Month: September 2013

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We’re All Made Somewhere Else

mug2My wife and a good friend recently went to Waffle House, a favorite of people in the American south since 1955 — both retirees and blue collar workers looking for a cup’a joe as well as late night high school and college partiers looking for some after-hours carbs to offset the evening’s, shall we say, intake. That is, the stools at its counters strike me as populated by a curiously inter-generational mix of people who wear their trucker’s hats ironically and those who wear them just because they do. And although I wasn’t there for breakfast I got a mug out of the deal.

A mug made in China. Continue reading “We’re All Made Somewhere Else”

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The Latest Fad?

edgehairDid you catch this news story now making the rounds? It’s on a charter school in Oklahoma that apparently disagreed with a parent over what counts as a “proper” hairstyle. As reported by the local media:

Officials from Deborah Brown Community School in Tulsa declined speak to the station on camera, but the school policy states that “hairstyles such as dreadlocks, afros, mohawks, and other faddish styles are unacceptable.”

KOKI reported that the “school feels that could distract from the respectful and serious atmosphere it strives for.” Continue reading “The Latest Fad?”

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Whose Interests Are Served?

Aastha TV ChannelA video that focused on religion among the urban middle class in India a couple of years ago illustrates what happens when people discuss problems with applying the category “religion.” The journalist quotes Ashis Nandy, an internationally recognized scholar, who brings up the problems applying the category “religion” to the context of India (starting at 3:52). Continue reading “Whose Interests Are Served?”

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There’s No Place Like Home?: The Narrative of Fly-Over Country

Ruby SlippersI have lived most of my life in various parts of what some have referred to as “fly-over country,” a term often used to describe the vast majority of the U.S. that lies between the coasts.  As the name implies, the popular perception is that these places aren’t particularly worth a visit because they are thought to lack cultural diversity, professional opportunities, and are often considered to be the seedbeds of a tired but persistent traditionalism that denies the value of progressive thinking. Continue reading “There’s No Place Like Home?: The Narrative of Fly-Over Country”

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On the Spot with Merinda Simmons

“On the Spot” backs members of Culture on the Edge into a corner to talk about their backgrounds, their ongoing work, and what might be gained by an alternative understanding of how identity works.

merindaQ: Tell us a little bit about your doctoral studies, since they were not carried out in the academic study of religion, yet that’s the field in which you now work as a professor. How was your training in the Department of English relevant to the work you now do and the classes you now teach?

A: I never expected to end up teaching in a Religious Studies department.  But really, my studies in English overlap with the work I now do in a variety of ways.  The strands of literary criticism that I found most interesting were ones that questioned the roles of authorship, text, and readership.  The more literary theory I read, the more difficult it became for me to see “author” and “text”, for example, as two discrete categories.  I remember the first time I read “The Death of the Author” by Roland Barthes—I was completely floored.  And that was just the beginning!  Continue reading “On the Spot with Merinda Simmons”