I've am trained as a critic, but had been writing mostly about hard news for CNN and Al Jazeera, and higher ed for the Chronicle. Still, I did think and write a lot about medievalism in modern media (news and entertainment) as well as representations of disability in culture, which put me on the path.
Last fall, when Marco Polo was announced by Netflix, I sent out pitches as presumably the only person with significant journalistic experience and scholarly expertise in 13th-century Venice, resulting in my first piece for Vice. Then Game of Thrones came back, and I had things to say about its medievalism and Braavos as Venice, then disability in Daredevil, feminism in Mad Max (and gender/comics for Salon). What had been a minor component of my writing career - cultural criticism - has taken up a lot of my time this spring and summer. I hope you've enjoyed the results.
I had two Game of Thrones pieces published in the last few days. I'll have another one on Monday morning.
- The Controversies and Success of Season 5 of Game of Thrones (Vice.com, 6/12/15)
- Where Have All the Good Bad Guys Gone? (Vice.com, 6/10/15)
I also had my first Washington Post article this week - On inclusion. It all started with a flyer sent home reading, "Come one! Come all." Except that Nico was going to "participate as an audience member. Honestly, I'm still furious - for his behalf, but also for all the other kids who learn that exclusion is ok.
- What Kids Learn When Adults Aren't Inclusive (Washington Post, 6/11/15)
Here are blog posts from the week:
- Work/Life Fit, Gender, Parenting: Google and Bing searches for working dad vs working mom. I've been thinking about this for a few years now, but it went on the back burner as we entered the year of Ferguson and police violence writing overtook everything for me (also finishing my book, which you can still buy!)
- Speaking In, Speaking Out - Inclusion and Nico - This is my post about the WaPo article, with a few additional comments.
- More on the New York Times Opinion Page and Higher Education: Brian Rosenberg, President of Macalester, takes issue with the unsupported pieces in the recent NYT op-ed page. I've had issues there too.
- Dear Academia: We're All Labor: My most-read piece of the week. Which is good, because we are all labor, and it would be a lot easier to fight the destruction of the university if we realized it, preferably before the right-wing legislatures and corporate regents (including in blue states) attacked.
- Racists on Twitter vs Racists at Public Pools: Jon Ronson has a sad in my direction. Demonstrates complete disinterest in thinking about the interesting questions his book raises.
- Rules for Online Teaching: Jonathan Rees has good ideas.
Thanks for reading. See you tomorrow.
