About this site

Image in header: Detail from Diego Rivera’s mural at the Palacio Nacional, Mexico City. Taken by the Mrs., October 2008.

“Domestic Issue” is an academic blog dedicated to exploring and discussing the subject of miscegenation (racial and cultural) in the Americas. Its objectives are chiefly to prod the author into finally shaping up his dissertation (Rice, 1994) into articles and an eventual book, and (as it grows) to serve as a resource for others interested in the topic of miscegenation and larger issues involving race, culture and politics. I hope visitors here will comment and suggest leads, resources, sites, etc.

(For some (initial) further comment on the question “Why miscegenation?” I invite you to visit here.)

The initial entries here will be posts that originally appeared at my “home” blog, Blog Meridian, but a hoped-for sabbatical this fall should result in a substantial amount of material original to “Domestic Issue.”

I presently live and teach English for a living in Wichita, Kansas. As you can see from the picture, I’m pretty darned white (Teutonic and Scandinavian heritage), but my childhood and early adulthood in Texas (culturally miscegenated for 300 years), an early love of Faulkner and Latin American literature and culture led me to become interested enough in how miscegenation–in particular consensual miscegenation–gets talked about (or, even more important for my dissertation, does not get talked about) in the literatures of this hemisphere to write a dissertation on the subject. Though teaching and personal obligations have thus far interfered with my doing much with the diss., I’ve never lost the desire to return to it.

I hope to hear from others whose research interests intersect with those of this blog. Write me at “johnbuaas425 AT sbcglobal DOT net” or “blogmeridian AT sbcglobal DOT net”.

Welcome, and thanks for visiting.