Islands of Detroit: Affect,Nostalgia and Whiteness

Abstract

‘Islands of Detroit’ explores the possibilities for an ‘everyday, oppositional whiteness’, a thoughtful randomness, as a corrective to ‘reactionary’ and ‘evasive’ forms of whiteness which often embed themselves in populist media sites for nostalgia. Drawing on the theoretical work of Svetlana Boym, Uday Singh Mehta and Roland Barthes, this essay looks in particular at a coffee table book, The Way it Was (2004 Bulanda, G., ed. 2004. The Way It Was: Glimpses of Detroit’s History from the Pages of Hour Detroit Magazine, Royal Oak, MI: Momentum.  [Google Scholar]), and its generic sentimentalism, to understand how certain white visual representations of Detroit affectively generate nostalgia, which can in turn conceal pasts and racial tensions. Looking at the history of Detroit (with particular attention on how the two infamous race riots are and are not negotiated), Islands examines visual images of the city – as opposed to the city itself – through the discursive lenses of nostalgia, modernity and affect, while positing that the histories and identities of Detroit remain irreducible to the images which attempt to capture them.     

Mediating a compromised solidarity

ABSTRACT

This article explores popular media as resources for judgment in how settled migrants in Europe imagine solidarities toward newer arrivals seeking entry into the region. It discusses the news and entertainment consumption of Filipino nurses in London and how this figures in their imaginary of social and political bonds with refugees. Drawing on ethnographic interviews, I argue that these Filipino migrants can only articulate a compromised solidarity: one fractured between empathy with refugees and concern about what these newer arrivals might mean for settled migrants in the city. I then explain how the media contribute to this fracturing. One way is that the xenophobia in popular media content on social media leads the Filipinos to assert their difference with other migrants, including refugees. A second is that the Filipinos deploy popular media content, especially on British television, to assert that they belong to UK society more than other migrants, again including refugees.     

Courting Apocalypse: Creating a Zombie-Themed Evidence-Based Medicine Game

In 2015, two librarians at the Hardin Library for the Health Sciences at the University of Iowa turned their dreams into a reality and secured funding to build a zombie-themed evidence-based medicine game. The game features a “choose your own adventure” style that takes students through a scenario where a disease outbreak is taking place and a resident is asked to use evidence-based medicine skills to select a screening and diagnostic tool to use on potentially infected patients. Feedback on the game has been positive, and future plans include building additional modules on therapy, harm, and prognosis.     

“Blockers” do not block recall during tip-of-the-tongue states

Tip-of-the-Tongue experiences (TOTs) are often accompanied by incorrect answers (blockers) that come to mind persistently and seem to block recall. According to the blocking hypothesis, blockers cause retrieval difficulty during TOTs. We predicted that delay would allow participants to forget their blockers, and thereby enhance TOT resolution. In Experiment 1 participants were asked trivia questions and then retested on the ones that elicited TOTs, either immediately or after a delay. There was an incubation effect overall, with greater TOT resolution after a delay than on an immediate test. Contrary to the blocking hypothesis, however, delay did not enhance resolution of blocked TOTs more than non-blocked TOTs. In Experiment 2, during the retest, participants were reminded of their previous blockers on some questions, but the reminders did not affect TOT resolution. These findings suggest that blockers may be a side effect, not a cause, of retrieval difficulty during TOTs. This paper is based on the first author’s Master’s thesis.     

两个朋友和一只熊

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