I’m so proud to announce Compass’ Fall 2019 Issue. The papers we’ve published this year reflect all of the vibrant, interdisciplinary work that is happening within Gallatin. Our authors have […]
The Sociocultural Praxis of Dressing Jewish: The Sociocultural Praxis of Dressing Jewish A Critical Phenomenology of Hasidic Material Culture
Hasidism is an affiliation within ultra-Orthodox Judaism that makes up a small percentage of American Jewry yet has captivated cultural interest for its elusive practices of isolation and ostensible rejection of modern secular culture.[1] Particularly in New York City, communities of religious Jews maintain historical traditions in the face of dynamic cultural change, living alongside secular communities while maintaining disparate cultural practices.
Weaponizing Cosmopolitanism: The Trojan Horse of the 17th Century Indian Sub-Continent
Correct categorization, and thus rationalization, of textiles is often difficult to determine in the early modern studies of the Indian subcontinent. This identified problem can be contributed to a variety of causes, but prominently to the instability of governance during Mughal imperialism, the sparse written record of trade transactions in India, the catering of desired aesthetics to different markets by producers, and the various cross-cultural interactions between groups in the period.
Thomas Demand’s “Kitchen (2004)”, and the Modern Conceptual Protest
More than 50 years after the Vietnam war and the birth of the Conceptualist movement, the artist Thomas Demand’s 2004 piece entitled “Kitchen” is a natural successor to these ideas. While Demand’s art is not a reaction to an external conflict of forced conscription and idealistic visions of global American expansion, it is a reaction to a modern conflict: discerning truth in a media-saturated environment.
Cinematic Evidence of Forbidden Death
In this paper I discuss two American films, Above and Beyond (1952) and Avengers: Endgame (2019), in order to compare representations and imaginings of mass modern death. I situate these films within Aries’ framework, not necessarily because it is entirely correct, but because it is helpful in thinking through what these movies mean in the context of American attitudes towards death, dying, and grief.
Negotiating Muslim and Hui Identities: Mosques, Policies, the Entanglement of Religion and Ethnicity
In this paper, I shall argue that the general misconception has made the new round of policy change more effective for it advertises a more authentic Muslim identity that is not compatible with bieng Chinese. By reenforcing the incompatibility, tensions among different groups only escalate and the fear of the government for secessionist sentiments only increase, which would only result in a more forceful implementation of the policies, rather than protecting the imaginary distinctive identity.
Constructing the Climate Change Aesthetic: The East Side Coastal Resiliency Project
Environmental concerns over the East River have advanced to a level beyond the local threat of contamination. In the twenty-first century, Manhattan must begin to prepare for an even more catastrophic prospect with far-reaching and irreversible implications: climate change.
A Maelstrom of Occupation: Plastiglomerate and the Incursion of Material Empire
Reframing plastiglomerate’s materiality through a political ecological framework and critical geographic theory, this paper politicizes the social and ecological conditions that establish the conglomerate and the spatial environment in which it inheres.