Performing Identity/performing Culture

Critical Dispositions

Evidence and Expertise in Education

Greg Dimitriadis

Set against the current proliferation of global "difference" and economic realignment, Critical Dispositions explores the notions of "evidence" and "expertise" in times of material scarcity. Both have come to the forefront of national and international debate in education as "evidence" and "evidence-based" research and pedagogical practices continue as major trends in educational policy. Author Greg Dimitriadis maintains this debate is best understood as part of a broader rise in professional and managerial discourses in various aspects of educational research and practice. Each aims to control and contain some aspect of research and practice in ways that are increasingly specific and targeted. As demonstrated through examples from critical intellectuals and artists outside the field of education, this current proliferation of specific, autonomous fields of inquiry and practice marks a much deeper ambivalence about our contemporary moment and how we understand it. Following Bourdieu and other theorists, Dimitriadis argues that educational researchers and practitioners today must be increasingly self-reflexive about the positions they take up in various fields of inquiry, what they allow us to see and to understand, what they blind us to. This kind of self-reflexivity, however, is becoming increasingly difficult today as material demands and dislocations are forcing educators to occupy particular fields in more specific ways. Unpacking this tension and offering alternative "thinking tools" is at the core of this volume.

Friendship, Cliques, and Gangs

Young Black Men Coming of Age in Urban America

Greg Dimitriadis

Looks at the complex lives of contemporary black youth, offering a view of the lives of two very different young black men and a discussion of the meaning of success as defined by the individual.

Studying Urban Youth Culture Primer

Greg Dimitriadis

This book provides a concise introduction to the practical and theoretical complexities of studying urban youth culture today. Looking across disciplines such as anthropology, sociology, and education, Dimitriadis explores the ways urban youth have been framed - in often limiting and problematic ways - in the popular and academic imagination. Moving beyond critique alone, this highly accessible primer opens a discussion about what a truly powerful, emergent field of «critical youth studies» might look like. Looking toward the future of this field, this book discusses the most important methodological and substantive trends and issues scholars will be addressing now and in the years to come. The Studying Urban Youth Culture Primer is an indispensable text for students in a range of qualitative methods and urban education courses.

On Qualitative Inquiry : Approaches to Language and Literacy Research

George Kamberelis

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Theory for Education

Greg Dimitriadis, George Kamberelis

Provides a pithy introduction to key contemporary thinkers - their lives, major works, and ideas - as they pertain to teaching.

On Qualitative Inquiry

Approaches to Language and Literacy Research (An NCRLL Volume)

George Kamberelis, Greg Dimitriadis

What does it mean to be “patriotic” in the United States after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001? And how have the prevailing notions of patriotism—loudly trumpeted in the American media—affected education in American schools? In this spirited book, renowned educational leaders and classroom practitioners answer these questions with insights, opinions, and hard facts. They focus on critical issues related to patriotism and democracy in education, including the social studies curriculum, military recruitment in schools, and student dissent. Contributors: Bill Ayers • Michael Bader • Robby Cohen • Sharon Cook • Louis Ganzler • Gerald Graff • Diana Hess • Joseph Kahne • Robert Jensen • Gloria Ladson-Billings • Deborah Meier • Ellen Middaugh • Pedro Noguera • Cecilia O’Leary • Diane Ravitch • and Joel Westheimer; Commentators: Bill Bigelow • Héctor Calderón • Edwin C. Darden • Peter Dreier • Delaine Eastin • Chester E. Finn • Jr. • Dick Flacks • Maxine Greene • Joan Kent Kvitka • James W. Loewen • Walter Parker • Charles Payne • Cindy Sheehan • Karen Emily Suurtamm • Studs Terkel • Denise Walsh. “What does it mean to be a democratic citizen? And what kind of education produces one? For the past two decades, Joel Westheimer has been one of North America’s most knowledgeable and able guides to these critical issues. Along the way, he has forced us to reconsider the larger goals and purposes of our public schools. His book will provide an invaluable roadmap for anyone who asks the big questions, no matter what they think of his answers.” —Jonathan Zimmerman, New York University “The essays in this book come at a critical moment and should be welcomed by anyone who is concerned that the values of peace, of democracy, be held high by the coming generation.” —From the Foreword by Howard Zinn, author of A People’s History of the United States “A valuable sourcebook for those who are uncertain about what patriotism is and, even more, for those who are certain that they know.” —Howard Gardner,author of Five Minds for the Future “By bringing together diverse and often divergent perspectives of patriotism, Pledging Allegiance opens to critical scrutiny the very idea of loyalty to a country. In doing so, it not only offers a useful educational resource but also performs a valuable political service. I can’t think of many books more likely to stimulate deep reflection and spirited discussion, and these activities, after all, are integral to democracy itself.” —Alfie Kohn, author of What Does It Mean to Be Well Educated?

