Culture

By Aram Goudsouzian | – In the summer of 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. introduced the keynote speaker for the 10th-anniversary convention banquet of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Their guest, he said, was his “soul brother.” “He has carved for himself an imperishable niche in the annals of our nation’s history,” King told the […]

Climate Crisis

‘Don’t Look Up’: Hollywood’s primer on climate denial illustrates 5 myths that fuel rejection of science

The Conversation

By Gale Sinatra and Barbara K. Hofer | – Every disaster movie seems to open with a scientist being ignored. “Don’t Look Up” is no exception – in fact, people ignoring or flat out denying scientific evidence is the point. Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence play astronomers who make a literally Earth-shattering discovery and then […]

Featured

Emma Watson of Harry Potter Fame expresses Solidarity with Palestinians, is Smeared as Anti-Semite by Far-Right Likudnik

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – British actress Emma Watson, 31, whom many remember from her childhood role as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films, is all grown up. And she made big waves on the internet by posting an image to Instagram that showed Palestinians protesting, waving the Palestinian flag, and demanding a “free […]

Books

Review: ‘The Nutmeg’s Curse’ by Novelist Amitav Ghosh traces Climate Crisis Origins to European Colonialism

The Third Pole

By Joydeep Gupta | – ( The Third Pole) – In his latest book, Amitav Ghosh identifies the beginning of the climate crisis as the point where total exploitation – of both lands and people – became the prevailing mode of growth in the world economy I did not ‘like’ The Nutmeg’s Curse by Amitav […]

Culture

New Year Joy: the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – I am rewriting a previous essay here, quoting some extra poems different from the ones I used last year, but my big points remain the same. After the dark year of 2021, I thought it might be nice to talk about poetry and rebirth today. The quatrains or Rubaiyat attributed […]

Culture

Why ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ is a lesson in Restorative Justice needed by our Vindictive Politics

Waging Nonviolence

Raven Yamamoto | – This article contains spoilers for “Spider-Man: No Way Home.” ( Waging Nonviolence) – I went into “Spider-Man: No Way Home” thinking it was going to be another feel-good film about one of my favorite characters to come out of Marvel’s long list of heroes. But I was happily surprised to find […]

art and photography

The Nativity, Jesus and Mary in Paintings of the Muslim Mughal Court of India

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Here’s a Christmas entry. The Mughal dynasty, originating in what is now Uzbekistan, ruled India from 1526 until the 18th century, though the dynasty continued under British rule until 1857. Some of the members of the royal family were remarkably open-minded about religion, being a Muslim minority in a sea […]

Archaeology

Israeli Archeologists find Christian Ring with Image of Christ as Shepherd in Shipwreck from era of Constantine

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A marine unit of the Israel Antiquities Authority diving off the ruins of the ancient city of Caesarea Maritima has announced two spectacular finds in the form of two shipwrecks. One was from the Muslim Mamluk era, around 1400. The other was an early fourth-century Roman ship from Italy. The […]

African-Americans

bell hooks will never Leave Us – She lives on through the Truth of her Words

The Conversation

By Karsonya Wise Whitehead | – I was introduced to the work of bell hooks for the first time when I was 14 years old, sitting on my Nana’s porch, complaining about the mosquitoes and the heat. My Nana, who was probably frustrated by my endless complaints about being bored, stuck a copy of “Ain’t […]