The year 1998 represents the hundredth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Puerto Rico. Since that time, the "Puerto Rican archipelago" has come to extend from the island itself, up the Eastern seaboard, and as far west as California and Hawai'i. Puerto Rican Jam considers the issues unique to Puerto Rican culture and politics, issues often encapsulated in concerns about ethnicity, race, gender, and language. Discussions of Puerto Rican cultural politics usually fall into one of two categories, nationalist or colonialist. Puerto Rican Jam moves beyond this narrow dichotomy, elaborating alternatives to dominant postcolonial theories, and includes essays written from the perspectives of groups that are not usually represented, such as gays and lesbians, youth, blacks, and women. The essays propose different ways of conceptualizing the U.S.-Puerto Rican colonial relationship, thus opening new spaces for political, social, economic, and cultural agency for Puerto Ricans on both the island and the continent. Among the topics discussed are the limitations of nationalism as a transformative and democratizing political discourse, the contradictory impact of American colonialism, language politics, and the 1928 U.S. congressional hearings on women's suffrage in Puerto Rico. A groundbreaking contribution to the study of colonialism, Puerto Rican Jam represents an important engagement with issues raised by American expansionism in the Caribbean. Contributors: Jaime E. Benson-Arias, U of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez; Arlene Davila, Syracuse U; Chloe S. Georas, SUNY, Binghamton; Manuel Guzman, CUNY Graduate Center; Gladys M. Jimenez-Munoz, SUNY, Oneonta; Agustin Lao, SUNY, Binghamton; Yolanda Martinez-San Miguel, U of Puerto Rico; Mariano Negron-Portillo, U of Puerto Rico; Jose Quiroga, George Washington U; Raquel Z. Rivera, CUNY Graduate Center; Alberto Sandoval Sanchez, Mount Holyoke College; Kelvin A. Santiago-Valles, SUNY, Binghamton. Frances Negron-Muntaner is a doctoral candidate in comparative literature at Rutgers University, as well as a poet and filmmaker. Ramon Grosfoguel is assistant professor of sociology at the State University of New York, Binghamton.

View the Table of Contents
Read the Introduction.

"A perspicacious new book and one of the most intellectually exciting works of recent years, "Boricua Pop: Puerto Ricans and the latinization of American Culture" gives new meaning to the idea of the >>pleasure of the text.QBR"

"Provocative and broad-ranging . . . This eclectic, always interesting work will be certain to elicit discussion among faculty and students of ethnic studies, US popular culture, and Puerto Rican and Latino studies."--"Choice"

"Mixing the down and dirty with high culture to come up with good look at the transculture effects of it all."
--"San Juan Star"

aa groundbreaking piece of work on the persistence of colonialism-irreverent, tragicomical, and bittersweet.a
--New West Indian Guide

"Important, timely, and innovative, "Boricua Pop" is a stellar addition to a body of work that grows in importance over time. Negron-Muntaner's book is eagerly anticipated."
--Jose Quiroga, author of "Tropics of Desire"

aSuch an analysis uncovers the transcultural origins of all U.S. cultural production, hopefully provoking additional work that reconsiders and articulates these genealogies.a--"FIlm Quarterly"

""Boricua Pop"" is a foundational text in American, Latino/a, Queer, Performance, and Cultural Studies."
--Alberto Sandoval-Sanchez, Mount Holyoke College

Boricua Pop is the first book solely devoted to Puerto Rican visibility, cultural impact, and identity formation in the U.S. and at home. Frances Negron-Muntaner explores everything from the beloved American musical "West Side Story" to the phenomenon of singer/actress/ fashion designer Jennifer Lopez, from the faux historical chronicleSeva to the creation of Puerto Rican Barbie, from novelist Rosario Ferre to performer Holly Woodlawn, and from painter provocateur Andy Warhol to the seemingly overnight success story of Ricky Martin. Negron-Muntaner traces some of the many possible itineraries of exchange between American and Puerto Rican cultures, including the commodification of Puerto Rican cultural practices such as voguing, graffiti, and the Latinization of pop music. Drawing from literature, film, painting, and popular culture, and including both the normative and the odd, the canonized authors and the misfits, the island and its diaspora, Boricua Pop is a fascinating blend of low life and high culture: a highly original, challenging, and lucid new work by one of our most talented cultural critics.

