Is TikTok Good or Bad for Rap?
Is this new medium reducing art to a formulaic hunt for virality or is it inspiring innovation and increasing independent artists' opportunity for exposure?
Lessons from ‘Queen and Slim’
Melina Matsoukas’s film offers a nuanced exploration of issues like police brutality and tries to communicate the realities of the black experience to a wider audience.
Artist, Art, and Appreciation: Where Is There Space for Morality?
Honoring the works of controversial artists like Roman Polanski sends a political message that transcends the confines of art.
Ethical Messages at the Academy Awards
It has become common for those being honored to use their time on stage to comment on social justice issues. Should they?
Race, Authorship, and ‘American Dirt’: Who Owns Migration Narratives?
The backlash over American Dirt raises important questions about our ability to inhabit the space of the Other.
Resurrecting James Dean: The Ethics of CGI Casting
From Carrie Fisher in Star Wars to James Dean in Finding Jack, the use of CGI is expanding. What could be the harm in bringing back beloved icons to the screen?
The Killing Joke: The Ethics of ‘Joker’
Reception to 'Joker' has tended to extremes. How do time and place define Joker's message? What responsibility do the creators and publishers share in the public's interpretation?
Morality on the Side: Peter Handke and the Nobel Prize
Literary criticism often encourages us to separate the art from the artist, but the Nobel Committee's recognition of Peter Handke makes the issue bigger than what's on the page.
The Remarkable Odyssey of a Solid Gold Toilet
The recent theft of a seven-million dollar golden toilet named America is chock-full of symbolism.
Iris Murdoch and the Moral Dimensions of Literature
Is morality to be found in abstracted and universalizable concepts and theories, or in the subjective, situatedness of characters rooted in their earthly contexts? What can literature tell us about our moral universe?