Social justice has become a common catch phrase for talking heads, academic programs, and habitual Facebook sharers over the past several years. Social justice can seem like a form of entitlement; "we want the equality we have coming due " In a neoliberal era, social justice can also seem like a catchy form of branding. An unexamined, feel-good political nebula. Over the past two years, the contributors to Lehigh Valley Vanguard have shaken the rug to explore commonly accepted views of how to achieve a just society for all. We've explored what it means to be poor, disenfranchised, and...

A major goal among activists over the past several years, the last 3 especially, has been to evaluate the ways capitalism is wreaking havoc on our environment. When trying to imagine something other than capitalism in order to change our trajectory, we might be tempted to adopt the view offered by Fredric Jameson and say: it is easier to imagine the end of the world than to imagine the end of capitalism. Indeed, the perpetual "innovation" and "growth" Jameson discusses in "Future City" is tearing down our eco system. The authors in this volume have, first, diagnosed this problem, but also...

Every act we take up is political. When we decide whether we'd like to do something or say "hell with it, I'm not doing it," we occupy a radical chasm of biopower. The authors in this volume offer reflections on the minutiae of the everyday. Those moments when we can choose to go forth or walk out. Poets, especially, subvert the automatic when they use their habit of attention. The auto-life is what causes poor policies to proliferate. Only acts of questioning, defecting, and ultimately, dissent will bring us to a place where we are actively seeking justice for all.

Rag Queen Periodical's printed companion, On the Rag, is a regular compilation series which features the very best of www.ragqueenperiodical.com. Our first issue's theme is menstruation.

Identity studies is engulfed in debate. Scholars, artists, and activists alike are continually brought together and separated from each other through their individual and group identities. Although we may identify with groups and subgroups, we all have individual experiences which are unlike any other person. We can relate to one another, yet not fully. To identify completely with any one person or group would imply we are post-human, clone animations. However, when we explore identities, we can find common ground. Additionally, we can find empathy more easily if we understand ourselves. It...

In social movements, what propels us? This is a fundamental consideration when undertaking direct action. The authors in this collection show us the depth of political commitments for individuals and societies. Political commitments should begin with ethical considerations, hopefully, cultivating love. To begin, Omar Swartz problematizes everyday assumptions about our humanity in "Cultivating Our Humanity: Moral Imagination, Moral Intelligence, and Love." Then Shayda Kafai takes us through the good/bad dichotomy of suicide and despair by analyzing the impact of Dese'Rae L. Stage's project...

Through emphasizing various realities of the precariat (a social class defined by their lack of predictability, job insecurity, undercut by neoliberal policy) writers in this volume shine light on the lack of material and psychological welfare accessible to this group. Flexibility in work is often framed as a sexy, hip mode of operating in a capitalist society. It has also encouraged estrangement, as Marx predicted. In many ways precarious labor has intensified alienation and mortified the human brain and heart. Constant worry for lack of knowing if giving oneself up to work for the dreams of...