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Democracy is personal to me. It is the reason why I’m an American not by choice, but by the efforts of my immigrant parents, who in the early 1980s in Hong Kong already anticipated the peril of the Chinese Communist Party, and made the difficult decision to leave. This was a decade when the world held great optimism about the direction Beijing seemed headed, when its authoritarianism appeared to ease.
But here we are.
Democracy has become a bit of a dirty word. Across some three dozen countries, a median 52 percent of citizens have lost faith in the system, according to Pew Research Center. In another study looking at established democracies, only one third of those born in the 1980s believe in democracy. Compare that to attitudes of those born in the 1930s, when for instance 72 percent of Americans held democracy essential. That’s a 40-percent drop. Political scientist Larry Diamond calls what we’re facing a “democratic recession.”
July 22, 2021
Samantha N. Sheppard, associate professor of performing and media arts, has been named a 2021 Academy Film Scholar by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The annual grant is given to established scholars whose projects are focused on some aspect of filmmaking and the film industry. She will receive $25,000 to complete her book project, “A Black W/hole: Phantom Cinemas and the Reimagining of Black Women’s Media Histories.
Sheppard
“I am thrilled to receive recognition and support from the Academy for this book project, especially as the growing visibility of Black women in front of and behind the camera provides an occasion, if not the imperative, to examine Black women’s cultural production and impact on the past, present, and future media landscape,” said Sheppard.
The Benefits of Writing Book Reviews
A book review is more than sharing an opinionâit s a conversation between readers. Sam Risak shares the benefits of writing books reviews, as well as best practices for getting started.
Author:
Jul 22, 2021
Writing as both a practice and profession is a process of many drafts, each of which requires a series of conscious decisions before we can move onto the next. While this understanding of writing is far more accessible than that of the “creative genius” model, to a writer still early in their career, how to make such decisions can appear so opaque it might as well require an epiphany. That’s where writing a book review can help. An exercise that requires careful attention, book reviews sharpen the writer’s lens and uncover paths that can take us, and our writing, to where we want to go.
Sam Risak
Sam Risak is an MFA Creative Writing candidate at Chapman University as well as an editorial assistant at CRAFT Literary and reader/reviewer for
TAB: The Journal in Poetry & Poetics. She writes across genres with works published or forthcoming in
Lit Hub, the AWP’s The Writer’s Chronicle,
Terrain.org,
Entropy,
PMA professor named Academy Film Scholar indiaeducationdiary.in - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from indiaeducationdiary.in Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.