colonizer, colonizer. I think that, again, these spaces of leisure are considered apolitical, but in fact there's so much politics being practiced in them and I think that that's important to recognize.Stevie:And in a way, I think it makes it so much more effective when you make those politics explicit and giving people an opportunity to see like, "I am participating in these power sectors in ways I didn't necessarily know." So maybe we can answer this question in a way that doesn't feel prohibitive, but enabling and encouraging. Do you have any tips for our listeners on how they can be engaged in critical audience members? And really thinking, what does it mean to be a critical viewer? Since a lot of folks might just assume that that's just looking for flaws in the performance so to speak?Kareem:I think a couple of things, one is that audience members can learn that they're also performers. So I think what I would say is, as an audience member, especially when you're entering new kinds of performance spaces, is to really watch other audience members to get a sense of what is a good respectful way to be in conversation with that art form, right? I guess alongside that research the form that you're an audience of. Get a sense of how much actors and performers get paid. Understand the economy behind it and that might get you to this place of being like, "Maybe I should mediate my criticisms." Kareem:This person wasn't working with a lot of resources. Isn't getting paid, even if they're being given a platform to do X, Y, or Z show or podcast or interview. So I think that these are some of the ways I think folks can be aware of how to be critical listeners, audience, members, witnesses, and remember that they too are in their bodies much like other performers and artists.Angela:I love those suggestions and I think that some of mine kind of overlap, but one of the things to put this from a slightly different lens, this idea of audience convention. So I teach theater history for undergraduates. One of the things I love teaching about is that the kind of conventions or rules or etiquette of being in an audience or being a spectator changed drastically based on time period, and geography and form and context. So I'd like to think about unruly, very vocal audiences of Japanese Kabuki performance versus standing in an Elizabethan theater versus maybe the kind of much more buttoned up sort of darkened theater.Angela:You have to be quiet, you have to put away your cell phones, sort of conventions of attending maybe a national theater today. So I think paying attention exactly to what are the rules and conventions of how you conduct yourself in various spaces. And I think that's its own kind of pleasure in thinking about what's expected of you and what do performers want from you. And I also wanted to echo this idea of let performances make you purious. So thinking about like, maybe find something out about the performer. What are their politics?Angela:And then thirdly, just that, I think that that moment of being a student, especially a student of theater, performance studies, cultural studies that sort of period of being like, "Oh my gosh, I can't watch everything. Everything's terrible." All I can do is see everything wrong with it. But I think just thinking about the fact that we all have really complex engagements and relationships with the world in so many things. I mean, often with our own family members, why not remember that you can have a kind of complex multilayered relationship to performance too.Stevie:Thank you so much for joining us today Kareem and Angie. Listeners can keep up with other ICS happenings by following us on Twitter and Instagram via @icsbgsu. You can listen to BiG Ideas wherever you find your favorite podcast. Please subscribe to us on your preferred platform. Our producers or Chris Cavera and Marco Mendoza. Sound editing by DeAnna MacKeigan and Marco Mendoza. Stevie Scheurich researched and wrote the interview questions.
this episode is unpacking all the baggage that comes with the over-romanticization of life --- somewhere we've all probably been, but might not even be aware of. we'll be talking about everything from main character syndrome, to the dangers of seeing your life as a movie, to the insidious nature of social media trends (~that girl~ morning routine, anyone???). can we come to a conclusion on how to distinguish authenticity from performance? let's find out. to join the conversation, follow @thelily.pod on Instagram!
