As we exit a more contentious than usual month of Gay Pride, Social Text brings you this dossier of critical appreciations of long-standing collective member José Esteban Muñoz's new book, Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity. Read responses from Lauren Berlant, Barbara Browning, Gayatri Gopinath, and Ricardo Ortiz. Muñoz responds to his responses, and performance art legend Vaginal Davis contributes an original illustration inspired by Cruising Utopia. >>

Fifteen years after the new South Africa's first democratic elections, the dream of a true, non-racial, economically just "Rainbow Nation" endures. But so too do the inequalities of race and class that are the legacy of apartheid and its colonialist antecedents. In April of 2009 Jacob Zuma, anointed restorer of the liberationist mantle, rode a wave of populist energy to the national presidency. His ascension, however, has not quelled a resurgence of social unrest. For the majority of South Africans who retain faith in the nation's potential, but mourn the violent inequities that continue to shape daily life in apartheid's aftermath, the World Cup is cause for a difficult if needed national reckoning. [Part 3 of a 3 Part series.] >>

Dear President Obama, This holiday weekend brought news of the failure of BP's latest strategy for plugging the oil flow in the Gulf of Mexico - the ominously named "top kill."  It now seems increasingly likely that oil will continue to foul the waters of the Gulf until ancillary wells are completed several months from now.  The scale of this disaster is hard for the human imagination to fathom. Unfortunately your administration is deeply implicated in this, the worst environmental cataclysm in the nation and perhaps the planet's history.  As has become widely know since the explosion on board the Deepwater Horizon rig, the Mineral Management Service completely failed in its mission to regulate the oil industry.  Secretary of the... >>

From the editors: In the lead-up to the World Cup, the first to be held in Africa, we are serializing in three parts an essay by Eli Jelly-Schapiro on the cultural politics of soccer. This essay will then be followed by a Periscope forum about the Cup. Read more. >>

Depressing things going on at Middlesex University in the UK following management's crazy decision to close the Philosophy Department. After student occupations in protest, a number of students and faculty have been suspended from the University. Faculty suspended are Professor Peter Osbourne, Professor Peter Hallward, and Dr. Christian Kerslake.  Many readers will know the department and its excellent and ongoing work. Philosophy has been one of the University's highest research-rated departments. It seems its just not profitable or 'impactful' enough for management's vision of the University going forward. Unfortunately, this seems an increasing threat to the humanities, arts and some of the critical social sciences in an increasingly neo-liberalizing British higher educational context. More here and a petition as well:http://savemdxphil.com/2010/05/25/more-information-about-the-philosophy-suspensions/... >>