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culturalstudies.bsky.social
Cultural Studies - Published by Routledge
@culturalstudies.bsky.social
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Cultural Studies is a field-defining, peer-reviewed journal published 6x/year by Routledge | Nabil Echchaibi & Ted Striphas, Coeditors

https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rcus20/current
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culturalstudies.bsky.social
We would also like to thank Sacha Bezrutchka (@sacha.arte on Instagram) for contributing the cover artwork, a piece titled “Gaza Freedom Flotilla." We are honored to feature this piece as the cover artwork for our final issue of the year.
November 20, 2025 at 9:21 PM
culturalstudies.bsky.social
We would like to thank all the contributing authors for Issue 6: Emily Mitamura, Rachmi Diyah Larasati, Sayan Bhattacharya, Colin Wingate, Eleanor Paynter, María José Méndez, José Manuel Santillana Blanco, and Naimah Petigny…
November 20, 2025 at 9:21 PM
culturalstudies.bsky.social
Thank you for being a part of this space with us as we shared about the works that made this issue on “Cultures of Water: Heritage, Environment and Society” a reality. You can find the Issue 39.5 articles—including two open access works—and book reviews here: www.tandfonline.com/toc/rcus20/3...
Cultural Studies
Cultures of Water: Heritage, Environment and Society. Volume 39, Issue 5 of Cultural Studies
www.tandfonline.com
November 14, 2025 at 6:26 PM
culturalstudies.bsky.social
If you would like to see more of Job’s art, you can find him:
- on Instagram at @sitoole_ki_murals (www.instagram.com/sitoole_ki_m...) and @jobray_arts (www.instagram.com/jobray_arts/)
- or by emailing him at: [email protected]
November 14, 2025 at 6:26 PM
culturalstudies.bsky.social
We thank Job Olego Anomet for sharing this artwork with us, for the ways that it resonates with this issue’s theme of “Cultures of Water: Heritage, Environment and Society,” and for being a part of our ongoing cover art series on “Against Extraction: Desires for Life-Sustaining Futures.”
The third and final image is a full-size version of the artwork. As described in the first image, the art features a spiral design that entwines iconography of water—an ocean with fish, river within an ocean, a water faucet—with symbols of the land, including a farm, vegetables in the dirt, and trees growing from the soil.
November 14, 2025 at 6:26 PM
culturalstudies.bsky.social
Artist bio continued: “Jobray is dedicated to sharing his expertise, providing mentorship to emerging artists and fostering a community of creativity and learning, for example, through the Sitoole-Ki Murals project.”
November 14, 2025 at 6:26 PM
culturalstudies.bsky.social
Artist bio continued: “Working independently as a freelance artist and muralist, Jobray creates powerful visual stories that reflect his imagination and the vibrant, everyday experiences of life.”
November 14, 2025 at 6:26 PM
culturalstudies.bsky.social
His artist biography that he shared with us reads: “Job Olego Anomet (he/him), also known as Jobray, is a graffiti artist, stained glass artist, painter, designer, and illustrator based in Kampala, Uganda.”
The second image is titled “About the Artist: Job Olego Anomet,” and it features a biography for the artist: “Job Olego Anomet (he/him), also known as Jobray, is a graffiti artist, stained glass artist, painter, designer, and illustrator based in Kampala, Uganda. Working independently as a freelance artist and muralist, Jobray creates powerful visual stories that reflect his imagination and the vibrant, everyday experiences of life. Jobray is dedicated to sharing his expertise, providing mentorship to emerging artists and fostering a community of creativity and learning, for example, through the Sitoole-Ki Murals project.” The bottom of the graphic includes details about where else to find the artist: “Instagram: @jobray_arts & @sitoole_ki_murals” and “Email: jobrayarts94@gmail.com”
November 14, 2025 at 6:26 PM
culturalstudies.bsky.social
We would like to thank all of our book review writers who contributed to Issue 5: Mattie Hamilton, Vivien J. Bediako, Skyler Meeks, Haniyeh Pasandi, Raphaela Pavlakos, and Rosie Nguyen.
 
All six book reviews can be read in full here: www.tandfonline.com/toc/rcus20/3...
