Why Some Literary Traditions Dominate International Translation
Structural forces—not literary quality—determine which national literatures reach international readers through translation
How Censorship Travels: International Pressure on Cultural Expression
Market incentives, platform rules, and diplomatic signals carry censorship far beyond its borders of origin
Cultural Trade Agreements and Their Artistic Consequences
How trade law quietly architects which art crosses borders and which stays home
Film Festival Networks and Cinematic Taste Formation
How a hidden hierarchy of festivals determines which films the world considers art cinema
The Cultural Politics of World Heritage Designation
How international recognition reshapes heritage governance, community authority, and the meaning of cultural places
The Translation of Humor Across Cultural Borders
Why jokes die at borders while music and dance slip through unexamined
The Afterlife of Mega-Events: Cultural Infrastructure Legacy
Why billion-dollar cultural venues built for Olympic spectacles so often become monuments to ambition without succession planning
How International Funding Shapes National Theatre
International grants don't just fund theatre—they shape what theatre becomes possible to imagine
Diaspora Artists and the Burden of Representation
How artists navigating cultural boundaries manage institutional expectations about heritage, authenticity, and what their work should mean
Why Museums Struggle with Living Traditions
When institutions built for preserving objects encounter cultures defined by practice, fundamental conflicts emerge.
Religious Art in Secular Museums: Display Dilemmas
How secular museums navigate the impossible task of displaying the sacred as artifact
Repatriation Debates Beyond the Object
Why returning cultural objects requires negotiating relationships, not just resolving ownership claims
Why Arts Education Systems Produce Different Outcomes Globally
How national approaches to arts training shape careers, aesthetics, and the artists who emerge from them
How Digital Platforms Reshape Traditional Music Distribution
Digital distribution promises global reach for traditional music but embeds new gatekeepers, ownership conflicts, and categorical frameworks that cultural policy must actively address.
Why Some Dance Forms Travel While Others Stay Home
Examining the technical systems, body politics, and performance transformations that determine which dance traditions achieve global circulation and which remain locally rooted
The Hidden Infrastructure of International Art Fairs
How shipping costs, insurance frameworks, and customs regulations invisibly determine which cultural expressions achieve global visibility and market participation.
When Art Markets Create the Art They Trade
How gallery dimensions, collector expectations, and residency systems quietly sculpt artistic production across the global art world
Cultural Diplomacy's Measurement Problem
Why the outcomes cultural diplomacy promises are precisely those most resistant to the quantification that bureaucratic accountability demands.
How Languages Die in Translation: Music Across Cultural Borders
What survives when music crosses borders—and what quietly disappears in the journey from originating culture to global playlist.
Why Traditional Crafts Survive Global Markets While Fine Arts Struggle
How authenticity claims, material rootedness, and collective ownership create divergent paths for cultural products crossing international borders
The Architecture of Biennials: Space as Curatorial Statement
How venue choices, visitor pathways, and pavilion structures shape biennial meaning beyond the artworks themselves