Additional Readings
Most professors who teach The World is a Text have specific essays, poems, reviews, and/or stories in mind for their assignments. However, oftentimes, both students and professors enjoy suggestions that we think might work particularly well with our book.
Below are links to texts that should be easily accessible that should also work well with any assignments already planned.
TELEVISION
Tschinkel, Arielle. “So, Here’s The Science Behind Why We’re So Obsessed With Watching Reality Shows.” HelloGiggles, 10 Jan. 2018,
https://hellogiggles.com/reviews-coverage/tv-shows/science-behind-watching-reality-shows/
Steele, Taylor. “6 Ways Our Fave TV Shows Uphold Gender Norms.” The Body Is Not an Apology, 24 Jan. 2017, https://thebodyisnotanapology.com/magazine/6-ways-our-fave-tv-shows-uphold-gender-norms/
“From C-Suite to Characters on Screen: How inclusive is the entertainment industry?” University of Southern California Annenberg School, 22 Feb. 2016, Updated 30 Mar. 2017,
https://annenberg.usc.edu/news/faculty-research/c-suite-characters-screen-how-inclusive-entertainment-industry
Bastien, Angelica Jade. “In Its First Season, The Handmaid’s Tale’s Greatest Failing Is How It Handles Race.” Vulture, 14 June 2017, http://www.vulture.com/2017/06/the-handmaids-tale-greatest-failing-is-how-it-handles-race.html
Nussbaum, Emily. “How One Joke on Rosanne Explains the Show.” The New Yorker, 23 April 2018, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/04/23/how-one-joke-on-roseanne-explains-the-show
SPORTS
Ross, Terrance F. “Welcome to Smarter Basketball: The rise of big data is pitting the old school against the new school as the NBA undergoes its analytics revolution.” The Atlantic, 25 June 2015,
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/06/nba-data-analytics/396776/
Bates, Karen Grigsby. “When It Comes To Race And Sports, Who Owns An Athlete’s Opinions?” NPR.org, 21 Oct. 2017, https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/10/21/557692016/when-it-comes-to-race-and-sports-who-owns-an-athletes-opinions
HolyWhiteMountain, Sterling. “The Great Failure of the Indians Mascot Debate? Thinking of it Only as Racism.” ESPN.COM, 26 Oct. 2016, http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/17891581/great-failure-indians-mascot-debate-thinking-only-racism
Silverman, Robert. “The NBA is Fake Woke.” The Daily Beast, 16 Oct. 2018, https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-nba-is-fake-woke
Zirin, Dave. “US Women’s Soccer is More Popular than Men’s, but the Players are Still Paid Less.” The Nation, 5 April, 2016, https://www.thenation.com/article/us-womens-soccer-is-more-popular-than-mens-but-the-players-are-still-paid-less/
PHOTO ESSAY
Manning, Charles. “Team USA’s Olympic Gymnastic Uniforms throughout the Years.” Cosmopolitan, 9 Aug. 2016, https://www.cosmopolitan.com/style-beauty/fashion/g6014/olympic-gymnastics-outfits/?slide=3
MUSIC
Hasbro, “How modern music technology has evolved over the years.” Mashable, 1 Sept. 2017, https://mashable.com/2017/09/01/how-evolution-of-technology-changed-music/
Hu, Cherie. “How Technology Has Transformed, And Complicated, Music Fandom: Interview With Nancy Baym.” Forbes, 26 July 2018, https://www.forbes.com/sites/cheriehu/2018/07/26/nancy-baym-technology-music-fandom-playing-to-the-crowd/
Torres, Libby. “From Brett Kavanaugh to Kanye West, How Politics Is Mixing With Music in the Weirdest of Ways.” The Daily Beast, 4 Oct. 2018, https://www.thedailybeast.com/from-brett-kavanaugh-to-kanye-west-how-politics-is-mixing-with-music-in-the-weirdest-of-ways
Garvey, Meaghan. “Female Gaze: Lana Del Rey, I Love Dick, and The Love Witch.” MTV News, 16 May 2017,
http://www.mtv.com/news/3011777/female-gaze-lana-del-rey-i-love-dick/
The Album Review Suite
Weingarten, Christopher R. Review: Kendrick Lamar Moves From Uplift to Beast Mode on Dazzling ‘Damn.’ Rolling Stone, 18 April 2017, https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/review-kendrick-lamar-moves-from-uplift-to-beast-mode-on-dazzling-damn-112650/
