Indigenous Peoples Rise Up: The Global Ascendency of Social Media Activism illustrates the impact of social media in expanding the nature of Indigenous communities and social movements. Social media has bridged distance, time, and nation states to mobilize Indigenous peoples to build coalitions across the globe and to stand in solidarity with one another. Including examples like Idle No More in Canada, Australian Recognise!, and social media campaigns to maintain Maori language, Indigenous Peoples Rise Up serves as one of the first studies of Indigenous social media use and activism. 
 

Memories before the State examines the discussions and debates surrounding the creation of the Place of Memory, Tolerance, and Social Inclusion, a national museum in Peru that memorializes the country’s internal armed conflict of the 1980s and 1990s. Joseph P. Feldman analyzes forms of authority that emerge as an official institution seeks to incorporate and manage diverse perspectives on recent violence.

Rights advocacy has become a prominent facet of South Korea’s increasingly transnational motion picture output, and today films about political prisoners, undocumented workers, and people with disabilities attract mainstream attention. Movie Minorities offers the first English-language study of Korean cinema’s role in helping to galvanize activist social movements across these and other identity-based categories.

Drawing from a full range of Star Wars media, including comics, television, children’s books, and fan films, Carmelo Esterrich explores how these stories set in a galaxy far far away reflect issues that hit closer to home on such topics as authoritarianism, colonialism, xenophobia, sexuality, and gender norms.

Communities are the primary source of social solidarity, and given the diversity of communities, solutions to the problems faced by individuals living with severe mental health problems must start with community level initiatives. “Ties that Enable” examines the role of a faith-based community group in providing a sense of place and belonging as well as reinforcing a valued social identity.

Holy adolescence, Batman! This book offers the first character history and analysis of the most famous superhero sidekick, Robin. It partners up comics studies and adolescent studies as a new Dynamic Duo, revealing the Boy (and sometimes Girl!) Wonder as a complex figure through whom mainstream culture has addressed anxieties about American teens.
 

Very Special Episodes explores various examples of the “very special episode” to chart the history of American television and its self-identified status as an arbiter of culture. Through the study of this unique television format, this anthology traces the history of television’s engagement with many of the most important political, aesthetic, economic, and social movements that continue to challenge our society today.

Special Admission contradicts the national belief that college sports provide an avenue for upward mobility. Kirsten Hextrum reveals the dynamic relationship between the state, elite groups, private entities, educational institutions, and athletic organizations that concentrate opportunities in white suburban communities. Thus, college sports allow white, middle-class athletes to accelerate their advantages through admission to elite universities.

Embracing Age reveals that aging is not only a biological process, but is also shaped by what the process of growing older means to us. By examining Catholic nuns, a group that experiences positive health outcomes in older age, Anna I. Corwin reveals the connections between culture, language, and the experience of aging.

Micro Media Industries explores the media of Hmong Americans, showing how an extremely small population can maintain a robust and thriving media ecology in spite of resource limitations and an inability to scale up. It argues that micro media industries provide models of media innovation that can counter the increasing power of mainstream media.