The interdisciplinary essays gathered in this volume explore how music, audiences and markets are imagined in a globalized scenario; how music reflects upon new understandings of citizenship beyond the nation-state; and how music also works as a site of resistance against globalization. "Hybridity," "postnationalism," "transnationalism," "globalization," “diaspora,” and similar buzzwords have not only informed scholarly discourse and analysis of music, but also shaped the way musical productions have been marketed worldwide in recent times.

While the construction of identity occupies a central position in such a context, there are discrepancies between the conceptualization of music as an extremely fluid phenomenon (across formal or informal borders) and the traditionally malevolent notion of identity to which it has been historically incorporated. As such, music has always been linked to the construction of regional and national identities. The essays in this collection explore the role of music, networks of music distribution, music markets, music consumption, music production, and music scholarship in the articulation of post-national sites of identification.

Exploring three major hubs of muralist activity in California, where indigenist imagery is prevalent, Walls of Empowerment celebrates an aesthetic that seeks to firmly establish Chican@ sociopolitical identity in U.S. territory. Providing readers with a history and genealogy of key muralists' productions, Guisela Latorre also showcases new material and original research on artworks and artists never before examined in print.
An art form often associated with male creative endeavors, muralism in fact reflects significant contributions by Chicano artists. Encompassing these and other aspects of contemporary dialogues, including the often tense relationship between graffiti and muralism, Walls of Empowerment is a comprehensive study that, unlike many previous endeavors, does not privilege non-public Latin@ art. In addition, Latorre introduces readers to the role of new media, including performance, sculpture, and digital technology, in shaping the muralist's "canvas."

The 17 essays and interviews collected in Critical Mappings of Arturo Islas’s Fiction aim to enliven and enrich our understanding of one of our most important authors of contemporary Chican@ letters. The late Arturo Islas wrote three novels including The Rain God and Migrant Souls, as well as many short stories. For much of his career, his work was rejected by the worlds of both mainstream and Chicano literature because of its experimental style and themes that focus on Chicanos learning to negotiate borders between nations, races, genders—and sexualities. This combination of early and recent essays explores his work, addressing issues of technique, publishing in a prejudiced marketplace, and borderland racial and sexual identity. The essays map Islas’s oeuvre to clear a space for the expression of a complex Chicano identity within a contemporary American canon. A number of scholars have contributed, including Erlinda Gonzales-Berry, José David Saldívar, Rosaura Sánchez, and Renato Rosaldo.

Is there life after postmodernism? Many claim that postmodern thought sounded the death knell for history, art, ideology, science, possibly all of Western philosophy, and certainly for the concept of reality itself. Responding to essential questions regarding whether the humanities can remain politically and academically relevant amid this twenty-first-century uncertainty, Why the Humanities Matter offers a guided tour of the modern condition, calling upon thinkers in a variety of disciplines to affirm essential concepts such as truth, goodness, and beauty. 