In this episode we speak with Dr Amanda Källstig who did her PhD in Politics at the University of Manchester, whose research explored what stand-up comedy in Zimbabwe can tell us about resistance and subjectivity. Amanda's research interests include comedy, postcolonial international relations theory, resistance, and subjectivity particularly in the context of the African continent. Amanda's research deals with what stand-up comedy in Zimbabwe can tell us about resistance and subjectivity. Through a fieldwork-based approach she looks at how stand-up comedy intervenes politically exploring how the genre interrupts the way both state and society constructs 'Zimbabwean-ness'. Follow Amanda's work on twitter @DrKällstig. Amanda joined the Stockholm University in August 2021 as a lecturer in International Relations. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/suren-ladd/message
This is a preview for a 2.5 hour romp through performativity and performative speech acts in analytic and continental philosophy, stopping off at J.L. Austin, Louis Althusser and others on the way to Judith Butler. Get the full ep and hours more educational content by supporting our efforts over at www.patreon.com/plasticpills
Superfans; Calcifying/Undoing Mimetic Rhythms; Nietzche's Mustache Oil; Impossibility of Non-Individuation (Start-16:45) Podcast Pedagogy; Instructional Tidiness; Heuristics of Learning; Narcissism and the Undoing of the Ego, Borges and Epochs of Reading One's Own Writing (17:00-33:00) Course Design, Lecture/Seminar; Pacing Course Reading; Degrees of Structure; Teaching Derrida, Performativity, Phaedrus and other Theory Stuff; Jeffrey Nealon gets Plugged (33:00-44:30) No Deleuze (44:30-End)
Caribbean carnival is one of the region's most famous annual celebrations comprised with lively music, dancing, and of course lavish costumes. Shauna Rigaud joins us this week to discuss carnival's history and the history of Barbados' Crop Over festival. Shauna holds a BA in African American Studies from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and a master's in both Gender/Cultural Studies and Communication Management from Simmons University, in Boston. She is a PhD candidate in the Cultural Studies program at George Mason University. As a burgeoning scholar focused on the Caribbean, she hopes to highlight experiences and stories that give a more nuanced understand of the Caribbean, its history and postcolonial condition. Her research interests include a focus on the Caribbean Diaspora, Performance and Performativity, Black feminism and Caribbean feminism. She is also the co-founder of Mayhem246 a concierge company that specializes in providing entertainment experiences during Barbados' Crop Over Festival.Follow Shauna and Mayhem246 at @ne1nappy and @mayhem246. Connect with Strictly Facts - Instagram | Facebook | TwitterLooking to read more about the topics covered in this episode? Subscribe to the newsletter at www.strictlyfactspod.com to get the Strictly Facts Syllabus to your email!Produced by Breadfruit Media
Co-host Leigh M. Johnson is in the hot seat for this episode's discussion of digital afterlives. If we consider the "digital," information-based self to be distinguishable from the meatspace self, we should ask: how long can the Digital Me live on after my meatspace body dies? Technology already enables us to "re-animate" archives of personal information in many ways, and some futurists believe that we may, someday, be able to upload our consciousnesses to the cloud. Who owns that information? What are they currently allowed (or not allowed) to do with it? What would happen if we insisted that all of our information being "deleted" after we physically die?Whether or not you believe in a Heaven or Hell, all of us need to think more seriously about our digital afterlives. Rick, Charles, and Leigh work through some of that thinking-- and much more-- at the hotel bar!Check out the links below to learn more about thinkers and ideas referenced in this episode: Maggi Saven-Baden and Victoria Mason-Robbie, Eds., Digital Afterlife: Death Matters in a Digital Age (2020) Rebecca Skloot, The Immoral Life of Henrietta Lacks (2011) origin of the term "meatspace" A visualization of the length of Terms of Service for 14 popular apps Tupac hologram performs with Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre at Coachella 2012 "Facebook told to grant grieving mother access to daughter's account" (The Guardian, 2011) Black Mirror episode "Smithereens" (on IMDB, or watch the episode on Netflix) Marshall McLuhan, The Medium is the Message (2001) "Everything You Need to Know About Twitter Direct Messages" (Livewire, 2020) What is data anonymization? "What Really Happens To Your (Big) Data When You Die?" (Forbes, 2017) "What Happens to Your Email and Social Media After You Die?" (MoneyTalks, 2020) "What Happens To Your Medical Data After You Die?" (The Medical Futurist, 2021) What is commodity fetishism? U.S. House of Representatives' antitrust report on Big Tech Judith Butler, "Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory" (1988) What is content curation? "Computerized job interviews: Artificial intelligence algorithm may judge you, determine whether you get hired" (Chicago Tribune, 2021) "Google's Grand Plan to Eradicate Cookies is Crumbling" (Wired, 2021) How to recognize a phone scam "Black women, AI, and overcoming historical patterns of abuse" (VentureBeat, 2021) "Black and Queer AI Groups Say They'll Spurn Google Funding" (Wired, 2021) Nick Bostrom, "Why I Want to be a Posthuman When I Grow Up" (2006) HBO series Years and Years "The race to stop ageing: 10 breakthroughs that will help us grow old healthily" (Science Focus, 2021) Anne Rice, The Vampire Chronicles Check out this episode on the HBS website here.
do you always have to be the hottest b*tch in the grocery store??? are you really the ~cool girl~, or are you just playing a part? tune in for a convo about performing identity, confidence, and the male gaze-y world of the imaginary audience.
