Reversing the Lens

This book brings together noted scholars in history, anthropology, sociology, ethnic studies and film studies to promote film as a powerful classroom tool that can be used to foster cross-cultural communication with respect to race and ethnicity. Through such films as: Skin Deep; Slaying the Dragon; and Mississippi Masala; contributors demonstrate why and how visual media help delineate various forms of critical visual thinking and examine how radicalisation is either sedimented or contested in the popular imagination. Not limited to classroom use, the book is relevant to anyone who is curious about how video and film can be utilised to expose race as a social construction that -- in dialogue with other potential forms of difference -- is subject to political contestation.

Jun Xing is professor of ethnic studies; director of the Difference, Power and Discrimination Program at Oregon State University, Corvallis.