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Acclaimed program of ideas, in-depth analysis, and commentary on a variety of matters—political, economic, social, and cultural—important to progressive and radical thinking and activism. Against the Grain is co-produced and co-hosted by Sasha Lilley and C. S. Soong.
Lawrence Grossberg explains what the cultural theorist Stuart Hall meant by a war of positions and a war of maneuvers. We also present portions of a talk Hall gave about the dynamics of media representation. And Yousuf Al-Bulushi examines certain political stances taken by South Africa’s shack dweller movement. Lawrence Grossberg, On the Way to … Continued
The union movement is suffering from a conundrum. While the U.S public overwhelmingly supports unions, labor lacks the capacity to help workers organize and unionize. Labor scholar and organizer Eric Blanc argues that there is a new and promising way of organizing from the bottom up, which emerged during Trump’s first term and flourished through … Continued
How is the War on Terror playing out in a country like Kenya? What are its security forces doing at the U.S.’s behest, and how are ordinary Kenyans responding? Samar Al-Bulushi discusses the emergence of supranational forms of police power and their impact on human rights activism. Samar Al-Bulushi, War-Making as Worldmaking: Kenya, the United … Continued
Many assume the majority of people living on the streets struggle with mental illness or just need jobs — and that homelessness is unfortunate, but intractable. Longtime advocate for the unhoused, Mary Brosnahan, argues that these are myths, and that much of what we assume about homelessness is wrong. She posits that at its root … Continued
What can – and can’t – you say and do as a Palestinian American teacher? Can you speak frankly about Palestine, about the occupation and oppression, about the Israel-U.S. relationship? Can you support student inquiry into matters that rankle Zionist colleagues? Social-studies educator Luma Hasan encountered intolerance and pushback while working at a reputedly liberal high school. … Continued
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke about race, segregation, poverty, militarism, and nonviolent resistance in two talks, one he gave in Hollywood, in March 1968, and the other in London, in December 1964. Pacifica Radio Archives (Image on main page by Wes Candela.)
We assume that the collection of our data by Big Tech companies — to scrutinize, categorize, and use for commercial and other unsanctioned purposes — is unique to our era. But scholar Anita Say Chan illustrates how the eugenics movement in the 19th and 20th centuries amassed and analyzed data in order to justify social … Continued
In his new book, Lawrence Grossberg describes ways of thinking that have laid the foundation for the development of contemporary Western theory. Two of the thinkers he writes about are Friedrich Nietzsche, who “rejected the enlightenments,” and Stuart Hall, a pioneer in the field of cultural studies. Lawrence Grossberg, On the Way to Theory Duke … Continued
It was the first of its kind program of mass surveillance: the surreal, and initially-secret, deployment of an unmanned plane flying in circles over the city of Baltimore. Sociologist Benjamin Snyder discusses the Baltimore Police Department’s short-lived experiment in spying on the city’s residents. He considers how technologies like the spy plane are both embraced … Continued
Classrooms are places where teaching happens. What if they were also places of healing and justice-seeking? Tessa Hicks Peterson describes educational approaches that foster well-being, empowerment, and critical thinking. She also emphasizes the need for trauma-informed pedagogical practices. Tessa Hicks Peterson, Liberating the Classroom: Healing and Justice in Higher Education Johns Hopkins University Press, 2025
