“…what if comic books were not simply a medium of entertainment, but in fact a form of mythology through which we both tell stories about ourselves and look to for guidance, direction and meaning?”…

Nike and Boeing Are Paying Sci-Fi Writers to Predict Their Futures, apparently. I have to admit, I was very excited to read this article when I stumbled on it. I’ve done some futurology projects on a couple of occasions, and

SuperPowering Girls: Female Representation in the Sci/Fi Superhero Genre is the first in a series of reports that BBC America and the Women’s Media Center will release over the next few months with a goal of expanding both the diversity and representation of women and girls in front of and behind the camera.

Erin Glasco (her/hers; they/them) is an archivist and organizer based in Chicago. They have worked on archival projects with Free Street Theatre, the Chicago History Museum, and a Studs Turkel podcast project with WFMT Chicago and Eve Ewing. Additionally, they are currently a part of No Cop Academy, an effort led by Black youth in Chicago to demand $95 million for youth and communities, instead of a new facility for Chicago police. They received their Master’s in Library Science from UIC-UC and currently work as a Visiting Instructor  and Special Collections Librarian at UIC. I first met Erin at the Center for Black Music Research (CBMR) as a Journalism undergrad at Columbia College Chicago. They were studying the Paul Robeson FBI files while I was studying ethnomusicology and the interconnectedness of Jamaican Dancehall music within Black American Hip Hop culture. I was astounded by how familiar Erin’s presence felt. Immediately, we were joking and laughing as if we were old college friends. Since 2014, our friendship has strengthened and our careers have aligned and intersected …

Judy Allen Dodson remembers reading The Magic Tree House series to her seven-year-old son when he asked, “Mommy, how come I don’t see me? Any children…

To ask: what do you do when a figure lionized in your library was a racist? eugenicist? harasser?

One month ago yesterday, Alek Minassian drove through a Toronto shopping district in a rented van, killing ten people and injuring sixteen more. Analysis of Minassian’s online activity — where he participated in forums for the involuntarily celibate, or incels — quickly revealed the attack’s motivation: he was avenging himself on the women (apparently all of us) who had […]

On collecting data about women in film industries.

Only a small percentage of historical interpreters are black, and Cheyney McKnight is trying to change that.

The Ready Player One book used to be considered a fun romp. Then Gamergate happened.

The magazine has made a rare, and refreshing, admission of past racism. But its most recent cover story undermines this corrective.

US demographics are changing, so an organization welcoming more diverse audiences than it did a decade ago is an expectation, not necessarily an achievement. A goal is to welcome diverse audiences at a representative rate relative to the population. TheRead More ›

The Salt Lake City school board has voted to change the name of the city's oldest elementary school over an outcry about its namesake, former President Andrew Jackson.

Here’s what I’ve learned, and why I did it.

Post about director relying on historical Library photos to make casting decisions.

In the latest episode of Rick & Morty alternative The Simpsons, guest star Alison Bechdel describes her famous Bechdel test for films: Do two female characters have at least one conversation that’s not about a man? Marge immediately brings up Homer, provoking Bechdel’s FAIL animation, shown here in handy exploitable…

It’s not all dark rooms and hoodies.

Female characters appear in superhero comics less often than males — but when they are included, how are they depicted?