Salmon, Ben. Carrie Underwood, Cry Pretty Review. Paste, 19 Sept. 2018, https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2018/09/carrie-underwood-cry-pretty-review.html
Lamb, Karas. Cardi B is the real deal on major-label debut Invasion of Privacy: EW review. Entertainment Weekly, 9 April 2018, https://ew.com/music/2018/04/09/cardi-b-invasion-of-privacy-review/
Cox, Jamieson. Justin Timberlake, Man of the Woods. Pitchfork, 2 Feb 2018,
https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/justin-timberlake-man-of-the-woods/
ART & VISUAL CULTURE
Finkl, Jori. “In the Art World, ‘Latinx’ Marks a Gender-Free Spot.” The New York Times, 11 Sept. 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/11/arts/design/pacific-standard-time-getty-latino.html
Gittlen, Ariela. “A Brief History of Female Rage in Art.” Artsy, 15 Oct. 2018, https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-history-female-rage-art
Tani, Ellen Yoshi, et al. “Can Art Change the Future for Racial and Ethnic Identity? A Roundtable Conversation.” Artsy, 8 Sept. 2015, https://www.artsy.net/article/the-art-genome-project-can-art-change-the-future-for-racial-and
Glenny, Grace. “Visual Culture and the World of Sport.” The Scholar & Feminist Online, Vol. 4, No. 3, Summer 2006, http://sfonline.barnard.edu/sport/glenny_01.htm
“Photographer Captures Drought Turning California Farms Into Kingdom of Dust.” National Geographic, National Geographic Society, 16 June 2014, https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/06/140614-california-drought-central-valley-pictures-photographs/
Kennicott, Philip. “How To View Art: Be Dead Serious About It, But Don’t Expect Too Much.” The Washington Post, 4 Oct. 2014, https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/how-to-view-art-be-dead-serious-about-it-but-dont-expect-too-much/2014/10/01/28f7cdba-459a-11e4-b47c-f5889e061e5f_story.html
PHOTO ESSAY
“Rural America.” Getty Images, https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/rural-america
PUBLIC SPACE
Patterson, Natalie. “Reflections on Social Norms, Women and Public Space” BLOGS@VT, 16 Sept. 2016, https://blogs.lt.vt.edu/reflectionsandexplorations/2016/09/16/reflections-on-social-norms-women-and-public-space/
Boyte, Harry. “Universities, Public Spaces, and the Democratic Ways of Life.” Huffington Post, 30 March 2015, https://www.huffingtonpost.com/harry-boyte/universities-public-space_b_6962686.html
Rothman, Lily. “The Surprising Reason why So Many Civil War Memorials Look Exactly the Same.” Time, 16 July 2018, http://time.com/5337148/civil-war-memorial-statues/
Benepe, Adrian. “The Heart, Brain, and Soul of City Parks,” The Nature of Cities, 25 Jan. 2016, https://www.thenatureofcities.com/2016/01/25/the-heart-brain-and-soul-of-city-parks/
Benfield, Kaid. “The Important Difference between Public Space and a ‘Common.’” Citylab, 15 July 2013, https://www.citylab.com/equity/2013/07/sustainability-and-urban-commons/6200/
PHOTO ESSAY
Budds, Diana. “America’s Most Beautiful Libraries.” Fast Company, 20 March 2017,
https://www.fastcompany.com/3069076/americas-most-beautiful-libraries
GENDER
Huber, Lucy. “A Fair Accusation of Sexual Harassment or a Witch Hunt?” McSweeney’s Internet Technology, 16 Oct. 2017,
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/a-fair-accusation-of-sexual-harassment-or-a-witch-hunt
Giese, Rachel. “Why Masculinity Needs to be the Next Big Thing in the #MeToo Movement.” Chatelaine, 28 Feb. 2018, https://www.chatelaine.com/living/toxic-masculinity-essay/
Bazelon, Laura. “Female Lawyers Still Face Sexism in the Courtroom: What It Takes to be a Trial Lawyer if You’re Not a Man.” The Atlantic, Sept. 2018, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/09/female-lawyers-sexism-courtroom/565778/
Page, Ken. “How Gender Role Stereotypes are Crippling our Love Lives.” Psychology Today, 3 April 2018,
