Naming and Erasing

An image of a news headline on USA Today regarding Justin Trudeau

By Stacie Swain

The framing of tragedies by government officials and state actors in the USA and Canada this past week raise questions regarding the boundaries around “victims” and related categories – “perpetrators” or often in modern times, “terrorists” – and how such shifting boundaries are constructed and contested through strategies of naming and erasing. Continue reading “Naming and Erasing”

Immigration and Two Forms of Identification

An image of signs at an immigration protest in BaltimoreRecognizing identifications as narrative constructs or fixed identities organizes the world in particular ways that inform the debate over the immigration order that Trump issued last Friday, shutting down admission of refugees for 120 days and banning citizens of 7 predominately Muslim countries from entering the US for 90 days. Certainly, one aspect of the debate hinges on a person’s willingness to generalize an entire nationality as a threat, as some have asserted that everyone from those countries hates the United States, but these two models of identification also serve different functions in different settings.

Continue reading “Immigration and Two Forms of Identification”

Muslim Terror

An image of a woman lighting a candle

By Ian Alexander Cuthbertson

On January 29, 2017 six people were killed and others left in critical condition following a shooting at a mosque in Sainte-Foy Québec. What is at stake in classifying this tragedy as a terrorist attack?

Terrorism, however it is defined, remains a key social and political issue worldwide. Given global concerns concerning terrorism and especially so-called Islamic terrorism, it is interesting to note that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Québec Premier Philippe Couillard both quickly described the Sainte-Foy shooting as a terrorist attack.

An image of Justin Trudeau's tweet regarding the terrorist attack in Quebec

An image of Philippe Couillard's tweet about Quebec terrorist attack Continue reading “Muslim Terror”

When We Want Alternative Facts

Among the most sensational elements of this week’s political news was the debate over the number of people who appeared across an approximately 24 hour window on the National Mall in Washington D.C., the site of both the Trump presidential inauguration and the Women’s March in protest the next day.  The controversy started over this particular series of photos, which featured the population attending the inauguration:

An image of Washington D.C.

and those attending the Women’s March:

An image of a live news broadcast Continue reading “When We Want Alternative Facts”

Welcome to Chapter Two!

The Culture on the Edge collaborative is excited to start Chapter 2 of our blog. This chapter will present new peer reviewed content, including posts from members of the collaborative and invited contributors, with a focus on the analytical gains that recognizing the strategic construction of identifications enables. Members of the collaborative will review posts from invited contributors, providing feedback quickly to keep the posts current. With all of the developments around the globe, the approaches that we emphasize continue to be relevant and productive. Continue reading “Welcome to Chapter Two!”