Cultural Studies
Cultures of Water: Heritage, Environment and Society. Volume 39, Issue 5 of Cultural Studies
www.tandfonline.com
November 12, 2025 at 11:27 PM
culturalstudies.bsky.social
3) Rosie Nguyen’s review of “Sex Work in Popular Culture” by Lauren Kirshner: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
The fourth and final image is titled “A Peek Inside Rosie Nguyen’s Review of: Sex Work in Popular Culture by Lauren Kirshner” At the bottom is an excerpt from the book review: “Throughout history, sex work has remained a sensitive and controversial topic. However, in recent decades, there has been a significant shift in how lawmakers, the media, and the public perceive sex work. One of the most evident aspects reflecting this change is in the media portrayals of sex work over time. In her recent book, Sex Work in Popular Culture, Lauren Kirshner analyzes these shifts with rich evidence and engaging prose. Through meticulous analysis, Lauren Kirshner demonstrates her central argument: popular culture does not simply commodify sex work for entertainment but functions as a contested site of labor representation, exposing the hidden struggles of sex workers and reflecting emerging debates surrounding this work. The book is divided into seven chapters, with the first chapter providing a brief review of feminist theories of sex work and the methodologies of feminist media studies, laying the groundwork for the analyses that follow. [...]”
November 12, 2025 at 11:27 PM
culturalstudies.bsky.social
2) Raphaela Pavlakos’ review of “Settler Colonial Ways of Seeing: Documentation, Administration, and the Interventions of Indigenous Art” by Danielle Taschereau Mamers: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
The third image is titled “A Peek Inside Raphaela Pavlakos’ Review of: Settler Colonial Ways of Seeing: Documentation, Administration, and the Interventions of Indigenous Art by Danielle Taschereau Mamers.” At the bottom is an excerpt from the book review: “Media Studies scholar, Danielle Taschereau Mamers’ Settler Colonial Ways of Seeing: Documentation, Administration, and the Interventions of Indigenous Art is a book about documents, particularly how colonial states use documents to record and maintain identity, and how Indigenous folks in (what is colonially called) Canada are re-appropriating, re-writing, and rupturing these documents to Indigenize colonial institutions. This book is a critical intervention into political conversations surrounding the Indian Act, Canada’s tenuous relationship with Indigenous communities, and what it means to be an Indigenous person in contemporary Canada through the discussion and unpacking of art from Indigenous artists like Robert Houle (Kaa-wii-kwe-tawang-kak/Sandy Bay First Nation), Nadia Myre (Kitigan Zibi Anishnabeg First Nation), Cheryl L’Hirondelle (amiskwaciy wâskahikan and Kikino Métis), and Rebecca Belmore (Obishikokaang/Lac Seul First Nation). Mamers argues that artistic production is a space where Indigenous sovereignty can be found and re-imagined [...]”
November 12, 2025 at 11:27 PM
culturalstudies.bsky.social
1) Haniyeh Pasandi’s review of “Contemporary Feminist Art by Women in North Africa” by Ramona Mielusel: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
The second image is titled “A Peek Inside Haniyeh Pasandi’s Review of: Contemporary Feminist Art by Women in North Africa by Ramona Mielusel.” At the bottom is an excerpt from the book review: “In Contemporary Feminist Art by Women in North Africa, Ramona Mielusel provides a timely and significant contribution to the fields of Francophone North African studies, contemporary feminist theory, and visual culture. Through a nuanced analysis of six female artists working across a range of media, the monograph examines how gender, identity, and power intersect through visual representation. Mielusel's focus on Majida Khattari, Lalla Essaydi, Zoulikha Bouabdellah, Déborah Benzaquen, Fatima Mazmouz, and Zaïnab Fasiki is grounded in their shared connection to Morocco and the Maghreb more broadly, and in their engagement with transnational feminist discourse through a distinctly North African lens. Mielusel offers new insights into the complexity of Maghrebi women's artistic production in both local and diasporic contexts while focusing on the intersectionality aspect of each artwork. The artists are primarily of Moroccan origin, with Bouabdellah from Algeria. They work in both local and diasporic contexts, including France and the United States. [...]”
