As instructors are pulling together syllabi for the upcoming school year, I wanted to share another excerpt from my recent book Critical Foundations in Young Adult Literature: Challenging Genres. Like the excerpt shared earlier looking at depictions of female sexuality in Divergent and the Daughter of Smoke and Bone, this excerpt challenges assumptions developed over […]
Wondering if getting death threats and calling a new hip-hop album “I”m Gay” elevate the discourse. Wondering when these actions will funnel into youth popular culture at my school.
I’m slowly flipping through Tim Ferris’s Tools of Titans and a couple of academic books, so I think it’s time for my annual tally: Books read in 2016: 156 Comics and graphic novels included in reading total: 30 Books of poetry included in reading total: 2 Books reread included in reading total: 2 Academic & […]
I think it’s getting worse. I used to hold my tongue and nod along with everyone else. The problem is I’m tired of not seeing folks of color in films. I’m tired of picking “good” YA texts for the classes I’m teaching and seeing white privilege reinforced on every page. I’m tired of not seeing […]
So I’m kinda into The Voice. A week in a hotel + Hulu = completely caught up and officially rooting for Beverly. I was hooked by the blindfolded recruitment phase. In some ways it reminds me of the process of entering the realm of academia: reviewing writing and intellectual ephemera, top-of-the-field professors recruit graduate students […]
I realize you may not be able to hear me over the general choir of groaning that this post will explore current reality television, but I assure you, there is some good news here. I’ve now seen the first two episodes of the current season of the Real World, where not 7, but 8 lucky […]
Though it didn’t make any huge headlines the day after, I think that Friday’s lockdown will need some in-depth debriefing on Monday. At least for me, it is frustrating to see our school’s media attention focused on these events only. How many times did the news play images of our students being escorted in […]
I’ve apparently dropped the ball. It wasn’t until last Thursday, when I casually picked up the LA Weekly, as always, that I saw Frank’s mug on the cover, carefully thumbed to the corresponding feature, anxiously read through the contents, confirmed the details, and dealt with the realization that Joe’s Garage is finally getting a proper […]
So thumbing through the new issue of Urb, I was stoked to see my editor, Joshua Glazer, mention a reading at Family Bookstore that went down in March. It reminded me of an interview I did for a now defunct Website five years ago. Not my best work, but I’m always a fan of what […]