Bernard Berenson, the Making of a Legend

Ernest Samuels, Jayne Samuels

Controversy swirls around Bernard Berenson today as it did in his middle years, before and between two world wars. Who was this man, this supreme connoisseur of Italian Renaissance painting? How did he support his elegant estate near Florence, his Villa I Tatti? What exactly were his relations with the art dealer Joseph Duveen? What part did his wife, Mary, play in his scholarly work and professional career? The answers are to be found in the day-to-day record of his life as he lived it--as reported at first hand in his and Mary's letters and diaries and reflected in the countless personal and business letters they received. His is one of the most fully documented lives of this century. Ernest Samuels, having spent twenty years studying the thousands of letters and other manuscripts, presents his story in absorbing detail. Berenson helped Isabella Stewart Gardner build her great collection and performed similar though lesser services for other wealthy Americans. It was merely an avocation and a useful source of income; his vocation was scholarship. But after 1904, when the book opens, his expertise was in ever-greater demand: a purchaser's only assurance of the authorship of an Italian painting was the opinion of an expert, and in this field Berenson was pre-eminent. Increasingly he was drawn into the lucrative world of the art dealers; inevitably Joseph Duveen found it essential to enlist his services, at first ad hoc, then by contractual agreement. Samuels charts the course of Berenson's long association with Duveen Brothers, detailing the financial arrangements, the humdrum chores and major contested attributions, the periodic clashes between the stubborn scholar and the arrogant entrepreneur. The portrayal of Berenson's relationship with Mary is especially intriguing: a union of opposites in all but brains and wit, bonded--despite love affairs, jealousies, recriminations--no longer by passion but by shared concerns. Impinging on their lives are those of a huge circle of friends and acquaintances in America and the beau monde of Europe. Both as biography and as a chapter of social and cultural history, it is a compelling book.

Creative Industries

Contracts Between Art and Commerce

Richard E. Caves

Drawing on industrial economics and contract theory, Caves explores the organization of creative industries, including visual and performing arts, movies, theater, sound recordings, and book publishing. In each, artistic inputs are combined with “humdrum” inputs. But Caves finds the deals bringing these inputs together are inherently problematic.

The Counter-arts Conspiracy

Art and Industry in the Age of Blake

Morris Eaves

William Blake thought that the art establishment of Georgian England was controlled by 'a gang of cunning hired knaves' conspiring to suppress genuine originality and creativity. This ground-breaking study examines the reasons for his belief, and sets it against the political, commercial, religious and technological conditions of the day. Extensively illustrated with contemporary prints, the study also casts light on the crisis that affected English painting at the time, and on Blake's unique response to the birth of mass communication.

Create and Be Recognized

Photography on the Edge

John Turner, Deborah Klochko, Roger Cardinal

Create and Be Recognized is the first survey of a compelling, always surprising art form -- outsider photography. Presented here is the work of seventeen largely self-taught artists who have used photography or photographic elements in their creations, including such luminaries as Adolf Wolfli, Howard Finster, and Henry Darger, as well as discoveries from little known, equally dramatic artists. As with most outsider art, the work here is fuelled by singular passions, marginalized mindsets, and extreme circumstances, falling outside mainstream picture-making. Employing collage (affixing photos or reproductions to a background), photocollage (photographs cut and pasted together to form a new whole), and tableaux (works based on manipulation and staging), the artists here present work that is, by turns, lyrical and frightening, and always fascinating. Published to coincide with a major touring exhibition of the same name originating at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Create and Be Recognized documents an emerging and important facet of contemporary photography.

Afterlife as Afterimage

Understanding Posthumous Fame

Steve Jones, Joli Jensen

The mass media make it possible for fame to be enhanced and transformed posthumously. What does it mean to fans when a celebrity dies, and how can death change the way that celebrities are perceived and celebrated? How do we mourn and remember? What can different forms of communication reveal about the role of media in our lives? Through a provocative look at the lives and legacy of popular musicians from Elvis to Tupac and from Louis Prima to John Lennon, Afterlife as Afterimage analyzes the process of posthumous fame to give us new insights into the consequences of mediation, and it illuminates the complex nature of fandom, community formation, and identity construction.

Art & Money

Marc Shell

A frank, provocative, and entirely unconventional look at two worlds in tandem--the realms of money and art. Profusely illustrated, the book investigates how money becomes (or is) artwork and how artwork comes to assume some of the characteristics of money. 9 color plates; 100 halftones.