November 12, 2025 at 11:27 PM
culturalstudies.bsky.social
All six book reviews can be read in full here: www.tandfonline.com/toc/rcus20/3... … or found between pages 792-809 in the printed edition of Volume 39, Issue 5.
Cultural Studies
Cultures of Water: Heritage, Environment and Society. Volume 39, Issue 5 of Cultural Studies
www.tandfonline.com
November 10, 2025 at 6:13 PM
culturalstudies.bsky.social
3) Skyler Meeks’ review of "Black Iconoclasm: Public Symbols, Racial Progress, and Post/Ferguson America” by Charles Athanasopoulos: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
The fourth and final image is titled “A Peek Inside Skyler Meeks’ Review of: Black Iconoclasm: Public Symbols, Racial Progress, and Post/Ferguson America by Charles Athanasopoulos.” At the bottom is an excerpt from the book review: “From Confederate statues to corporate slogans, iconoclasm is often seen as the final act of resistance – a decisive blow against the icons of oppression. But what if toppling a statue or exposing ideologic failures marks only the beginning? In Black Iconoclasm: Public Symbols, Racial Progress, and Post/Ferguson America, Charles Athanasopoulos reframes iconoclasm not as an endpoint, but as a liminal practice of disruption. Moving beyond the destruction of symbols, which ‘are reduced to the search for an action, a thinker, a movement, or an object that signifies a pure symbol of resistance to power,’ Athanasopoulos’s concept of Black iconoclasm challenges Western notions of purity and progress (31). It, instead, embraces messy, unresolved tensions where radical possibilities coexist with residues of racial oppression. In doing so, Athanasopoulos positions Black iconoclasm as a critical, liminal orientation toward racial progress narratives [...]”
November 10, 2025 at 6:13 PM
culturalstudies.bsky.social
2) Vivien J. Bediako’s review of "Migration, Crisis and Temporality at the Zimbabwe-South Africa Border: Governing Immobilities” by Kudakwashe Vanyoro: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
The third image is titled “A Peek Inside Vivien J. Bediako’s Review of: Migration, Crisis and Temporality at the Zimbabwe-South Africa Border: Governing Immobilities by Kudakwashe Vanyoro.” At the bottom is an excerpt from the book review: “In Migration, Crisis and Temporality at the Zimbabwe-South Africa Border: Governing Immobilities, Kudakwashe Vanyoro examines the (im)mobilities, disrupted journeys and survival migration experiences of black Zimbabwean men to post-apartheid South Africa in the wake of Zimbabwe’s political and economic crises. The book focuses on the men’s precarious living conditions in the border town of Musina, South Africa, which has become the geographic stronghold of the humanitarian enterprise. The roles of humanitarian organizations in managing these border migrants to assert agency in their everyday lives are also explored, reinforcing the power imbalances between government, humanitarian actors, and unauthorized migrants within the restrictive migration policies of the South African government. [...]”
November 10, 2025 at 6:13 PM
culturalstudies.bsky.social
1) “Breaking Through the Silence of Structural Heteropatriarchy,” the title of Mattie Hamilton’s review of “Complaint!” by Sara Ahmed: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
The second image is titled “A Peek Inside Mattie Hamilton’s “Breaking Through the Silence of Structural Heteropatriarchy,” a review of Complaint! by Sara Ahmed.” At the bottom is an excerpt from the book review: ““Sara Ahmed’s Complaint! functions as a compelling testimony, delving into the intricate dynamics of how patriarchal abuses of power contribute to institutional change. Through meticulous scrutiny, Ahmed reveals the underlying realities of policies and protocols within academic settings, scrutinizes the treatments of complainants, and celebrates the arduous journey towards justice despite its anguishing ramifications. Exploring the way in which lending a feminist ear can be used as an institutional tactic to shatter structures of power, she states that: ‘“To hear complaints, you have to dismantle the barriers that stop us from hearing complaints, and by barriers, I am referring to institutional barriers, the walls, the doors that render so much of what is said, what is done, invisible and inaudible. If you have to dismantle barriers to hear complaints, hearing complaints can make you more aware of those barriers. In other words, hearing complaints can also be how you learn how complaints are not heard.” (p. 6)’.”
November 10, 2025 at 6:13 PM