Films, cinema

1. David Thomson

A Sudden Flicker of Light

The best writer on film in our time

1. Grant Bollmer
2. Katherine Guinness

The Influencer Factory

"Don't read this book if you want to learn how to become an influencer. Do read this book if you're concerned about 'the self' being reduced to a mere product circulating on an endless social media reel. As Bollmer and Guinness convincingly demonstrate, influencer culture is only about celebrity and entertainment on the surface. The real story here concerns the reorganization of capital in the 21st century, and this is a story we all need to understand as it is ultimately about how workers who once made products have become products." —Kate Eichhorn, The New School "A dazzling and organic application of cultural theory, The Influencer Factory is a lively and provocative read for anyone invested in understanding how a new, expansive, and important sector of our cultural economy works." —Michael Palm, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill "At the intersection of authenticity, identity, and commerce, we find Bollmer and Guinness engaged in next-gen platform capitalism studies. The Influencer Factory nimbly combines digital media theory and political economy, with attention to the labor and infrastructure behind the corporate self." —Alexandra Juhasz, Brooklyn College CUNY "This compelling book gives voice to the often-invisible work of influencers. From the house and car to market and warehouse, The Influencer Factory puts influencers, their work and what they reflect about contemporary media culture into context—historically, socially, and culturally." —Larissa Hjorth, RMIT University, Melbourne "I feel like this is how nineteenth century proletarians must have felt reading Marx: like it just perfectly describes every last tiny indignity of working life, even the ones you'd never fully noticed before." —Andrew Ladd, What's New "[Bollmer and Guinness] make a complex application of Marxist theory concrete as they unpack examples and offer critiques of late capitalism as evidenced in the ongoing excess and waste that mark influencer culture. Recommended."—L. McMillan, CHOICE

1. Sabina Rahman

The Outlaw Observed

This book traces how Robin Hood adaptations generate discourses of transtemporal medievalism, a co-existence of past and present in which the medieval outlaw becomes a prism through which modern surveillance cultures are refracted and interrogated.

1. Seryun Lee

Affect Theory and Translation on YouTube

Explores translation as a means of self-expression and social networking in transnational settings on YouTube.

1. Honni van Rijswijk

Law, Culture and the Figure of the Girl

This book argues for the critical potential of locating the girl as the subject-position and voice of legal critique.

New Rape Studies

"Thoughtfully rooted in the history of feminist activism, New Rape Studies marks both a return to a set of concerns from the 1970s and a promising move forward in new directions, formulating innovative ways to examine the persistent phenomenon of rape as it manifests in canonical texts, on college campuses, and across culture writ large. Writing with clarity and urgency from a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives, contributors push beyond the intellectual impasse that has dominated feminist conversations about rape, sex, and consent. Together, they call for continued, widespread attention to the issue and topic of sexual violence, while modeling a generous reconceptualization of the social and political stakes of this project." — Sujata Moorti, author of Color of Rape: Gender and Race in Television's Public Spheres