https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/finding-love/201804/how-gender-role-stereotypes-are-crippling-our-love-lives
Macauley, Alistair. “Of Women, Men and Ballet in the 21st Century.” New York Times, 12 June 2017,
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/12/arts/dance/of-women-men-and-ballet-in-the-21st-century.html
DiFrancisco, Alex. How to Disappear: For Alex DiFrancesco, coming out as transgender—even to themself—wasn’t possible without first disappearing. Longreads, April 2017,
https://longreads.com/2017/04/14/how-to-disappear/
Gender Suite: Reading Christine Blasey Ford & Brett Kavanaugh
Goldberg, Michelle. “Christine Blasey Ford’s Sacrifice.” The New York Times, 27 Sept. 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/27/opinion/blasey-ford-kavanaugh-hearing.html
Catron, David. “Who Really Believes Kavanaugh is a Rapist?” The American Spectator, 27 Sept. 2018, https://spectator.org/who-really-believes-kavanaugh-is-a-rapist/
Mann, Kate. “Brett Kavanaugh and America’s ‘himpathy’ Reckoning” The New York Times, 26 Sept. 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/26/opinion/brett-kavanaugh-hearing-himpathy.html
Mangan, Dan. “How Americans watched Brett Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford testify.” CNBC.com, 27 Sept. 2018, https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/27/how-americans-are-watching-kavanaugh-hearings-as-accuser-testifies.html
RACE
Passamore, Ben. Comics by Ben Passamore. The Nib. https://thenib.com/ben-passmore
Coates, Ta-Nehisi. “My President was Black.” The Atlantic, Jan/Feb 2017,
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/01/my-president-was-black/508793/
Cheng, April. “Why So Many Asian American Women are Bleaching their Hair Blonde.” The New York Times, 9 April 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/09/fashion/why-are-so-many-asian-american-women-bleaching-their-hair-blond.html
Goldberg, Susan. “For Decades Our Coverage was Racist. To Rise Above Our Past We Must Acknowledge It,” National Geographic, April 2018, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/04/from-the-editor-race-racism-history/
PHOTO ESSAY
Williams, Matthew. “Urban Jungle on the Reservation: Photographs by Matthew Wilson.” Time. http://content.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,2048598,00.html
NATURE AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Parkin, Simon. “So Subtle a Catch.” The Atlantic, Dec. 2016,
https://harpers.org/archive/2016/12/so-subtle-a-catch/
Ayesha Fakie, “Recognizing the Links between Environmental Issues and Social Justice.” The Daily Maverick, 13 July 2017, https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2017-07-13-op-ed-recognising-the-links-between-environmental-issues-and-social-justice/
Brad Plummer and Nadja Popovich, “Why Half a Degree of Global Warming is a Big Deal.” The New York Times, 7 Oct. 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/07/climate/ipcc-report-half-degree.html
McDonald, Helen. “The Unsettling Encounter that Inspired H is for Hawk.” The Guardian, 19 Aug. 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/aug/19/helen-macdonald-hawk-tree-man-natural-world
Galperin, Joshua. “Desperate Environmentalists Won’t Save the Environment” The Los Angeles Times, 29 Oct. 2015, http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-galperin-environmental-desperation-20151029-story.html
PHOTO ESSAY
Mallonee, Laura. “The Uneasy Relationship between Humans and Nature.” Wired, 28 Nov. 2017,
https://www.wired.com/story/human-nature-photography/
FASHION
Zakaria, Namrata. “Is Fashion Gay?” Mumbai Mirror, 16 Oct. 2018,
https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/opinion/columnists/namrata-zakaria/is-fashion-gay/articleshow/66229381.cms
Givhan, Robin. “Fashion is Finally Figuring out Diversity–In Ways that Actually Matter.” The Chicago Tribune, 7 Sept. 2017, http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/style/ct-fashion-diversity-20170907-story.html
