In The News: Department of Interdisciplinary, Gender, and Ethnic Studies

Spicy Eyes Podcast

When you ask anyone about good food off the Strip, you're definitely going to hear about Thai food. Everyone has a favorite — Komol, Weera, Lotus of Siam. How did the cuisine become popular in Las Vegas, and why does it have such staying power? Turns out clever marketing , government intervention and a glowing Jonathan Gold review go a long way. We talk to Lotus of Siam Chef Saipin Chutima, Asian Studies Professor Mark Padoongpatt and the kind members of Chaiya Meditation Monastery, a hub for Las Vegas' Thai community.

Las Vegas Review Journal

Lynn Comella, an associate professor of gender and sexuality studies at UNLV, said she doesn’t know details of the interactions between the company and show organizers. But, she said, rescinding the award may suggest not just gender bias, but a lack of awareness by show organizers about what’s happening in the world of sex tech.

The Splendid Table

In the past 15 years the Thai population in America has doubled in size, and it’s a community that opens a lot of restaurants. In fact, if you’re just looking at the ratio to a community’s population, there are ten times more Thai than Mexican restaurants in the United States. We wanted to know how Thai restaurants first became popular in the U.S. and what fueled their spread across the country. You might be surprised to find the Thai government and Hollywood had a lot to do with it. Francis Lam talked with Padoongpatt, a professor of Asian and Asian American studies at University of Nevada Las Vegas, and the author of Flavors of Empire: Food and the Making of Thai America. Mark also gave us a list of suggested Thai restaurant that we've included below.

Washington Post

Since the 1960s, the right has explained away black Democrats by denying them agency.

KCET

While Los Angeles’ Thai Town may be diminutive in size, only occupying a half-mile stretch in East Hollywood, its existence has been symbolic and influential in Thai culture on a much grander scale, locally and transnationally. As the first officially recognized Thai Town in the nation, and located in a city with the largest Thai population outside of Thailand, this designated area has grown into a hub of culture.

Quartz

The biggest and perhaps best source of data about what people like to watch on the internet and what they would pay for doesn’t come from streaming giants like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, or Hulu. It comes from porn.

Las Vegas Review Journal

As a gay Latina growing up in Chicago, the only time Dr. Erika Gisela Abad would see someone like herself on a television screen was if she happened to catch her reflection.

Forbes

On a gritty stretch of road, a stone’s throw from the Las Vegas Strip, sits the Erotic Heritage Museum. A cavernous 24,000 square-foot space, the building is filled with erotic art, artifacts and exhibits that run the gamut from educational to political to whimsical.

Ms. Magazine

In one year’s time, the Trump administration went from acknowledging the struggles of intersex people to pretending they don’t exist.

Scientific American

Biologists now think there is a larger spectrum than just binary female and male

Vegas PBS

A panel of educators and local indigenous tribe members discuss the importance of embedding local Native American education into lifelong learning as vital to our state’s prosperity, identity and preservation of a culture at risk of extinction.

Forbes

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to get paid to write about sex?