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Much ritual studies scholarship still focuses on central religious rites. For this reason, Grimes argues, dominant theories, like the data they consider, remain stubbornly conservative. This book issues a challenge to these theories and to popular conceptions of ritual. Rite Out of Place collects...

Harry Potter, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the Left Behind series are but the latest manifestations of American teenagers' longstanding fascination with the supernatural and the paranormal. In this groundbreaking book, Lynn Schofield Clark explores the implications of this fascination for contemporary...

As of 2012, Twitter has over 100 million active users worldwide, generating close to 230 million Tweets per day. Encouraged by sports shows that incorporate social media as a major component of their programming strategies, sports fans and athletes have proven to be some of the most prolific and adept...

What is “brown” in—and beyond—the context of American identity politics? How has the concept changed since 9/11? In the most sustained examination of these questions to date, Kumarini Silva argues that “brown” is no longer conceived of solely as a cultural, ethnic, or political identity....

Is Superman Canadian? Who decides, and what is at stake in such a question? How is the Underground Railroad commemorated differently in Canada and the United States, and can those differences be bridged? How can we acknowledge properly the Canadian labour behind Hollywood filmmaking, and what would...

This edited collection explores the representations of identity in comedy and interrogates the ways in which “humorous” constructions of gender, sexuality, ethnicity, religion, class and disability raise serious issues about privilege, agency and oppression in popular culture. Should there be...

Films about education provide many of the most popular interpretations of what teaching and learning mean in schools. An analysis of this medium reveals much about the historical, cultural, political, and philosophical dimensions of education. Timely and engaging, this book fills a gap for scholarly...

Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of Dublin. Though this isnt the usual side of the city the tourists, travellers and residents see. This is the real Dublin, the strange and twisted nooks and crannies of the citys bizarre history past, present and future. Following on from the bestselling Portico...

“An insightful analysis of the origins, transformations and consequences of gender distinctions in children’s dress over the last 125 years.” —Daniel Thomas Cook, author of The Commodification of Childhood Jo B. Paoletti’s journey through the history of children’s clothing began...

This groundbreaking study examines Muslim female superheroes within a matrix of Islamic theology, feminism, and contemporary political discourse. Through a close reading of texts including Ms. Marvel, Qahera, and The 99, Sophia Rose Arjana argues that these powerful and iconic characters reflect independence...

Based on his popular Wired magazine column What's Inside, Patrick Di Justo takes a hard and incredibly funny look at the shocking, disgusting, and often dumbfounding ingredients found in everyday products, from Cool Whip and Tide Pods to Spam and Play-Doh. What do a cup of coffee and cockroach...

This new study from Ben Highmore looks at the seemingly banal world of objects, work, daily media, and food, and finds there a scintillating array of passionate experience. Through a series of case studies, and building on his previous work on the everyday, Highmore examines our relationship to familiar...

This bookbrings together a carefully selected range of contemporary disciplinary approaches to new areas of Gothic inquiry. Moving beyond the representational and historically based aspects of literature and film that have dominated Gothic studies, this volume both acknowledges the contemporary diversification...

In June 1938, Superman made his debut in Action Comics #1, which also featured his romantic interest—and Clark Kent’s journalistic rival—Lois Lane. In the decades since, the intrepid reporter has become an iconic figure almost as recognizable as the Man of Steel himself. Lois has appeared in...