Andrea L Fernández, Ph.D.

Among the characteristics of epic poetry are the topic of war, love encounters, heroism of exemplary individuals, and the narration of events contemporary to the audience to reinforce a collective historical identity. Arauco domado by Pedro de Oña, born in Angol (modern Chile), reiterates these traditional expectations with its protagonist, characters, setting, and latter theatrical representations within the viceregal context. The poem was made possible by the sponsorship of García Hurtado de Mendoza y Manrique, IV Marquis of Cañete and Viceroy of Peru. If the title of “espíritu cesarino novelo” [Caesar’s new spirit] (V.76.3) corresponds to the patron, Pedro de Oña presents himself as a new Virgil, the viceroyalty’s official poet. The War of Arauco is historically tied to La Araucana by Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga, published in three parts...

This essay explores the enduring significance of radio in Africa and the USA Diaspora, particularly in the context of the growing influence of digital media. Despite the rise of the Internet and social media as news sources, radio remains the dominant mass medium in Africa, surpassing other mediums in daily use. However, challenges such as authoritarian regulations and algorithmic biases hinder its ability to fully engage audiences, especially in community radio. In the USA, the African diaspora is a diverse and significant group, yet it remains understudied. Modern technological infrastructure has amplified transnationalism, allowing diasporic communities to maintain strong ties with their homelands. African diaspora youth, in particular, seek out media that reflects their heritage in both American and African contexts, indicating a strong desire for authentic and inclusive content. Algorithmic injustice in radio broadcasting poses significant challenges for African and diasporic audiences, perpetuating discrimination against vulnerable populations. The lack of diversity in the development of algorithms and analytics further exacerbates disparities in algorithmic outcomes. Student-led radio journalism emerges as a crucial force in addressing these challenges, offering a platform for authentic, independent, and inclusive storytelling. By leveraging student journalism, we can bridge the gap between traditional and digital media, empower marginalized communities, and foster a more inclusive and informed society.

A persona, neither true nor false to the individual, is a mediatized identity used to navigate social connections (Marshall 238). Digital content creation and interpersonal aggregation generate an archive that "is never a single act, object, profile, or account," but a series of "communicative acts of self-expression" privileging a certain narrative (21). Iron Widow, by Xiran Jay Zhou (2021), presents a society where boys dream of co-piloting colossal mechas-Chrysalises-to reclaim humanity's lost territory north of the Great Wall. Girls dread the concubine-pilot's role of being sacrificed like a disposable qi-battery. Far from balance, the number two in Huaxia equals deception. Irreverent, three and five correspond with disruption and transformation. Wu Zetian, the fictional counterpart of China's first and only female emperor, subverts Huaxia's binary world order by proactively controlling the mediatization of her public persona.

Mapping is the sensorial world made apprehensible in service of an emerging culture's commercial, military and political expansion (Padrón 32). Worldbuilding in Amanda Joy's young adult fantasy novel, A River of Royal Blood (2019) is the asymmetrical allocation of urban spaces to reinforce the Killeen Dynasty's claim to power. Princess Evalina (Eva) Grace Killeen agonizes over her family's tradition of ritual sororicide, repulsed by the expectation of killing her sister, Princess Isadore, for the Ivory Throne. Born with magick of marrow and blood on the summer solstice, Eva grows in the shadow of her ancestor, Raina I, who founded the human dynasty by overthrowing the Khimaer Queendom. In the case of Killeen Queens, historiography, material culture and sacrifice reveal the constant anxiety of dispossession inherent in empire-building cultures.

Ambiguity, performance and play in media refute asymmetrical relations of power. These relational structures are based on a binary understanding of gender, sex, and sexuality (Otts & Mack 229). Swept up, the fourth installment in the five-part series, Hello, Gorgeous! by Taylor Morris, spans six days in the life of Mikaela (Mickey) Wilson. Juggling seventh grade, working at her mother's hair salon, managing friendships, and a maybe boyfriend, Mickey must detangle a gnarly week in time for the Friday school dance. Consistent with the novel's beauty theme, the author designs characters and their fashion choices holistically. Although descriptions of individual character's clothing abound, Marla's and Giancarlo's unforgettable camp styling take center stage as tools for counter-storytelling.

The library's role in fomenting children's literacy provides a springboard for social mobility among low-income families. Young readers with disabilities and their caregivers disproportionately depend on free programs at institutions like the Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) for services otherwise privatized in the healthcare industry. In this essay, we review the institution's current offerings and pandemic response, revealing that within and beyond the disabled community, public libraries are indispensable for education, socialization and self-advocacy.

This paper analyzes the role of ethics, privacy and technology in Netflix's South Korean survival drama, Squid Game (2021). The show's popularity hinges on its mordant critique of capitalism, particularly the global disappearance of the middle class. This tension between personal and communal survival intersects with despair, surveillance and the illusion of consent.

Sesame Street encapsulates the relationship between social activism and diverse media representation. In 1971, when Emilio Delgado (1940-2022) was cast as Luis, TV and film opportunities for Latinx were mostly “banditos [sic, bandidos], gang members, low-life characters, and sleepy Mexican under a cactus. But I was part of several groups of Chicanos and Latinos that came together to protect that. We were meeting with producers and directors and big honchos in Hollywood, telling them, ‘you’ve got to look at us like people. There are doctors and teachers in our community, but we are not being represented that way’” (Davis 230-1). Artists like Delgado exemplify a continental community consciousness bent on promoting education and narrowing the achievement gap for all children (Cooney 13).

Parodic irony is the risible juxtaposition of opposites in media. Lauded for centuries, Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote (1605 and 1615) exemplifies Iberian “high” culture as a world literature classic. Entrevías / Wrong Side of the Tracks (1 February 2022), a Spanish “low” culture TV series written by Aitor Gabilondo and David Bermejo, originally aired on Telecinco and has been on Netflix’s Top-10 most watched content throughout May and June 2022. Combining the dynamic duo and humorous irony as narrative devices, both the classic and the pop culture hits subvert the high/low binary not only between the novel and series, but within both cultural productions as well.

Suspense is a dish best served loud. Dunkirk-a 2017 feature film directed by Christopher Nolan-depicts the amphibian evacuation of 330,000 British and Allied troops from May 26 to June 4 1940 across the British Channel. An all-you-can-hear buffet with rare spoken lines…

In the Mood for Love, a movie directed by Wong Kar-wai set in 1962 Hong Kong, is a notable example of framing as a storytelling device that permeates every aesthetic choice within the film. The protagonists, Mr. Chow Mo-wan, a journalist, and Mrs. Su Li-shen, a secretary, rent adjacent bedrooms in a crowded apartment building. Intercepted by reflections, doors, windows, hallways and surveillance, the pair grows closer, always vigilant of gossip. No matter the analytic lens, this film is a treatise on gestures punctured by moments and music--boleros performed by Nat King Cole, to be exact. The five-word title itself, In [the Mood for] Love, is In Love, but for the three intruders in the middle…

Peter Sagal, host of the podcast analyzing HBO Max’s miniseries Chernobyl, and Craig Mazin, the show’s creator, discuss a “really?” list of historical events so uncanny, that even those who lived them vehemently disbelieved them. The screenplay is a representation of an unimaginable catastrophe, where all that radiates from the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (ChNPP) is a panopticon.1 In Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (1975), philosopher Michael Foucault explains that asymmetrical power distribution between individuals and institutions derives its success from internalized self-surveillance…