On episode 13 of Overthink, Ellie and David explain what performativity is. They explain why the phrase "performative ally" is not philosophically accurate, and how performativity is rooted in theories about language and identity. They talk about First Amendment laws, the ball culture of Paris is Burning, Legally Blonde, pornography, and more! Works Discussed: Judith Butler, Gender TroubleJennie Livingston, Paris is Burning J.L. Austin, How to Do Things with WordsJeremy Waldron, The Harm in Hate SpeechRae Langton "Subordination, Silence, and Pornography's Authority" & "Beyond Belief: Pragmatics in Hate Speech and Pornography"Rebecca Kukla, "Performative Force, Convention, and Discursive Injustice"Website | overthinkpodcast.comInstagram & Twitter | @overthink_podEmail | Dearoverthink@gmail.comYouTube | Overthink podcast
In this episode we discuss: what it means to be an allythe difference between performative and authentic allyshiphow allyship differs from friendship and being a coalition partnerstigma jumping vs intersectional activism and advocacy Terms: Allyship - An active, consistent, and arduous practice of unlearning and re-evaluating, in which a person in a position of privilege and power seeks to operate in solidarity with a marginalized group and works to ensure equality, opportunity and inclusion for everyone. (Thank you to Sonya, Sophie, Gigi and Lilah - students in Dionne Bensonsmith's "Introduction to Feminism, Gender, and Sexuality" Class in the Fall 2019 at Scripps College - for this definition.) Intersectionality - A framework for understanding the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a given individual or group, creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage. (This term was coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989.) Stigma-Jumping - Avoiding association with potential allies or coalition partners to avoid their stigma being attached to your cause, organization or person. Stigma jumping is a barrier to intersectional activism and advocacy and therefore neglects the most vulnerable. (This term was coined by Tammy Nyden in 2017.) Resources: Allyship (Definitions): Rochester Racial Justice Toolkit “What is Allyship?”” Michelle Kim “Allyship (& Accomplice): The What, the Why, and the How” Seventeen Magazine “What is Performative Allyship?” Teaching Tolerance “Ally or Accomplice: The Language of Activism” On Privilege and Power University of San Francisco, Gleeson Library “White Privilege Resource Guide” How to be an Ally (start here and by all means, do not stop): The Anti-Oppression Network “Allyship” Amélie Lamont “Guide to Allyship” Jamie Utt “So You Call Yourself an Ally: 10 Things All ‘Allies' Need to Know” Chris Scot Cole “3 Things Not To Do When Someone Discloses Their Invisible Disability”
This is a conversation with Shiyam Galyon. She's a Syrian-American feminist writer who currently leads communications at War Resisters League, the oldest secular antiwar organization in the United States. Shiyam has been thinking a lot about topics that I felt were important for us to discuss further for a wider audience. She's able to skillfully tie in her support of the Syrian revolution with her support for LGBTQ rights everywhere, as well as explore the tensions around the right to narrate in both homeland and diaspora communities. We also spoke about my relationship to Beirut and the very idea of being rooted in the local, and we even touched upon recognising the importance of time and the fact that it should be okay to say that you don't know something in activist circles. You can follow the podcast on Twitter @FireTheseTimes. If you like what I do, please consider supporting this project with only 1$ a month on Patreon or on BuyMeACoffee.com. You can also do so directly on PayPal if you prefer. Patreon is for monthly, PayPal is for one-offs and BuyMeACoffee has both options. Music by Tarabeat. Photo via the UN on Unsplash, modified for this blog post. Original by Adam Niklewicz.
In this episode, Jake and Alex give a general introduction to Postmodernism in Russian 20th century literature, and where it can be located in Venedikt Erofeev's beloved "Moscow to the End of the Line." Strange alcoholic recipes abound, hand in hand with the subversive nature of this "poema" in all its postmodern, enigmatic glory. Bibliography: 1. "In Praise of Booze: 'Moskva-Petushki' and Erasmian Irony," Oliver Ready. The Slavonic & East European Review, 2010. 2. "The Origins and Meaning of Russian Postmodernism," Michael Epstein. Published by Emory University for The National Council Soviet and Eastern European Research, 1993. 3. "Venedikt Erofeev's 'Moskva-Petushki': Performance and Performativity in the Late Soviet Text," Ann Komaromi. The Slavic and East European Journal, 2011. 4. "The Problem of Postmodernism in Russian Literary History: A Comparative Reading of 'Summer in Baden-Baden' and 'Moscow to the End of the Line,'" Vadim Shneyder. Yale University. 5. "Russian Postmodernist Fiction: Dialogue with Chaos," Mark Lipovetsky. M.E. Sharpe, 1999. 6. "Reference Guide to Russian Literature," Neil Cornwell. Routledge, 2013.
Dario is joined on-stage at the Electric Palace by two final year Digital Film students studying at the University of Brighton - Kathryn Bessant and James Calver - to discuss George Miller's 1979 Ozploitation action fest Mad Max. Mel Gibson takes the title role as Max Rockatanski, the fearless cop waging war with kill-crazy bikers who target his family. It is a road-scorching, neo-punk, take-no-prisoners combat set in the lawless Australian outback. Neil and Dario expand on themes from the film and engage in a wider discussion covering topics including the future of the arts in higher education, neoliberal ideology, dystopian cinema, Sean Parker's Screening Room proposal and Louis CK's Horace and Pete. Show Notes: Times Higher article on graduate earnings Requiem for the American Dream - Documentary on Noam Chomsky Sean Parker's The Screening Room - Daily Beast article Horace and Pete - Louis CK WTF with Marc Maron - Interview with Louis CK The Teacher's Soul and the Terrors of Performativity by Stephen J. Ball London Review of Books article about H.G. Adler's The Wall
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