I was very interested in the discussion around masculinity, especially when Hall contextualized its roots, arguing that masculinity served as the answer to emasculation during enslavement among formerly enslaved people. Hall also connected the idea of family as the only site of renewal to slavery, stating that the family unit was an act of resistance and the only structure for black people during slavery. How can we contend with both the resistance qualities of masculinity and the family unit and their deployment to alienate/separate/uphold patriarchy?
Althusser makes a point that ISAs operate as "unified" under the ruling ideology. To what extent are certain ISAs unified if they are "the site of class struggle" playing out, holding the potential for "ruptures" (to use Hall's phrase) with dominant ideologies? Here, I am thinking about the University of Iowa's COVID policies and how its rules are practiced and applied in many different ways throughout campus, as administrative burdens and scale make it difficult to oversee large numbers of employees. More generally, as junior scholars, grad students, and/or individuals doing cultural studies work, does it make more sense for us to do deep and nuanced readings of theorists such as Marx and Althusser in our work, or to cite others who have expanded these traditions over the years?
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