Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Beginning in summer 2005 and continuing for more than a year, Orlando, FL experienced a dramatic increase of over 100% in both its number and rate of homicides. Relying on multiple sources of both qualitative and quantitative data, this study analyzes the characteristics of this sudden increase, or "spike," in homicides, as well as the decline to a more typical level of homicide that began in fall 2006. Based on findings from our case study of Orlando and sudden increases in other cities, we argue that homicide spikes must be analyzed from different perspectives than have been developed by researchers for investigations of homicide rates.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Spike Lee’s (1992) film Malcolm Lee’s film presented Malcolm X’s life story using the narrative framework of the American Dream myth. Working from Gramsci’s notion of “commonsense” in the process of hegemony, I explain how Lee’s use of this myth appealed to American popular culture. This analysis suggests that commonsense framings of controversial figures may be an avenue toward challenging dominant hegemony within popular culture.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Following filmmaker Spike Lee’s assertion of his concerted effort to improve his female characters, we conduct a feminist textual analysis of "Bamboozled." As a satirical social commentary, "Bamboozled"’s racially-charged narrative not only privileges dominant constructions of Black masculinity—violent, controlling, and sexist—but also reinforces 20th century patriarchal ideas about females. The film’s only main female character is victimized by patriarchy in both the workplace and in her personal life through her relationships with males in passive, sexualized, and subordinate ways.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Survivors of Hurricane Katrina, made politically inconsequential by the federal government’s response, receive the opportunity to reclaim their citizenship by narrating their experiences in Spike Lee’s When the Levees Broke. Lee’s documentary represents a unique relief effort that advances and exemplifies a notion of aesthetic citizenship. This paper interrogates Lee’s documentary by placing Habermas’s theory of communicative action and Arendt’s notion of the political in conversation to theorize a model of discursive civic practices.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper contrasts the racial codes that surfaced in mainstream news coverage of New Orleans in the early days after Hurricane Katrina with the racial coding in Spike Lee’s documentary "When the Levees Broke." The authors admit that there are vast differences between the daily news and documentary processes, but they argue that daily journalism might be improved by approaching stories in the more thoughtful, complicated -- but still compelling -- manner or Lee’s documentary.