Money Talks: Politics and the Wealth Gap is a short film that delves into the inner workings of Citizens United and campaign finance regulation as it relates to the growing wealth gap in the United States. It seeks to show that, in comparison to the average American, wealthy campaign donors can disproportionately influence political elections and…
Silences in the Census
Silences in the Census was inspired the curiosity we all had about the way that local contexts change as a result of the global processes that we have learned about over the course of the semester. We wanted to understand how our own local context – Providence – changed; indeed, these changes manifest themselves in the demographics of the…
Banned Histories
Banned Histories offers a brief, targeted look at what revisionist history is and does. Although not it does not explicitly explore the role that access to money and financial capital plays in access to speech, the imbalance of power given to those with an inordinate amount of resources–whether political, financial, academic, or otherwise–is a theme present…
Marx on Mars
MarxOnMars is an anti-capitalist, socialist, extraterrestrial, idealist and non-hierarchical organization. We are committed to dedicating the MarsOne mission to throwing off the yoke of capitalism once and for all, and to creating a Marxist society for the people, by the people, on Mars. We view capitalism as a profound moral failing and the root of all…
America the Empire
In their blog, Modern America: Power and Politics of an Empire, spring 2014 students Sujaya Desai ’14, Maansi Vohra ’15, Najma Yakob ’14, and Bartosz Zerebecki ’15 set out to find the colonial in our supposedly post-colonial world. Through discussion, their tumblr and its followers interrogate the concept of imperialism and track its persistence in today’s world. Their project is…
A Herstory of Activism
Itching to learn more about the activism of womyn of color at Brown University since the 1960s? Look no further than A People’s Herstory of Womyn of Color at Brown, an archive created by spring 2014 students Sarah Day Dayon ’15, Kendra Cornejo ’15, Hector Peralta ’16, and Julmar Carcedo ’16. This rich archive includes eight interviews with…
Resource: National Priorities Project
The National Priorities Project seeks to make the federal budget easy to understand in order to encourage people to make informed choices about how they want their taxes spent. The website includes a huge amount of information about the federal budget, how taxes are allocated, and even has a tool for you to see how your…
Resource: Costs of War
At some point over the course of spring 2014, the class explored an informative–and enraging, for some–resource that details the costs of the wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq since 2001. The Costs of War Project was assembled by dozens of lawyers, economists, anthropologists, and many other academics and professionals who came together to analyze the human,…
“Studying History Is Kind of Important”
For their final project, spring 2014 students Lily Novak ’14, Kirah Nelson ’14, Will Fesperman ’15, Sara Winnick ’15, and Yi-Hung Liu (graduate student) created a zine and teaching resource entitled “‘Studying History is Kind of Important’: An Analysis of US History Classes in Providence, RI.” Their project brings together critical readings of theories in education…
Resource: The Refugee Project
The Refugee Project is a great interactive map created with UN data to help visualize refugee movements since 1975. Words can’t do the wealth of information on the website justice, so go check it out for yourself!