Helen studies American Gothic literature, looking for representations of the road and what they suggest about the role of mobility in the American Dream.
"The American dream claims to be available to all, but actually rising economic status is nearly impossible, especially for those in certain demographics."
@heleninwords
Whether or not you’re returning to a classroom this month, September is a great time to find something new to learn. In that back-to-school spirit, here’s a list of American road novels, short stories, films, and poems designed to simulate a twelve-week course in American road culture. Each of these texts deals with some aspect […]
Let’s talk friction. In physics, friction is the force that inhibits the sliding of one object over or against another. It doesn’t necessarily prevent movement, but it slows things down. In mobility studies, the term gets used to denote pretty much the same thing: it refers to the practical limitation of mobility through possibly minor […]
Folks, I have seen Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, and it is excellent. Don’t worry, I abhor spoilers at least as much as the next person, so I’ll keep my comments on the movie itself to a minimum. But its release gives me a great opportunity to write about the ways mobility studies overlaps with […]
In a recent Conversation article, I wrote about what cars in movies tend to say about the men who usually drive them. For this blog, I’d like to focus on one way similar narratives of hegemonic masculinity operate in real life. I’d like to take a look at the Cybertruck. The car’s promotional materials are […]
With the movies Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Drive-Away Dolls and Will & Harper all premiering before June this year, 2024 seems like a great year to rethink who gets to be behind the wheel in our favourite car movies. In the 2015 film Mad Max: Fury Road, fans were introduced to Imperator Furiosa, a woman whose driving skill, unconventional appearance […]
What’s the saying? “When you’re holding a hammer, every problem looks like a nail?” Well, being a scholar of mobility culture is a weird hammer to have. I’m an avid binge watcher, and it seems lately every time I seek out a new show that’ll entertain me without making me think about work, I […]