Youth Identities, Localities, and Visual Material Culture

Making Selves, Making Worlds

Kristen Ali Eglinton

This invaluable addition to Springer’s Explorations of Educational Purpose series is a revelatory ethnographic account of the visual material culture of contemporary youths in North America. The author’s detailed study follows apparently dissimilar groups (black and Latino/a in a New York City after-school club, and white and Indigenous in a small Canadian community) as they inflect their nascent identities with a sophisticated sense of visual material culture in today’s globalized world. It provides detailed proof of how much ethnography can add to what we know about young people’s development, in addition to its potential as a model to explore new and significant avenues in pedagogy. Supported by a wealth of ethnographic evidence, the analysis tracks its subjects’ responses to strikingly diverse material ranging from autobiographical accounts by rap artists to the built environment. It shows how young people from the world’s cultural epicenter, just like their counterparts in the sub-Arctic, construct racial, geographic and gender identities in ways that are subtly responsive to what they see around them, blending localized characteristics with more widely shared visual references that are now universally accessible through the Web. The work makes a persuasive case that youthful engagement with visual material culture is a relational and productive activity that is simultaneously local and global, at once constrained and enhanced by geography, and possesses a potent and life-affirming authenticity. Densely interwoven with young people’s perspectives, the author’s account sets out an innovative and interdisciplinary conceptual framework affording fresh insights into how today’s youth assimilate what they perceive to be significant. Supported by a wealth of ethnographic evidence, the analysis tracks itssubjects’ responses to strikingly diverse material ranging from autobiographical accounts by rap artists to the built environment. It shows how young people from the world’s cultural epicenter, just like their counterparts in the sub-Arctic, construct racial, geographic and gender identities in ways that are subtly responsive to what they see around them, blending localized characteristics with more widely shared visual references that are now universally accessible through the Web. The work makes a persuasive case that youthful engagement with visual material culture is a relational and productive activity that is simultaneously local and global, at once constrained and enhanced by geography, and possesses a potent and life-affirming authenticity. Densely interwoven with young people’s perspectives, the author’s account sets out an innovative and interdisciplinary conceptual framework affording fresh insights into how today’s youth assimilate what they perceive to be significant. Supported by a wealth of ethnographic evidence, the analysis tracks its subjects’ responses to strikingly diverse material ranging from autobiographical accounts by rap artists to the built environment. It shows how young people from the world’s cultural epicenter, just like their counterparts in the sub-Arctic, construct racial, geographic and gender identities in ways that are subtly responsive to what they see around them, blending localized characteristics with more widely shared visual references that are now universally accessible through the Web. The work makes a persuasive case that youthful engagement with visual material culture is a relational and productive activity that is simultaneously local and global, at once constrained and enhanced by geography, and possesses a potent and life-affirming authenticity. Densely interwoven with young people’s perspectives, the author’s account sets out an innovative andinterdisciplinary conceptual framework affording fresh insights into how today’s youth assimilate what they perceive to be significant.

Hip-Hop Genius 2.0

Remixing High School Education

Sam Seidel

Many educators already know that hip-hop can be a powerful tool for engaging students. But can hip-hop save our schools—and our society? Hip-Hop Genius 2.0 introduces an iteration of hip-hop education that goes far beyond studying rap music as classroom content. Through stories about the professional rapper who founded the first hip-hop high school and the aspiring artists currently enrolled there, Sam Seidel lays out a vision for how hip-hop’s genius—the resourceful creativity and swagger that took it from a local phenomenon to a global force—can lead to a fundamental remix of the way we think of teaching, school design, and leadership. This 10-year anniversary edition welcomes two new contributing authors, Tony Simmons and Michael Lipset, who bring direct experience running the High School for Recording Arts. The new edition includes new forewords from some of the most prominent names in education and hip-hop, reflections on ten more years of running a hip-hop high school, updates to every chapter from the first edition, details of how the school navigated the unprecedented complexities brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic and uprising in response to the murder of George Floyd, and an inspiring new concluding chapter that is a call to action for the field.

Shakespeare and the Cultures of Performance

Paul Edward Yachnin, Patricia Badir

Using the tools of theatre history in their investigation into the phenomenology of the performance experience, the essays here also consider the social, ideological and institutional contingencies that determine the production and reception of the living spectacle. The contributors strive to bring better understanding to Shakespeare's imaginative investment in the relationship between theatrical production and the emotional, intellectual and cultural effects of performance broadly defined in social terms.

Handbook of Research in the Social Foundations of Education

Steven Tozer, Bernardo P. Gallegos, Annette Henry, Mary Bushnell Greiner, Paula Groves Price

This groundbreaking volume helps readers understand the history, evolution, and significance of this wide-ranging, often misunderstood, and increasingly important field of study.

Performing Identities

The Politics of Culture in a Nicaraguan Community

Katherine Borland

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Performance and Identity in Popular Culture's Re/presentations of Tinku Ritual by Andean People

Rodolfo Meyer

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