Choi, Mary HK. “All Dudes Learned How to Dress and it Sucks.” The Hairpin, 25 Oct. 2010, https://www.thehairpin.com/2010/10/all-dudes-learned-how-to-dress-and-it-sucks/
Aguirre, Abby. “Los Angeles Latinas Reclaim Chicano History through Fashion.” Vogue, 8 March 2017, https://www.vogue.com/projects/13528517/mexican-american-women-east-los-angeles-chicano-fashion-latina-style/
Singh, Ganit. “Fast Fashion Has Changed the Industry and the Economy.” Foundation for Economic Education, 7 July 2017, https://fee.org/articles/fast-fashion-has-changed-the-industry-and-the-economy/
Demopoulos, Alaina. “You May Be an Adult, but You Never Forget Your School Dress Code.” The Daily Beast, 15 Oct. 2018, https://www.thedailybeast.com/you-may-be-an-adult-but-you-never-forget-your-school-dress-codes
PHOTO ESSAY
“The View from the Front Row: A History of the Fashion Show” The Guardian, 15 Feb. 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2018/feb/15/the-view-from-the-front-row-a-history-of-the-fashion-show-photo-essay
FILM
Lyster, Rosa. “25 Years of Wayne’s World.” Hairpin, 5 Dec. 2017, https://www.thehairpin.com/2017/12/25-years-of-waynes-world/
Lane, Anthony. ““Solo: A Star Wars Story” and “How to Talk to Girls at Parties.” The New Yorker, 4 & 11 June 2018, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/06/04/solo-a-star-wars-story-and-how-to-talk-to-girls-at-parties
Edelstein, David. “Revenge of Jamie Lee Curtis.” Vulture, 1 Oct. 2018, http://www.vulture.com/2018/10/jamie-lee-curtis-halloween.html
Stevens, Dana. “Eighth Grade is a Movie about Middle School that Will Leave Adults in Tears.” Slate, 10 July 2018, https://slate.com/culture/2018/07/eighth-grade-the-new-movie-from-bo-burnham-reviewed.html
Film Suite: Reading The Black Panther
Chen, Frank. “What Makes Black Panther a Great Film.” Medium, 20 Feb. 2018, https://medium.com/@kfrankc/what-makes-black-panther-a-great-film-b81c54e076f5
Lebron, Christopher. “Black Panther is Not the Movie We Deserve.” Boston Review, 17 Feb. 2018, http://bostonreview.net/race/christopher-lebron-black-panther
Ransome, Noel. “Black Panther is the Best Film Some of Us Will Ever See.” Vice, 18 Feb. 2018, https://www.vice.com/en_au/article/xw5g47/black-panther-is-the-best-film-some-of-us-will-ever-see
Irani, Rashid. “A Rare #fail by Marvel” in The Hindustan Times, 16 Feb. 2018, https://www.hindustantimes.com/movie-reviews/a-rare-fail-by-marvel-review-of-black-panther-by-rashid-irani/story-rfKgiNPJjhLmvJ1ffX2VsO.html
TECHNOLOGY
Greenfield, Adam. “A Sociology of the Smartphone.” Longreads, June 2017, https://longreads.com/2017/06/13/a-sociology-of-the-smartphone/
Manjoo, Farhad. “How the Internet Is Saving Culture, Not Killing It.” The New York Times, 15 Mar. 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/15/technology/how-the-internet-is-saving-culture-not-killing-it.html
“A Threat to Global Democracy: How Facebook & Surveillance Capitalism Empower Authoritarianism: An Interview with Siva Vaidhyanathan.” Democracy Now, https://www.democracynow.org/2018/8/1/a_threat_to_global_democracy_how
PHOTO ESSAY
Gibbs, Samuel. “40 Years of Apple: In Pictures.” The Guardian, 1 April 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/gallery/2016/apr/01/40-years-of-apple-in-pictures
MEDIA AND ADVERTISING
Finley, Lint. “Stronger Privacy Laws Could Save Advertising From Itself.” Wired, 4 Dec. 2017, https://www.wired.com/2017/04/stronger-privacy-laws-save-advertising/
Anderson, Chris. “The Long Tail.” Wired, 10 Jan. 2004, https://www.wired.com/2004/10/Tail/
Rosenstiel, Tom. “Why ‘be Transparent’ Has Replaced ‘act Independently’ As A Guiding Journalism Principle.” Poynter, 16 Sept. 2013, https://www.poynter.org/news/why-be-transparent-has-replaced-act-independently-guiding-journalism-principle
THE ESSAY OF PHOTO ESSAYS:
Schwab, Katharine. “The Best Photo Essays Of 2017.” Fast Company, 25 Dec. 2017, https://www.fastcompany.com/90155241/the-best-photo-essays-of-2017