Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, Roy Moore, was removed from office for failing to comply with a federal court order to remove the Ten Commandments monument from the state judiciary building in Montgomery, Alabama. This paper looks at whether supporters of Moore who ran for office benefited from their association with the former chief justice and the controversy over the monument's removal.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Dr. Moore has made a major contribution to the social sciences in the area of crime, drugs and gangs. No scholar is as widely cited as is Dr. Joan Moore in this field. She has numerous articles, book chapters, and books in this area. Her two books Homeboy: Gangs, Drugs and Prison in the Barrios of Los Angeles (Temple University Press, 1979) and Going Down to the Barrio (Temple University Press, 1992) are widely respected for their insights into Mexican American gangs. Homeboys is considered by many a "classic" in this field. More recently, her "Drug Posses, Gangs and the Underclass in Milwaukee" study focuses on the African American community. Methodologically these studies expand the Chicago School's community research approach by incorporating actual gang members into the research team. More importantly, Dr. Moore's findings have provided important theoretical insights into deviance and social problems.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Barrington Moore (1966) once famously argued that the violent overthrow of the southern planter class was the key to inaugurating a liberal capitalist democracy in the United States. Moore’s claim is dependent in turn on the notion that poor white farmers, who comprised the overwhelming majority of white southerners, deferred uncritically to the rule of the planter class. There are, however, three empirical problems with this claim, namely the democratic ethos of the planter class, the divergent political allegiances of farmers and planters, and the split within the planter class at the decisive moment of the 1860 presidential election. Using county- and precinct-level electoral returns from antebellum Alabama, this paper argues that the origins, character, and consequences of transitions to capitalism cannot be understood without an analysis of institutionalized party politics. That is, to the extent that transitions to liberal capitalism often involve a bourgeois revolutionary offensive against landed elites, the overall theoretical payoff of this paper will be to show that the illiberal class coalition that must defeated in such a revolution is sometimes forged in the crucible of party formation.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Michael Moore’s documentary, Sicko, is evaluated using virtue theory, which calls our attention to the way traditions inspire us to perform our various roles with moral integrity. Focusing on his use of voice, truth, argument, humor and irony, I will argue that Moore’s performance as a documentary filmmaker generally exhibits coherence, continuity and creativity within the documentary tradition. On the other hand, his performance is not entirely consistent with the moral commitments of documentary filmmakers.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper examines Michael Moore’s satirical newsmagazine shows on network and cable television from the mid-to-late 1990s—TV Nation and The Awful Truth. The analysis highlights the ways in which Moore mimicked the generic conventions of the newsmagazine format to offer biting political commentary on political and social issues rarely discussed in such an unruly manner. Moore’s techniques draw attention to the controlling nature of political and corporate language. By making the silent speak, he displays the areas of democratic discourse that are typically off-limits. By turning scripted engagements on their head, he disturbs the familiar and the predictable. Moore’s approach, then, elevates messy debate over the controlled “publicity” that has taken its place in the public sphere. This paper details the production aspects associated with offering such groundbreaking political humor on advertiser-supported television, and then analyzes the various patterns of “reporting” that comprised the show, including the inter-textual features that gave the programming its entertaining yet powerful critical perspective. The paper concludes by examining the importance of Moore’s contribution to the nascent sub-genre of political entertainment television and that genre’s overt and implicit criticism of news media as ineffective agents for monitoring and critiquing power in America.