Dustin Kidd

Andres Serrano's famous photograph Piss Christ was destroyed last weekend in Avignon. Here is the Washington Post's coverage of the vandalism of this art work by angered French Catholics. I thought I'd take this occasion to remind us of the history of this photograph and the controversy it faced. This is a selection from my book Legislating Creativity: Piss Christ on the Senate Floor The late 1980s was a time of controversy. In film, Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ had incited outrage from many Christians by depicting Jesus in a sexual relationship. A number of scandals plagued the music world, perhaps bolstering sales along the way. Madonna released the video for her song “Like a Prayer” in April of 1989, just as Pepsi released a commercial featuring the song and its singer. But the video, showing Madonna bearing signs of the stigmata, kissing a Black Christ figure, and dancing in lingerie in a church, upset many Christian organizations...

I love hearing good news from former students, and I encourage you to write to a professor whose teaching or mentorship you appreciated and let them know how you're doing. Today, I got this nugget from a former student on his way to graduate school at Princeton: "I owe you thanks not only for writing me a letter of recommendation, but also for the guidance and structure your class provided. You helped me write a research paper that was far more sophisticated than anything I could have written on my own. I used that paper as my writing sample when applying, and several admissions committees indicated that it was a key reason why I received an offer." I love it!

The ASA Bachelor's and Beyond study and blogposts are a great way to see what's happening to soc grads! Useful for curriculum planning and job placement/counseling. http://asaresearch.wordpress.com/category/bachelors-and-beyond-survey/

http://dustinkidd.blogspot.com/ Last week's episode of Parks and Recreation, titled April and Andy's Fancy Party , had a nice illustration of Patricia Hill Collins's concept of controllingimages. Co ntrolling images are media images that function, whether by design or not, to remind marginalized groups of their position in the power structure and to justify that position to a wider audience, especially to those who are privileged by their position within that structure. Although stereotypes usually function as controlling images, many controlling images are not so widespread that they can be called stereotypes, and many actually seem positive at first glance. As a case in point, consider the character of Donna from Parks and Recreation. Donna is played by the Black female comedian Retta Sirleaf. In last week's episode, Donna is at a singles event when she is found by Ann Perkins. Ann is played by the biracial actress Rashida Jones, daughter of Quincey Jones ...