None of the Above is a state-of-the-art volume about current debates regarding Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans, both in the United States and on the Island. The title simultaneously refers to the results of a non-binding 1998 plebiscite held in San Juan to determine the Island's political status, the ambiguities that have historically characterized Puerto Rican political agency, and the complexities of Puerto Rican ethnic, national, and cultural identifications.

On any given day in America's news cycle, stories and images of disgraced politicians and celebrities solicit our moral indignation, their misdeeds fueling a lucrative economy of shame and scandal. Shame is one of the most coercive, painful, and intriguing of human emotions. Only in recent years has interest in shame extended beyond a focus on the subjective experience of this emotion and its psychological effects. The essays collected here consider the role of shame as cultural practice and examine ways that public shaming practices enforce conformity and group coherence. Addressing abortion, mental illness, suicide, immigration, and body image among other issues, this volume calls attention to the ways shaming practices create and police social boundaries; how shaming speech is endorsed, judged, or challenged by various groups; and the distinct ways that shame is encoded and embodied in a nation that prides itself on individualism, diversity, and exceptionalism. Examining shame through a prism of race, sexuality, ethnicity, and gender, these provocative essays offer a broader understanding of how America's discourse of shame helps to define its people as citizens, spectators, consumers, and moral actors.

On any given day in America's news cycle, stories and images of disgraced politicians and celebrities solicit our moral indignation, their misdeeds fueling a lucrative economy of shame and scandal. Shame is one of the most coercive, painful, and intriguing of human emotions. Only in recent years has interest in shame extended beyond a focus on the subjective experience of this emotion and its psychological effects. The essays collected here consider the role of shame as cultural practice and examine ways that public shaming practices enforce conformity and group coherence. Addressing abortion, mental illness, suicide, immigration, and body image among other issues, this volume calls attention to the ways shaming practices create and police social boundaries; how shaming speech is endorsed, judged, or challenged by various groups; and the distinct ways that shame is encoded and embodied in a nation that prides itself on individualism, diversity, and exceptionalism. Examining shame through a prism of race, sexuality, ethnicity, and gender, these provocative essays offer a broader understanding of how America's discourse of shame helps to define its people as citizens, spectators, consumers, and moral actors.

Since 2012, Public Books has championed a new kind of community for intellectual engagement, discussion, and action. An online magazine that unites the best of the university with the openness of the internet, Public Books is where new ideas are debuted, old facts revived, and dangerous illusions dismantled. Here, young scholars present fresh thinking to audiences outside the academy, accomplished authors weigh in on timely issues, and a wide range of readers encounter the most vital academic insights and explore what they mean for the world at large. Think in Public: A Public Books Reader presents a selection of inspiring essays that exemplify the magazine's distinctive approach to public scholarship. Gathered here are Public Books contributions from today's leading thinkers, including Jill Lepore, Imani Perry, Kim Phillips-Fein, Salamishah Tillet, Jeremy Adelman, N. D. B. Connolly, Namwali Serpell, and Ursula K. Le Guin. The result is a guide to the most exciting contemporary ideas about literature, politics, economics, history, race, capitalism, gender, technology, and climate change by writers and researchers pushing public debate about these topics in new directions. Think in Public is a lodestone for a rising generation of public scholars and a testament to the power of knowledge.

None of the Above is a state-of-the-art volume about current debates regarding Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans, both in the United States and on the Island. The title simultaneously refers to the results of a non-binding 1998 plebiscite held in San Juan to determine the Island's political status, the ambiguities that have historically characterized Puerto Rican political agency, and the complexities of Puerto Rican ethnic, national, and cultural identifications.

