Recipes for Respect

Recipes for Respect

African American Meals and Meaning

Food studies, once trendy, has settled into the public arena. In the academy, scholarship on food and literary culture constitutes a growing river within literary and cultural studies, but writing on African American food and dining remains a tributary. Recipes for Respect bridges this gap, illuminating the role of foodways in African American culture as […]
Diva Nation

Diva Nation

Female Icons from Japanese Cultural History

Diva Nation explores the constructed nature of female iconicity in Japan. From ancient goddesses and queens to modern singers and writers, this edited volume critically reconsiders the female icon, tracing how she has been offered up for emulation, debate or censure. The research in this book culminates from curiosity over the insistent presence of Japanese […]
Ward wins 2019 W.E.B. Du Bois Award

Ward wins 2019 W.E.B. Du Bois Award

Geoff Ward, associate professor and associate chair of African and African-American studies in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has been awarded the 2018-19 W.E.B. Du Bois Award by the Western Society of Criminology.
WashU Expert: R. Kelly had ‘serious problem with power’

WashU Expert: R. Kelly had ‘serious problem with power’

Allegations against R. Kelly have finally exploded into the #MeToo era with Lifetime’s “Surviving R. Kelly.” But the singer’s troubling behavior can be traced back decades. “There was a lot of sexual energy around Kelly that we as young people felt was a little bit dark and a little bit inappropriate and a little bit taboo,” says Jeffrey Q. McCune Jr., who studies race, gender and popular culture at Washington University in St. Louis. In the early 1990s, McCune was a student at Kenwood Academy, the Chicago magnet school Kelly had attended just a few years before — and a classmate to one of Kelly’s earliest accusers.
Yayoi Kusama

Yayoi Kusama

Revised and Expanded Edition

An updated edition of the acclaimed monograph, celebrating one of the most iconic and revolutionary artists of our time. “Yayoi Kusama transcended the art world to become a fixture of popular culture, in a league with Andy Warhol, David Hockney, and Keith Haring.” —The New York Times Kusama is internationally renowned for her groundbreaking work […]
The language of the undead

The language of the undead

As a linguist and professor at Swarthmore, one might wonder why Jamie Thomas, AB ’06, is interested in zombies. She’s found that representations of the undead can help us better understand the dehumanization and fear that accompany racism, sexism and other languages of hate.
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