Joel Wendland-Liu

Joel Wendland-Liu teaches courses on diversity, intercultural competence, migration, and civil rights at Grand Valley State University in West Michigan. He is the author of "Mythologies: A Political Economy of U.S. Literature, Settler Colonialism, and Racial Capitalism in the Long Nineteenth Century" (International Publishers) and "The Collectivity of Life" (Lexington Books).

LATEST ARTICLES BY Joel Wendland-Liu

Culture

Before he was a Bolshevik: Claude McKay’s radicalization is subject of new book
November 22, 2023 By Joel Wendland-Liu
McKay spoke for a new generation of Black radicals, as distinguished historian Winston James shows.
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Books

‘Minor detail’: Israeli military atrocities exposed, in the form of a novel
November 13, 2023 By Joel Wendland-Liu
Palestinian author Adania Shibli’s novel Minor Details reproduces the ordinariness, the bland everyday routine of Israeli military occupation on every page.
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Culture

Tactical questions abound in new book, ‘A People’s History of Grand Rapids’
November 8, 2023 By Joel Wendland-Liu
The author has rescued lost voices in the history of this Michigan city, but do his anarchist leanings lead him astray?
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Culture

Arise, Africa! Roar, China!: Black and Chinese Citizens of the World in the Twentieth Century
August 24, 2023 By Joel Wendland-Liu
Historian Gao Yunxiang documents the experiences of five individuals—W.E.B. Du Bois, Paul Robeson, Liu Liangmo, Si-lan Chen Leyda, and Langston Hughes—through the lens of anti-imperialist working-class struggles for freedom.
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Culture

‘Black Folk: The Roots of the Black Working Class’ in review
August 18, 2023 By Joel Wendland-Liu
Black Folks opens with a story about how and why some of her ancestors chose to leave their Southern homes in the early 20th century, a story that serves as a narrative thread throughout the book.
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Culture

A new book examines global radicalism in the era of the Mexican Revolution
July 7, 2023 By Joel Wendland-Liu
Heatherton’s Arise! provides a groundbreaking analysis of the Mexican Revolution and its profound impact on the emergence of global radicalism.
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Books

New book studies why Black women turned to the Communist Party in 1930s
June 14, 2023 By Joel Wendland-Liu
Historian Melissa Ford’s research explores Black women’s radical activism during the Great Depression.
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Culture

‘Never-Ending Youth’: Urariano Mota’s novel-memoir of resistance to Brazilian fascism
June 2, 2023 By Joel Wendland-Liu
Based on real people or composites of real people, Mota’s work offers snapshots of 1970s Brazil’s radical youth movement.
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