It’s 2019, kids. There’s something in the air. What is that smell? Lemon balm? Hope? Silica particles from the L Train line?
At work, our colleagues seem to be lighter on their feet, their shoulders less hunched. Maybe it is the national dancing sensation known only as AOC (is that an acronym?), or the ever more visible evidence of the sundowning senescence of our president’s rotting tapioca brain. Maybe it’s the sense that, as Adam Duritz once said, “this year might be better than the last.” (As Adam Duritz also once said, “I want to be a pineapple when I grow up.”)
But let’s not get carried away. One of our editors is stricken with food poisoning and another had their car broken into, and we’re only a few days into 2019. Just in the last week, a doddering, syphilitic man referred to friend-of-the-blog Jacki Antonovich as “the red-headed girl” when she was presenting on an AHA panel, and expressed astonishment that she was, like, a doctor. The kids are still in cages, and the planet continues to turn into one not-nearly-big-enough airport smoking lounge.
But the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die. Here is some great work that we’ve been reading in the New Year.
Where Landlords Discriminate (CityLab)
Timeline: Alt Right and Far Right Mobilization in 2018 (Political Research)
A study in both contrast and evolution:
Victorious Transsexuals in the Courtroom: A Challenge for Feminist Legal Theory (Law & Social Inquiry, 2003)
Women’s colleges should admit trans students. It’s wholly consistent with their mission. (WaPo, 2019)
We regret to inform you that there is something called #Sokal2:
What the ‘Grievance Studies’ Hoax Means (Chronicle of Higher Ed)
Sabarimala: Women who defied temple mobs ‘have no fear’ (BBC)
A Chicago Police Officer Was Finally Convicted of Killing a Civilian (Daily Beast)
A growing number of Americans want to join a union (PBS)
Why We’re Giving Up Conferences in 2019 (Lady Science)
Le succès d’Emma, la dessinatrice qui défend un féminisme du quotidien (Le Monde)
Georgia ‘deportation bus’ GOP candidate reports to jail (Online Athens)
Nancy Grace Roman, ‘Mother Of Hubble’ Space Telescope, Has Died, At Age 93 (NPR)
Hey Google, What’s a Moonshot?: How Silicon Valley Mocks Apollo (Communications of the ACM)
The King of Pyongyang (BBC News)