Joshua May

Joshua May and the Search for Philosophical Nuance

In his teaching and his research, philosopher Joshua May reminds us that binary, all-or-nothing arguments often rest on false dichotomies.
Cross Reference image

“Kapow!” It’s Time for Cross Reference

This month’s crossword puzzle features an onomatopoeic opener!
Mary Oyama

Dear Deirdre: The Japanese American Agony Aunt

Using the nom de plume Deirdre, California-born writer Mary “Mollie” Oyama Mittwer offered advice on changing gender roles and cross-ethnic relationships.
Passengers pass through the TSA checkpoint at the Miami International Airport on December 17, 2024 in Miami, Florida

Going Through TSA While Trans

The TSA’s Secure Flight Program, instituted in 2009, makes gender into an object of state surveillance.
Grace Hopper at the UNIVAC keyboard, c. 1960.

Talking with Machines: Computer Programming as Language

The proliferation of different types of computing machines in the 1950s enabled—or perhaps forced—the creation of programming languages.
The Canada Lumberman, 1882

French Canadians in the New England Woods

Immigrants from Quebec held a distinct position in an American labor landscape in which experts viewed different “races” as being suited to different kinds of work.
Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson: A Vote for Cutting Off Your Nose

To reduce Virginia’s use of the death penalty, Thomas Jefferson proposed using permanent disfigurement as a punishment for rape, polygamy, and sodomy.
Isis Theater, 1932

The Chinese Movie Theater in Shanghai’s “No Man’s Land”

The Isis Theater of pre-war Shanghai occupied a unique space as a Chinese-run cinema in an international “contact zone.”
A set of dummies propped up in the Sahara Desert awaiting a third atomic bomb explosion during the French nuclear testing.

Nuclear France’s Empire of the Bomb

The first French nuclear bomb test took place in the Sahara in 1960 in the midst of the Algerian War, but French history doesn’t connect the two events.