“[This] textbook explores … how media and other social institutions use sex and sexuality (the capacity to have erotic experiences and responses) to advance economic and ideological interests. Cinema, music, music videos, television programs, advertising, and the Internet are discussed as carriers of deliberately constructed messages that contribute to and support a master narrative that privileges heterosexuality and monogamy."

“In Pakistan, myriad constituencies are grappling with reinterpreting women’s rights. This book analyzes the Government of Pakistan’s construction of an understanding of what constitutes women’s rights, moves on to address traditional views and contemporary popular opinion on women’s rights, and then focuses on three very different groups’ perceptions of women’s rights…Weiss analyzes the resultant ‘culture wars’ that are visibly ripping the country apart, as groups talk past one another—each confidant that they are the proprietors of culture and interpreters of religion while others are misrepresenting it.”

“As a neuroscientist, Marjorie Woollacott had no doubts that the brain was a purely physical entity controlled by chemicals and electrical pulses. When she experimented with meditation for the first time, however, her entire world changed. Woollacott’s journey through years of meditation has made her question the reality she built her career upon and has forced her to ask what human consciousness really is."

“Examining racial profiling in American policing, Naomi Zack argues against white privilege discourse while introducing a new theory of applicative justice. Zack draws clear lines between rights and privileges and between justice and existing laws to make sense of the current crisis. This urgent and immediate analysis of the killings of unarmed black men by police officers shows how racial profiling matches statistics of the prison population with disregard for the constitutional rights of the many innocent people of all races."

This project was funded in part by a CSWS grant.
"This documentary explores the differential rights that U.S. citizen children and their undocumented parents have through the story of one extended Zapotec family. Shot in Oregon and Oaxaca, Mexico, and narrated by eleven-year old Cinthya, the film follows Cinthya’s trip to her parent’s home community of Teotitlán del Valle with her godmother, anthropologist Lynn Stephen."

This project was funded in part by a CSWS grant.
“In recent years, UNESCO and intangible cultural heritage (ICH) have become key terms for the analysis of expressive culture, with folklorists and anthropologists playing increasingly significant roles in the theorization, creation and implementation of global cultural policy. While UNESCO meetings are generally held in cities such as Paris and New York, their decisions affect people in communities around the globe, where they can have unforeseen ramifications for national and regional politics, economics, and ethnic concerns."

“Best-selling author Lauren Kessler offers insights on the art of writing and the joys of reading that are provocative and heartening, thoughtful and funny, reassuring and real. In graceful prose (laced with get-on-it attitude), Kessler distills lessons from a 25-year career to inspire writers to embrace challenges, push through the tough stuff and love the life they've chosen."

"Naomi Zack pioneers a new theory of justice starting from a correction of current injustices. While the present justice paradigm in political philosophy and related fields begins from John Rawls’s 1970 Theory of Justice, Zack insists that what people in reality care about is not justice as an ideal, but injustice as a correctable ill. Zack's theory of applicative justice offers a revolutionary reorientation of society's pursuit of justice, seeking to undo injustice in a practical and fully achievable way."

"Musical listening was pervasive for U.S. troops fighting the wars in Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom) and Iraq (Operation Iraqi Freedom). Recent technological developments enabled troops to carry with them vast amounts of music and easily acquire new music, for themselves and to share with others in their immediate vicinity and far away.…"

"This book investigates major Chinese-language films from mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong in order to unpack a hypercompressed capitalist modernity with distinctive Chinese characteristics.… A deeply cultural, determinedly historical, and deliberately interdisciplinary study, it approaches ‘culture’ anthropologically, as a way of life emanating from the everyday, and aesthetically, as imaginative forms and creative expressions."