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…

Get Gentrified

Breaking with the generally sobering tone of the course, spring 2014 students Brienne Ellis and Eddie Grystar created a promotional website for a fake app to promote the gentrification of Oakland, gentri.fy. From the proclamation on the front page of the site–”A brighter tomorrow starts with you”–to the list of partners (Lean In of course wants in…

From the Archives: Nuclear Narratives

Barry Elkington’s website* for Professor Shibusawa’s Stories to Live By course presents the history of nuclear weapons production in the American Southwest. Pairing insightful prose with thought-provoking videos, Elkington draws out subtle–and some unsubtle–themes in the public discourse around nuclear weapons testing and production. The essays on each page shed light on these themes, which range from the American…

From the Archives: El Trujillato

Women and Nationalism: El Trujillato. The title of this teaching resource, a final project from spring 2013 by Saudi Garcia, Madilynn Castillo, and Kate Blessing, understates the depth of the research behind the words on the screen. Though the site focuses on the impact of the 1930-1961 rule of Rafael Trujillo on women, it also explores various aspects of the history…