Covers for Plusieurs vies by Rachid O.; l’Enfant de sable by Tahar Ben Jelloun; and Une mélancolie arabe by Abdellah Taïa

Queer Literature from North Africa and the Maghreb: A Reading List

Theoretical and literary works that explore themes of queerness, identity, and resistance within the context of North Africa and the Maghreb.
The Japanese section of the Food Products Building at the 1915 World's Fair in San Francisco

Sanitizing Foreign Food at the World’s Fair

At the 1915 San Francisco Panama-Pacific International Exposition, “food purity” was shorthand for food manufactured without the help of a racially diverse labor force.
Vintage engraving of young girl pour her sick mother a cup of tea, 19th Century

The Dangers of Tea Drinking

In nineteenth century Ireland, tea could be a symbol of cultivation and respectability or ill health and chaos, depending on who was drinking it.
A barbed wire fence runs along a beach near the Korean Demilitarized Zone, on February 3, 2018 near Goseong-gun, South Korea.

The Accidental Nature Preserve of the DMZ

The 1952 Korean War armistice set up a demilitarized zone between North Korea and South, inadvertently creating a critical nature sanctuary.
African american jazz musician with saxophone in front of old wooden wall.

The Debtor’s Blues: Music and Forced Labor

Debt peonage is often associated with agricultural labor, but in the early twentieth century, Black musicians found themselves trapped in its exploitative cycle.
Mallards

Nature Fakers and Real Naturalists

John Burroughs, supported by Theodore Roosevelt, castigated popular nature writers for being too sentimental. They responded by calling Roosevelt a sham naturalist.
Aimé Césaire, Conference on Negritude, Ethnicity and Afro Cultures in the Americas

Négritude’s Enduring Legacy: Black Lives Matter

Today's anti-racist activism builds on the work of Black Francophone writers who founded the Pan-African Négritude movement in the 1930s.
Illustration from Le Roman du Renard

What Makes Foxes So Fantastic?

In stories from around the world, foxes offer rewards or punishments to humans, play tricks on their fellow animals, and sometimes transform into foxy ladies.
Iron Man

The MCU: A Tale of American Exceptionalism

Evolving from a hated weapons manufacturer into a technocratic solution to the War on Terror, Iron Man epitomizes a militarized, defensive America.
A cover of Frauen Liebe, 1928

Publishing Queer Berlin

Weimar Germany was an improbably safe space for newspapers and magazines by and for lesbians.