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October 11, 2010

Hannah Gill: Immigrant Youth and the High Stakes of Higher Education

As we celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month, we welcome a guest post from Hannah Gill, author of The Latino Migrant Experience in North Carolina: New Roots in the Old North State. In the book, Gill offers North Carolinians from all walks of life a better understanding of their Latino neighbors, bringing light instead of heat to local and national debates… Continue Reading Hannah Gill: Immigrant Youth and the High Stakes of Higher Education

Categories Civil Rights/Current Events/Guest Bloggers/Latino Studies/North Carolina/Politics
October 6, 2010

Karey Harwood: IVF Kids: Are They Really All Right?

On Monday the Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to the biologist who helped develop in vitro fertilization (IVF). As a New York Times op-ed noted, the honoree is “a man who was reviled, in his time, as doing work that was considered the greatest threat to humanity since the atomic bomb.” Thirty-two years later, there are millions of healthy,… Continue Reading Karey Harwood: IVF Kids: Are They Really All Right?

Categories Biology/Ethics/Film/Gay / Lesbian Studies/Gender Studies/Guest Bloggers/Health / Medicine
October 4, 2010

Gay Rights and the Supreme Court: The Early Years

As the Supreme Court opens its 2010-2011 session today, we welcome a guest post from Marc Stein, author of Sexual Injustice: Supreme Court Decisions from Griswold to Roe. Focusing on six major Supreme Court cases, Sexual Injustice examines the more liberal rulings on birth control, abortion, interracial marriage, and obscenity in Griswold, Fanny Hill, Loving, Eisenstadt, and Roe alongside a… Continue Reading Gay Rights and the Supreme Court: The Early Years

Categories American History/Civil Rights/Gay / Lesbian Studies/Gender Studies/Guest Bloggers/Law / Legal History
September 30, 2010

Katie Bowler on the Need to Respect Books That Other Cultures Value

Continuing our special focus on First Amendment Day today, we welcome the following guest post from someone situated at the intersection of law and literature. Poet Katie Bowler places her own experience with book burning in the context of the history of books as weapons used in attempts to devalue the beliefs of others.–ellen The recent threat by a fringe-element… Continue Reading Katie Bowler on the Need to Respect Books That Other Cultures Value

Categories Current Events/Guest Bloggers/Literature/Politics/Religion
September 30, 2010

William Marshall on the Rights and Responsibilities of the First Amendment

As the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus celebrates First Amendment Day today, we welcome a guest post from legal scholar and professor William Marshall, who teaches at the UNC Law School. He reminds us that with our freedom from government intrusion comes the responsibility for public engagement.–ellen Humorist, social critic, and cartoonist Walt Kelly once famously wrote,… Continue Reading William Marshall on the Rights and Responsibilities of the First Amendment

Categories Guest Bloggers/Law / Legal History/Politics
September 28, 2010

A Womanist Reading of “Service: Panel 8—Dr. King and Ralph Abernathy” or “Anna Julia Cooper and Willa Player”

On July 26, a mural named SERVICE was dedicated at UNC’s School of Government in the Knapp-Sanders Building. The mural depicts a gathering of African-American leaders at the counter of a diner, painted by Colin Quashie as a creative interpretation of the historical 1960 Greensboro, North Carolina sit-in. We are featuring each of the eight panels in a series, highlighting… Continue Reading A Womanist Reading of “Service: Panel 8—Dr. King and Ralph Abernathy” or “Anna Julia Cooper and Willa Player”

Categories African American History/African American Studies/American History/Art / Architecture/Biography / Autobiography/Civil Rights/folklore/Guest Bloggers/History/North Carolina/Southern Studies/Women's Studies
September 27, 2010

Erica Eisdorfer: Reader, Writer, Bookseller, Defender of Your Freedom to Read

As we kick off Banned Books Week, we welcome a guest post today from someone committed to the freedom to read. Erica Eisdorfer is more than just a booklover, she’s a novelist and a bookseller, too, and she’s had first-hand experience on the censorship front.–ellen Banned Books Week 2010 is the 29th annual celebration of our freedom to read. The… Continue Reading Erica Eisdorfer: Reader, Writer, Bookseller, Defender of Your Freedom to Read

Categories Current Events/Guest Bloggers/Literature/Local Indy Booksellers/Politics/Public Policy/The Book Biz
September 16, 2010

Paulo Freire, Lula, and the Next Step for Brazil

We welcome a guest post today from Andrew J. Kirkendall, author of Paulo Freire and the Cold War Politics of Literacy. In his political biography of Freire (1921-97), a native of Brazil’s impoverished northeast who developed adult literacy training techniques that remain influential today, Kirkendall gives new perspectives on the history of the Cold War, the meanings of radicalism, and… Continue Reading Paulo Freire, Lula, and the Next Step for Brazil

Categories Biography / Autobiography/Economics/Education/Guest Bloggers/History/Latin American/Caribbean Hist./Politics/Sociology
September 10, 2010

A Middle East Policy in Deep Denial

Denial is a well known defense mechanism that keeps unpleasant realities at bay. U.S. policymakers seem well practiced in this common coping device. Heaven knows they have good reason, no matter which direction of the Middle East they turn. Afghanistan seems right now to occasion the deepest denials because the realities are the grimmest. Two reports by the London-based International… Continue Reading A Middle East Policy in Deep Denial

Categories Current Events/Guest Bloggers/Michael H. Hunt/Middle Eastern Studies/Politics
September 8, 2010

