Russell Cobb

Labor Omnia Vincit

I'm from the erstwhile Oil Capital of the World, Tulsa. "Tell no lies, and claim no easy victories"

Russell Cobb

Labor Omnia Vincit

I'm from the erstwhile Oil Capital of the World, Tulsa. "Tell no lies, and claim no easy victories"

SOTRU Short: Dear Tulsa
SpeakingOfFashion
Road to nowhere: Oklahoma's Donald J. Trump Highway runs through the Dust Bowl
Chris Polansky got out of his van at the Love's truck stop in Boise City, Oklahoma, to gas up. He'd been hiking and camping with his dog, Trout Fishing in America ("Trout, colloquially," Polansky said). Polansky and Trout found themselves in the most remo
Salon.com
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304864749_Introduction_The_Artifice_of_Authenticity_in_the_Age_of_Digital_Reproduction
U of A professor's work spurs movie about popular televangelist's fall from grace
Russell Cobb was back in his hometown of Tulsa, Okla. when he noticed a small article in the local paper about a very popular preacher's fall from grace. Cobb, who teaches cultural studies at the University of Alberta, decided to call Carlton Pearson out of the blue and asked the preacher — who once drew crowds of more than 5,000 people every Sunday — about his fall in popularity,
A forgotten coup in the American heartland echoes Trump
The governor orders the National Guard to string barbed wire around the capitol building and take up defensive positions with machine guns. The Ku Klux Klan, after a campaign of terror against the governor's supporters, calls for his ouster. The governor promises to pardon anyone who shoots a klansman.
https://unpblog.com/2020/03/26/from-the-desk-of-russ-cobb-sins-of-the-father/
How Barbecue Evolved
When you fire up the grill this summer, you may think you’re enjoying the most quintessential of North American culinary traditions. But as with many cultural artifacts we assume are in some way “authentic,” the origins of barbecue are far more complex, says Russell Cobb, the University of Alberta’s expert on the subject of all things smoked and grilled.
How We Remember the Tulsa Massacre
When President Trump announced that he would be rallying his supporters on June 19th in Tulsa, it scanned to many as a vicious one-two punch. After all, June 19th, or Juneteenth, marks the day in 1865 when Union general Gordon Granger told the enslaved people of Texas that they were finally free.
Oklahoma isn't working. Can anyone fix this failing American state?
A teacher panhandles on a roadside to buy supplies for her third-grade classroom. Entire school districts resort to four-day school weeks. Nearly one in four children struggle with hunger. A city overpass crumbles and swarms of earthquakes shake the regio
The Guardian
Trump rally in Tulsa, a day after Juneteenth, awakens memories of 1921 racist massacre
For only the second time in a century, the world’s attention is focused on Tulsa, Okla. You would be forgiven for thinking Tulsa is a sleepy town “where the wind comes sweepin’ down the plain,” in the words of the musical Oklahoma!. But Tulsa was the site of one of the worst episodes of racial violence in American history, and a long, arduous process of reconciliation over the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 was jarred by President Donald Trump’s decision to hold his first campaign rally there since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Author: Dr. Russell Cobb
The Last Black West: Oklahoma Freedmen Seek Refuge in Alberta, Part 1. Advertisements promoting the “Last Best West”—a frontier open to all pioneers—have become an ingrained part of the Canadian national mythology. Read The Last Black West: Oklahoma Freedmen Seek Refuge in Alberta, Part 1. As we noted in Part 1, early….
Why Do So Many People Pretend to Be Native American?
This Land PressFor this week’s Longreads Member Pick, we are thrilled to share a brand new essay from Oklahoma’s This Land Press, just published in their August 2014 issue. This Land has been featured on Longreads often in the past—you can support them here.
Longreads and This Land Press
A Conversation with Russell Cobb
Earlier this year, the Netflix documentary Tiger King briefly dominated American culture. In doing so, it shone a rare spotlight on Oklahoma, the setting for the wild, almost unbelievable antics of its characters. But for many people familiar with the history of Oklahoma, Tiger King is just another anecdote in a culture packed with contradictions, fraud, wealth, and swindles.
North by South West
Most people consider Alberta to be the Texas of Canada. But what do actual Texans think? Both places are fiercely libertarian, proudly outspoken and they share a common history defined by ranching, oil exploration, country music and conservative politics. That traffic has only grown over the last decade as oil and gas prices have shot up, creating a pipeline of people that may soon be accompanied by the actual oil pipeline TransCanada so fervently wants to build between the two places.
Alberta Venture
Netflix releases new movie based on U of A professor’s reporting
Russell Cobb, a professor in the University of Alberta’s department of modern languages and cultural studies, has always been interested in charismatic Christianity, having grown up in the middle of the bible belt in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Recently, his work on Reverend Carlton Pearson’s fall from the evangelical church was developed into a Netflix movie.
Oil's corrosive impact on democracy is the true socialist gateway drug
This article was originally published on The Conversation, an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. Disclosure information is available on the original site. Author: Russell Cobb, Associate Professor of Latin American Studies, University of Alberta.

About

Russell Cobb

Mid-range drop step.

Russell Cobb is a writer and academic, originally from Tulsa, Muscogee (Creek) Nation / Oklahoma. He is Associate Professor in Modern Languages and Cultural Studies at the University of Alberta. His journalistic work has appeared in The New York Times, Slate, NPR, and The Nation. He is a contributing editor and frequent contributor to This Land Press. His scholarly work has examined the cultural Cold War in Latin America and contemporary cultural politics in the region.

His books include The Great Oklahoma Swindle: Race, Religion, and Lies in America's Weirdest State (2020), as well as the eBook single Heart in Darkness (2013) and the edited collection The Paradox of Authenticity in a Globalized World (2014).