Since 2012, Public Books has championed a new kind of community for intellectual engagement, discussion, and action. An online magazine that unites the best of the university with the openness of the internet, Public Books is where new ideas are debuted, old facts revived, and dangerous illusions dismantled. Here, young scholars present fresh thinking to audiences outside the academy, accomplished authors weigh in on timely issues, and a wide range of readers encounter the most vital academic insights and explore what they mean for the world at large. Think in Public: A Public Books Reader presents a selection of inspiring essays that exemplify the magazine's distinctive approach to public scholarship. Gathered here are Public Books contributions from today's leading thinkers, including Jill Lepore, Imani Perry, Kim Phillips-Fein, Salamishah Tillet, Jeremy Adelman, N. D. B. Connolly, Namwali Serpell, and Ursula K. Le Guin. The result is a guide to the most exciting contemporary ideas about literature, politics, economics, history, race, capitalism, gender, technology, and climate change by writers and researchers pushing public debate about these topics in new directions. Think in Public is a lodestone for a rising generation of public scholars and a testament to the power of knowledge.

View the Table of Contents
Read the Introduction.

"A perspicacious new book and one of the most intellectually exciting works of recent years, "Boricua Pop: Puerto Ricans and the latinization of American Culture" gives new meaning to the idea of the >>pleasure of the text.QBR"

"Provocative and broad-ranging . . . This eclectic, always interesting work will be certain to elicit discussion among faculty and students of ethnic studies, US popular culture, and Puerto Rican and Latino studies."--"Choice"

"Mixing the down and dirty with high culture to come up with good look at the transculture effects of it all."
--"San Juan Star"

aa groundbreaking piece of work on the persistence of colonialism-irreverent, tragicomical, and bittersweet.a
--New West Indian Guide

"Important, timely, and innovative, "Boricua Pop" is a stellar addition to a body of work that grows in importance over time. Negron-Muntaner's book is eagerly anticipated."
--Jose Quiroga, author of "Tropics of Desire"

aSuch an analysis uncovers the transcultural origins of all U.S. cultural production, hopefully provoking additional work that reconsiders and articulates these genealogies.a--"FIlm Quarterly"

""Boricua Pop"" is a foundational text in American, Latino/a, Queer, Performance, and Cultural Studies."
--Alberto Sandoval-Sanchez, Mount Holyoke College

Boricua Pop is the first book solely devoted to Puerto Rican visibility, cultural impact, and identity formation in the U.S. and at home. Frances Negron-Muntaner explores everything from the beloved American musical "West Side Story" to the phenomenon of singer/actress/ fashion designer Jennifer Lopez, from the faux historical chronicleSeva to the creation of Puerto Rican Barbie, from novelist Rosario Ferre to performer Holly Woodlawn, and from painter provocateur Andy Warhol to the seemingly overnight success story of Ricky Martin. Negron-Muntaner traces some of the many possible itineraries of exchange between American and Puerto Rican cultures, including the commodification of Puerto Rican cultural practices such as voguing, graffiti, and the Latinization of pop music. Drawing from literature, film, painting, and popular culture, and including both the normative and the odd, the canonized authors and the misfits, the island and its diaspora, Boricua Pop is a fascinating blend of low life and high culture: a highly original, challenging, and lucid new work by one of our most talented cultural critics.

While the sovereign nation-state is considered the world's political norm, millions of colonial subjects, immigrants, refugees, and native peoples appear to be without sovereignty. What claims have they to sovereignty? If they cannot ever constitute themselves into sovereign nation-states, are they out of the political game? Can a framework like sovereignty-used historically to exploit, dispossess, and even exterminate people-be a part of a struggle for political freedom? Editor Frances Negron-Muntaner and the contributors to Sovereign Acts engage in a debate around these questions with surprising results. Moving the idea of sovereignty beyond the narrow confines of the nation-state, beyond the concept of a power that one either has or lacks, this paradigm--shifting work examines the multiple ways that Indigenous nations and U.S. territorial peoples act as sovereign and the possible limits of such sovereign acts within the current globalized context. A valuable contribution to the debate around indigenous and other conceptions of sovereignty, Sovereign Acts goes further than legal frameworks to investigate the relationships among sovereignty, gender, sexuality, representation, and the body. From activist style and choreography to the politics of recognition, the scholars and artists featured in this unique volume map out how people disrupt modern notions of sovereignty, attempt to redefine what being sovereign means, or seek alternative political vocabularies. Sovereignty is not only, after all, a kingdom and a crown.