Political Media Review (PMR), a project of the Transformative Studies Institute (TSI), is an independent review site for social justice media. As a not-for-profit and fully-volunteer organization, we are dedicated to promoting, publicizing and being a resource for social justice media by providing a space where social justice film and publication reviews can be accessed in a central location. PMR writes original reviews and collects already existing reviews of media. We have been in operation since January 2009.
In these days of mainstream media consolidation and group-think, it is imperative that there remain alternative methods of information dissemination and serious discussion of issues. The Political Media Review promises to be such a place-examining robustly, critically, and thoughtfully in a skeptical and interrogative manner what is known or not known, covered or not covered, by other sources.
- Martin Rowe, Director of Publishing at Lantern Books and Vice-President of Booklight Inc
At a time of perpetual crisis, when all media – including the left – is disintegrating, now more than ever, we need PMR. And the food for thought, and action, therein. Bring it on.
- Ramsey Kanaan, PM Press
STAFF
Sarat Colling
Editor
sarat@politicalmediareview.org
Sarat, founder of Political Media Review, has a degree in Writing, Rhetoric and Discourse and is pursuing a Masters of Critical Sociology at Brock University. Sarat has worked with various social justice organizations and currently serves on the board of the Institute for Critical Animal Studies. She enjoys researching and writing about critical animal studies, disability studies, postcolonialism, anarchism and transnational feminism.
Anthony J. Nocella, II
Promotion
anthony@politicalmediareview.org
Anthony is working on his Ph.D. in Social Science at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University. He has an interest in security, conflict and peace studies, peace education, philosophy of education, criminology, disability studies, and environmental studies. He is also an associate with the Program on the Analysis and Resolution of Conflicts. He holds an MA in Peacemaking and Conflict Studies and a graduate certificate in mediation from Fresno Pacific University and an MS in Cultural Foundations of Education from Syracuse University with an Advanced Certificate in Women’s Studies. He has taught workshops in mediation and tactical analysis, and has assisted in a number of legal committees in the Americas. He has provided conflict management and negotiation workshops to NGOs, ROTC, U.S. military, law enforcement, as well as in prisons, juvenile halls, and middle and high schools in hopes of increasing the peace and providing skills to revert violent conflicts to nonviolent transformation. While a young scholar he has published more than 25 scholarly articles, he is working on his ninth book, and has co-founded four journals – Green Theory and Praxis, Peace Studies Journal, Journal on Critical Animal Studies, and Journal on Terrorism and Security.
Abbey Willis
Outreach Coordinator
abbey@politicalmediareview.org
Abbey is an organizer and writer in Hartford, Connecticut. She is a proud member of Queers Without Borders, the Workers Solidarity Alliance, and the Hog River Collective. Currently she is organizing around reproductive freedom and radical queer issues locally and writing on non-monogamy, queer theory, and smashing the soul-crushing wage system that we call “capitalism”. Abbey loves graphic novels more than most things, and she would love to become a midwife, eventually.
Deric Shannon
Assistant Editor
deric@politicalmediareview.org
Deric is a PhD. candidate in sociology at the University of Connecticut, where he studies prefigurative politics in the context of Food Not Bombs activism. He is a long time anarchist militant with roots in groups like Anti-Racist Action and Food Not Bombs. He is a co-editor of the forthcoming book Contemporary Anarchist Studies: An Introductory Reader of Anarchy in the Academy and cohosts the feminist radio show, The F-Files, where he has had the honor of talking with fellow radicals like Noam Chomsky, Catharine MacKinnon, and Martha Ackelsberg. He is a proud member of ARRGH! (the Area Radical Reading Group of Hartford) and Hartford Food Not Bombs and runs the independent record label, Wooden Man Records.
Ernesto Aguilar
ernesto@politicalmediareview.org
Ernesto is a media worker and organizer based in Houston, Texas. Born and raised in the area, he holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism and sociology, with a minor in Women’s Studies, from the University of Houston. His professional work includes journalism for major daily, ethnic and alternative weekly newspapers, new media and the Pacifica Radio network, for which he produced local and national coverage. His writings as well as interviews as former radio host of Sexto Sol with likes of La Raza Unida Party activist Jose Angel Gutierrez and Settlers: Mythology of the White Proletariat author J. Sakai are in wide circulation. In addition, he has been active in progressive movements, including founding a variety of groups focusing on everything from reproductive rights to international solidarity movements to police accountability.
Dr. Richard Van Heertum
richard@politicalmediareview.org
Richard is a visiting assistant professor of education at CUNY/College of Staten Island, teaching classes in the education and history departments. He recently completed his Ph.D. in education and cultural studies at the University of California Los Angeles, where his dissertation focused on cynicism and democracy. He previously earned a masters in economics from San Diego State University. He has published over 10 academic essays, including works in Policy Futures in Education, Interactions, McGill Journal of Education and a number of anthologies, and has presented his research at numerous conferences and public lectures. He has also published extensively in the popular press with over 120 articles on music, movies, the arts and politics (The San Diego Union Tribune, San Diego Reader, Slamm Magazine (ex-staff writer), Asbury Bay Press, Style Weekly, and LA Weekly). He served as Program Officer of the Paulo Freire Institute at UCLA and is currently working as the primary editor for a book on the politics of aging by noted UCLA Public Policy professor Fernando Torres-Gil.
Jose Palafox
jose@politicalmediareview.org
Jose was born in Tijuana, Mexico, and grew up in San Diego, California. While in San Diego, he was involved in many DIY-political punk bands (Struggle, Swing Kids, and later on, Bread and Circuits). In 1995, Jose moved to the Bay Area and attended UC Berkeley for undergraduate and then graduate school (Comparative Ethnic Studies and Sociology). Currently, he is working on a new music project, Baader Brains. His political work, writing, and documentary film has focused on issues of migration, specifically relating to the militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border and the social movements along the California and Arizona border region. In 2001, he was the associate producer of the 28-minute documentary New World Border. He has published articles in Social Justice, Covert Action Quarterly, ColorLines, Z Magazine, Borderlines, Shades of Power, Left Turn, and Maximum RocknRoll. For the past eight years, Jose have taught in Chicano/Latino Studies and Sociology at UC Berkeley, Stanford University, Mills College, UC Santa Cruz, and University of San Francisco. He has taught courses on the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands; Social Movement Theory; Gender, Globalization, and World-Systems Analysis; Theories and Methods in Comparative Ethnic Studies; Introduction to Chicana/o Studies. After teaching full-time for eight years, he decided to take a break from it for a bit. He currently works in publishing at AK Press in Oakland, California.
