Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department’s Proposed Exclusion Zone Policy Is Racist
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police is considering adopting a policy that prohibits people with arrest/criminal records from being in specific “high-crime” areas called “safety zones”. As the Charlotte Observer‘s Steve Harrison explains, Here is how they would work: If CMPD found an area…
My SPEP 2015 Paper: Noisy Feminists, Neoliberal Sophrosyne, & Post-Identity Politics
It’s time for SPEP this year, and that means it’s time for me to post the text of my paper (that’s link to a gdoc). My session is Thursday afternoon, and I’ll be doing the typical Robin thing where I take a…
On the Origin of “Gender” and “Race”
In my social & political philosophy class, we’re beginning the course by talking about social contract theory. The other day we considered Charles Mills’ claim that a theory of a prior “domination contract” would put us “in a position to…
“Music as Predictive Science”: Attali, music, & the science of forecasting
For as influential as Attali’s Noise has been, most scholars have sidestepped its central claim: “music is prophecy” (11). It feels really undersupported; Attali asserts that music anticipates or foreshadows social change, but he doesn’t seem to provide anything more…
A few quick thoughts on Stadlers’s “The Whiteness of Sound Studies”
Gus Stadler published a smart and needed critique of the whiteness of sound studies as a discipline. It’s a great piece, and not just because it quotes me, lol. I wanted to post a few informal reflections on the piece,…
30 Day Song Challenge, Day 23: A Song You Want Played At Your Wedding
I got married 10 years ago this October, one month after I defended my dissertation, so I think that this question is more historical than speculative: there were songs played at my wedding…not like I remember what they were. We…
30 Day Song Challenge, Day 22: A Song You Wish You Had Written
Surprise surprise, I like to break songs down more than I like to write them; analysis is more my thing than composition. I’ve been thinking about this question for days, and, honestly, I keep coming up with null set. Like,…
30 Day Song Challenge, Day 21: A Song That Is Best Heard Live
So, for me, the point of seeing live music is social–listening and dancing with other people. This is probably because the music I like most generally sounds better when recorded: there’s a lot of subtle details that just don’t always…
30 Day Song Challenge, Day 20: A Song To Listen To While You’re Angry
I made a Beats playlist titled “Fed Up”–it’s full of songs to listen to when I’m angry. But, there are a lot of different kinds of anger–some more seething, some more immediately aggressive. Whatever kind of anger I’m feeling, I…
30 Day Song Challenge, Day 19: A Song Bar Bands Should Stop Playing
Ok, in sticking with yesterday’s substitution of “DJ” for “Bar Band,” I’ll pick a song DJs should stop playing in their sets. I’m really tempted to say something like “All songs by VNV Nation,” but as with all the ‘dislike’ challenges…
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