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Stop Looking Away: On The Zone of Interest and Palestine
Full text linkJonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest is a radical interrogation of complicity, silence, and the carefully curated distance that enables atrocity to unfold in full view. Through a cinematic language defined by absence - of violence, of sentimentality, of conventional storytelling - Glazer collapses the walls between the viewer and the horror we are trained to ignore. The film’s haunting sound design, unflinching cinematography, and alienating formal strategies construct a domestic world nestled against a genocide, daring us to recognize our own proximity to suffering. By situating the Hoss family’s banal cruelty alongside the ongoing genocide in Gaza, the essay draws a throughline between historical and contemporary systems of dehumanization, implicating both media spectatorship and geopolitical apathy. It argues that Glazer’s refusal to aestheticize violence, his anthropological distance, and his subversion of cinematic grammar serve not just as artistic choices, but as moral interventions - teaching us how to listen, how to look, and, ultimately, how to confront. The Zone of Interest becomes not a film about the Holocaust, but about us - about the blindfolds we wear, the parties we throw, and the suffering we ignore. If we are not willing to break our silence, we will remain inmates in our own zones of interest
Midwestern Landscapes, Immigrant Hands: Swedish Artists and the Regionalist Movement
Full text linkThe Regionalist movement in American art attempted to define an authentic national identity through depictions of the American landscape, rural life, and working-class values and communities. From the mid-19th to early 20th century, over a million Swedes immigrated to the United States, many of whom settled in the Midwest, a region frequently depicted by Regionalist artists. Swedish immigrant artists captured the beauty of the same landscapes, portrayed similar rural values, and even created public art, all of which are defining elements of the Regionalist movement. Their artistic expressions align with the themes of Regionalism, yet they remain absent from the mainstream narrative of American art history. Created during the same period and in the same regions, the art of Swedish immigrants and American Regionalists shares an essence that has been overlooked. The immigrant experience is inherently American, and thus immigrant artists should be included in discussions of Regionalism, which originally sought to define an authentic American identity. This presentation investigates the thematic and artistic intersections between Swedish immigrant artists and Regionalists, analyzes their exclusion from mainstream art historical discourse, and redefines Regionalism in order to recognize the role of immigrants in shaping America’s identity
Los Muxes de Juchitán: Resistance, Identity, and Expressions of Gender in the Zapotec Culture
No full textThis work is a cultural analysis of the Indigenous Zapotec third-gender community in Juchitán, México called the muxes. It examines the historical context that explains how the muxes have survived the process of Spanish colonization: a history of resistance and pride in their Indigenous identities. This essay also explains the European norms of the gender binary and how the norms in Juchitán are different and unique. Then, it analyzes a few cultural spaces that are important to the Zapotec Indigenous identity and the gender identity of the muxes, such as the market and the festive celebrations known as Las Velas. This study also explores the discrimination faced by the muxes and the activist work that they engage in today. Finally, this essay analyzes perceptions of Mexican gender systems and what people living in the United States can learn from the rich history of gender identities outside of the gender binary
