Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
We Need A New Way Of Studying Literature
“There is no such thing as an individual work in literature.” The work is always part of a “system of literature,” in which the...
Soprano Designs A Better Mask For Singers
What was wrong with ordinary masks? "They were really close to the lips and you would breathe in and you would suck the fabric right...
The 1619 Project Debate Is Still Roiling The Historian World
As an interpretation not only of the founding moment but of the whole of U.S. history the project involved major scholarship. Yet it didn’t...
Why “Star Trek” Has stood The Test Of Time
From the beginning it had a mission, not just to explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and new civilizations, and boldly go...
Architect Quits Over Dismal Mega-Dorm Project
The dorm, on the UC Santa Barbara campus would be an "11-story, 1.68 million-square-foot building with just two entrances. The massive dorm would house...
The Golden Globes Want To Present Awards Again. Hollywood Takes A Pass
Despite the public silence, according to those involved in the response discussions, there is a broad “consensus” across the entertainment industry to withhold submissions...
Intact Ancient Roman Busts Found During UK Train Excavation
In a small village in southeast England, at an abandoned medieval church along a high-speed railway, archaeologists have made what they call an “astonishing”...
Elizabeth Zimmer: Noticing Dance Is Getting Harder And Harder
If dance artists turn on the critics who take the trouble to notice them, artists will have an even harder time trying to connect...
Old Movies Have Never Been So Available. So Why Are We Worried?
There was a time when you couldn’t see even towering classics, other than at the odd repertory showing. Now, those films are just a...
Will Workers Return To The Office? This Expert Says No
My prediction? Absolutely not. If companies make employees who can do their jobs at home go into the office, it will be harder for...
A Critique Of Modern Progressivism?
Modern progressivism is in danger of becoming dominated by a relatively small group of people who went to the same colleges, live in the...
How I Reframed The Dentist’s Drilling Into Music
Perhaps as a coping mechanism... I trained myself to turn my dental saga into a cycle of musical encounters, and to revise my role...
A New “Golden Age” For Horror Fiction?
“There’s this fantastic description of the gothic – that it is not a genre at all, but a virus that attaches itself to genres...
Surge In Visitors at Chinese Heritage Sites. And Concerns…
According to a national survey in 2012, mainland China has more than 766,000 sites of immoveable cultural relics but only around 130,000 designated custodians....
How Museums Are Struggling To Change What/How They Present
Museums everywhere have worked to excavate more complex truths in their collections for years. In the ongoing grind of a pandemic that has exposed...
Are We Okay With Giving Up Beloved Buildings (and Even Cities) To Climate Change?
So many values and sentiments of identity and belonging are invested in historic heritage. How will we cope with the much more substantial loss...
How “A Housewife From Winnetka” Started Collecting Data About Dance
The data project shows that, despite recent improvement, works performed by major ballet companies are still overwhelmingly choreographed by men. - MSN (Chicago Tribune)
Homer As A Manufactured Construct
Faced with uncertainty surrounding the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, the ancients rushed to fill in gaps, in essence producing a biography...
Has Amazon Really Changed Literature?
Spotify-like Kindle Unlimited subscriptions have made fiction into an “‘always on’ utility” that prioritizes “serial plenitude over singular encounters.” - The Baffler
Media Companies Believe The Blockchain Will Transform Their Businesses
With crypto and blockchain, the movie and entertainment industry is poised to reinvent its business functions, facilitating secure, transparent, and traceable transactions across the...
Why Have 17,000 People Lost Their Jobs In Australian Universities?
Before it happened, we in the sector viewed the prospect of such an outcome as intolerable: a Rubicon we would never allow to be...
Seven Rules For The Culture Wars
In culture wars, both sides like to refer to self-evident sources of ‘the truth’ – such that ‘every sensible person must surely be able...
Study: Sell An Idea By Focusing On “Why” Or “How”?
Should she focus on why her idea is useful or should she instead promote a more concrete focus on how the idea works when...
Why Reading Is No Substitute For Travel
Although reading affords a way of learning about the world, it cannot transmit the richness of sensory experience. Can reading about a glacier convey...
The Problem With Writing Workshops (and How To Fix Them)
Craft, Matthew Salesses explains, is a series of expectations, and until those expectations are made explicit, they will enforce the status quo by concealing...