Rosh Hashana evolves over generations in North Carolina

With the start of Rosh Hashana at sundown this evening, we welcome a guest post from Leonard Rogoff, author of Down Home: Jewish Life in North Carolina. Published in association with the Jewish Heritage Foundation of North Carolina, Down Home is part of a larger documentary project of the same name that includes a film (view the trailer) and a… Continue Reading Rosh Hashana evolves over generations in North Carolina

Categories American History/Genealogy/Guest Bloggers/Jewish Studies/North Carolina/Religion/Southern Studies
September 2, 2010

Islamophobia and Our Love of Shopping

We welcome a guest post today from Susan Nance, author of How the Arabian Nights Inspired the American Dream, 1790-1835. Americans have always shown a fascination with the people, customs, and legends of the “East,” such as the stories of the Arabian Nights, the performances of Arab belly dancers and acrobats, the feats of turban-wearing vaudeville magicians, etc. In her… Continue Reading Islamophobia and Our Love of Shopping

Categories American Studies/Current Events/Film/Gender Studies/Guest Bloggers
August 31, 2010

The Story of Service, Part 4: Black Wall Street

On July 26, a mural named SERVICE was dedicated at UNC’s School of Government in the Knapp-Sanders Building. The mural depicts a gathering of African-American leaders at the counter of a diner, painted by Colin Quashie as a creative interpretation of the historical 1960 Greensboro, North Carolina sit-in. We will be featuring each of the eight panels in a series,… Continue Reading The Story of Service, Part 4: Black Wall Street

Categories African American History/African American Studies/Author blog entry/Civil Rights/Guest Bloggers/North Carolina/Southern Studies
August 19, 2010

General McChrystal, General Petraeus, and General Confusion

Barack Obama’s Afghanistan commanders are something else. First, they promoted a highly debatable counter-insurgency strategy. Then, despite the numerous and cogent contemporary critiques, they got the president to buy into their particular brand of wishful thinking, and they got from him the additional troops supposedly needed for success. They have since failed to deliver. There are no convincing signs of… Continue Reading General McChrystal, General Petraeus, and General Confusion

Categories American History/Current Events/Guest Bloggers/Michael H. Hunt/Military History/Military Studies/Politics
August 12, 2010

Faith, Fact, and Religious Relics

We welcome a guest post today from Bernadette McNary-Zak, coeditor of Resurrecting the Brother of Jesus: The James Ossuary Controversy and the Quest for Religious Relics, a collection of essays exploring the circumstances of an archaeological hoax in which a box of skeletal remains was passed off as belonging to James, the brother of Jesus. In this post, she discusses… Continue Reading Faith, Fact, and Religious Relics

Categories Archaeology/Guest Bloggers/History/Religion
August 5, 2010

Vietnam War Lessons: Never Too Late to Learn

Developments over the last month or so have put the U.S. commitment in Afghanistan under a dark cloud. The McChrystal affair and the WikiLeaks revelations are symptomatic of deeper troubles: the rapid bankruptcy of counterinsurgency, a surge in U.S. casualties, the persistently problematic role of Pakistan, the continued immobility of the Karzai regime, the sluggish progress in training Afghan forces,… Continue Reading Vietnam War Lessons: Never Too Late to Learn

Categories American History/Current Events/Guest Bloggers/Michael H. Hunt/Military History/Military Studies/Politics
August 2, 2010

“We Are Standing on Beautiful History”

Today we welcome a guest post from Tiya Miles, author of The House on Diamond Hill: A Cherokee Plantation Story. Last weekend she attended a gathering to celebrate the historic plantation home and held a signing event for her new book. Over the course of her day, past and present were juxtaposed in an experience that truly gave life to… Continue Reading “We Are Standing on Beautiful History”

Categories African American Studies/American History/Genealogy/Guest Bloggers/Native Amer./Indigenous Studies/Religion/Southern Studies/UNC Press Authors
July 28, 2010

Obama’s HIV/AIDS Strategy: Real Change or Pocket Change?

We welcome a guest post today from Jennifer Brier, author of Infectious Ideas: U.S. Political Responses to the AIDS Crisis. When the Obama administration announced a new HIV/AIDS strategy, we asked Brier to unpack the news and help give historical perspective to the new plan.–ellen Reading President Obama’s new HIV/AIDS strategy, released on July 13, 2010, was alternately exciting and… Continue Reading Obama’s HIV/AIDS Strategy: Real Change or Pocket Change?

Categories Current Events/Gay / Lesbian Studies/Guest Bloggers/Health / Medicine/Politics/Public Policy
July 2, 2010

The McChrystal Affair: Pity the Poor Historian

There is good reason to pity the poor historian, who has been tested especially severely during the recent McChrystal-Obama imbroglio as the eruption of historical parallels and lessons have ranged from the wrong-headed to the off-kilter. Continue Reading The McChrystal Affair: Pity the Poor Historian

Categories American History/Current Events/Guest Bloggers/Michael H. Hunt/Military History/Politics
June 9, 2010

The Obama National Security Strategy: “Mush” Ado about Nothing?

In the world of U.S. foreign policy, the release of a new National Security Strategy is a big deal. This congressionally mandated exercise offers an opportunity for the executive to grapple with basic issues, and it may even herald the birth of a “doctrine” (as it did for George W. Bush in 2002). The Obama administration rolled out its NSS… Continue Reading The Obama National Security Strategy: “Mush” Ado about Nothing?

Categories American History/Current Events/Guest Bloggers/Michael H. Hunt/Politics