Matthew Martinez, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Spatial Structures in the Social Sciences

Using a unique dataset of over 1,600 rap songs spanning 16 years, this project investigates how Hip-Hop has changed over time based on the influence of major record label control as witnessed through changes in lyrical vulgarity. Findings are focused on both the changing structure of commodification avenues in the record industry and subcultural changes in Hip-Hop as experienced through lyrical content modifications.

This seminar takes the phenomenon of transnational fashion week as its object of study. Once located primarily in Paris, New York, or Milan, the fashion week calendar now runs year-round and across the globe: Toronto, Dubai, Singapore, and even Phoenix, Arizona. Threading together scholarship in queer, global fashion, and American studies, we will analyze transnational fashion week’s messy and glamorous dualities and their repercussions for couture’s performance of elite global capitalism.

As grant funding becomes more and more competitive, how can you strategically define and explain your research to funding sources? This workshop will provide tips and strategies for grant-writing success: applying for seed funding, larger research grants, and dissertation and postdoctoral fellowships.

This workshop will be facilitated by Denise Cruz, Assistant Professor of English, University of Toronto.

Please join us on Friday, March 4, at 12:00 pm (lunch provided) for “How Structural Racism Works,” a lecture by Tom Shapiro, Pokross Professor of Law and Social Policy and Director of the Institute on Assets and Social Policy at Brandeis. Tom Shapiro will speak over lunch about his research, particularly the role homeownership, race and intergenerational inheritance, which led to his book, The Hidden Cost of Being African American: How Wealth Perpetuates Inequality.

Colleen Kim Daniher, Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow, Theatre Arts and Performance Studies

This talk considers the politics and aesthetics of performing racial ambiguity in Filipina-American artist Gina Osterloh's photographic portraiture. Through an analysis of pose, posture, and gesture in Osterloh's Shooting Blanks series (2008), Daniher offers some preliminary thoughts on why articulating racial ambiguity as strategic performance matters.

Leticia Alvarado, Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies and American Studies

This talk will offer a brief synopsis of Alvarado's current book project, Abject Performance Aesthetic Strategies in Latino Cultural Production. She will also share cursory thoughts on a developing projects on the figure of the Latina Femme.

“What I Am Thinking About Now” is an on-going informal workshop/seminar series to which faculty and graduate students are invited to present and discuss recently published work and work in progress.

Please join us on Wednesday, February 17, at 6:30 pm for “How Structural Racism Works,” a Brown faculty and Postdoctoral Fellow roundtable discussion, led by Tricia Rose, Director, Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America (CSREA) and sponsored by the Office of the Provost. The discussion will focus on the role of structural racism in contemporary US society and its relationships to neoliberalism, racial ideology, immigration, gender, poverty and more.

This event has been canceled and will be rescheduled at a later time. Sorry for any inconvenience.