People in the ancient world thought of vision as both an ethical tool and a tactile sense, akin to touch. Gazing upon someone – or oneself – was treated as a path to philosophical self-knowledge, but the question of tactility introduced an erotic ele...

In 1963, Howard S. Becker gave a lecture about deviance, challenging the then-conventional definition that deviance was inherently criminal and abnormal and arguing that instead, deviance was better understood as a function of labeling.   At the end...

The Vietnam War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Summer of Love – the1960s were one of the most turbulent decades in US history. These years launched an unprecedented public debate over the meaning of "America", dividing...

"Perhaps",‌ wrote Ralph Ellison more than seventy years ago, "the zoot suit contains profound political meaning; perhaps the symmetrical frenzy of the Lindy-hop conceals clues to great potential power". ‌ As Ellison noted then, many of our most munda...

To solve real-world issues, the model of transdisciplinary research, which approaches from both the hard and social sciences, has recently come to the forefront. By integrating multiple disciplines as well as the expertise of partners from the societ...

The events of 9/11 had a profound impact on American society, but they had an even more lasting effect on Muslims living in the United States. Once practically invisible, they suddenly found themselves overexposed. By describing how Islam in America...

In his revolutionary new book, Jan-Kare Breivik profiles ten Norwegian Deaf people and  their life stories within a translocal/transnational framework. Breivik notes that, unlike hearing people, who form their identities from familial roots and local...

Torre David, a 45-story skyscraper in Caracas, has remained uncompleted since the Venezuelan economy collapsed in 1994. Today, it is the improvised home to more than 750 families living in an extra-legal and tenuous squat, that some have called a "ve...

The United States is in transit from an industrial to a postindustrial society, from a modern to postmodern culture, and from a national to a global economy. In this book Richard Harvey Brown asks how we can distinguish the uniquely American elements...

Why has the large income gap between blacks and whites persisted for decades after the passage of civil rights legislation? More specifically, why do African Americans remain substantially underrepresented in the highest-paying professions, such as s...