Michael A Elliott
Biographic Data
| ID | 99839 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Michael A Elliott |
| GIVEN NAMES | Michael A |
| FAMILY NAME | Elliott |
| SIGNATURE | ELLIOTT M A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Towson University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9629-8643 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 121 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 24 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1996 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Beyond the "fandom as religion" comparison
Why do people become devoted fans of popular culture, such that it becomes a central and meaningful part of their lives? This is a fundamental question of fan studies research. We approach it from a sociological perspective, building on the "fandom as religion" comparison but clarifying the terms of this debate and gathering systematic data to explore it more fully. We begin by discussing some lingering issues of this comparison and suggest an al…
Fandom as religion
My objective in this article is to outline both a conceptual and a methodological reframing of the ‘fandom as religion’ comparison from a social-scientific perspective. This comparison is familiar territory by now. It has survived the decades because there are, in fact, some striking similarities between fan devotion and religious devotion. However, there are some lingering issues that continue to hamper this field. As a result, I begin by discus…
World Culture
Globalization studies tend to be dominated by accounts of political conflict or economic expansion, but accounts of world culture gained traction in the 1990s and have coalesced around four general approaches: (1) world culture as an ideology constructed by powerful, hegemonic actors; (2) world culture as a web of international norms that are used to pursue rational self‐interest; (3) world culture as an ontological framework that defines appropr…
Rationalized authenticity and the transnational spread of intangible cultural heritage
World heritage and the scientific consecration of ‘outstanding universal value’
Since World War II, the world heritage movement generated widespread support for preserving various sites of natural and cultural significance deemed to have outstanding universal value (OUV) for humanity. While the designation and evaluation of OUV were initially ambiguous, this process underwent expansive rationalization over time. Building on world society scholarship, we argue that specialized international nongovernmental organizations (INGO…
Diffusion and decoupling in the world heritage movement
A common critique of world society theory is that it overemphasises processes of institutional expansion and isomorphism, and underemphasises instances of decoupling and local variation. We address this concern head-on through an analysis of the world heritage movement. On the one hand, we detail how this movement has expanded into a global institution with highly standardised procedures for evaluating the ‘outstanding universal value’ of cultura…
Strangely Interested
The proliferation of historical commemoration in the United States has led to the willful, overt manipulation of historical facts through imaginative fantasy. This essay argues that a strong literary tradition can help us understand this mode of historical fantasy. The essay surveys contemporary fictions of alternate history, particularly Philip Roth’s The Plot against America (2004). The essay contends that historical fantasy offers a particular…
The Institutionalization of Human Rights and its Discontents
A recurring theme in the sociology of human rights is the vast decoupling that exists between the formal codification of these rights in principle and their implementation in practice, fueling much debate about the effectiveness of international law. Yet, despite this disjuncture, a deeper question remains: given all the barriers that have impeded the realization of human rights, why have they become so widely institutionalized? Revisiting previo…
World heritage
Our Memorials, Ourselves
Our Memorials, Ourselves Michael A. Elliott (bio) Embodying American Slavery in Contemporary Culture. By Lisa Woolfork. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2009. 233 pages. $40.00 (cloth). Here, George Washington Was Born: Memory, Material Culture, and the Public History of a National Monument. By Seth C. Bruggeman. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2008. 260 pages. $59.95 (cloth). $24.95 (paper). Memorial Mania: Public Feeling in America. …
The institutional expansion of human rights, 1863-2003
This article summarizes the results of a recently completed, comprehensive coding of 779 human rights instruments from 1863 to 2003. As such, it offers an extensive portrayal of how, and to what degree, this powerful doctrine has been formally institutionalized over time. Following a brief overview of the data collection process, selected results from this study are presented that highlight how many human rights instruments have been drafted, wha…
Public Native America
Book Review| June 01 2008 Public Native America: Tribal Self-Representation in Museums, Powwows, and Casinos; Disturbing Indians: The Archaeology of Southern Fiction; Matter, Magic, and Spirit: Representing Indian and African American Belief; Crossing Waters, Crossing Worlds: The African Diaspora in Indian Country Michael A. Elliott Michael A. Elliott Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google American Literature (2008) 80 (2): 41…
Facade Diversity
Diversity and multiculturalism are widely embraced principles, championed by many social movements and promoted through the programs and policies of states, businesses, schools and other organizations throughout the world. Purportedly celebrating and protecting group differences, these principles translate concretely into differences that operate as facades masking the underlying individualization of world society. Fundamental to this process is …
Human Rights and the Triumph of the Individual in World Culture
Despite ongoing attention to the subject, cultural accounts of the globalization of human rights are surprisingly scarce. Most accounts describe this phenomenon either as a function of evolutionary progress or the rational/strategic action of states and social movement organizations. As a result, they have difficulty explaining both the moral impulse to act on behalf of human rights and the tremendous expansion of the ideology itself. Borrowing i…
An Old Historicism, Reborn
Research Article| March 01 2006 An Old Historicism, Reborn Michael Elliott Michael Elliott Emory University [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google English Language Notes (2006) 44 (1): 275–277. https://doi.org/10.1215/00138282-44.1.275 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Michael Elliott; An Old Historicism, Reborn. English Language Notes 1 March 20…
The Contemporary American Short-Story Cycle
Coyote Comes to the Norton
They intended to catch salmon, but they did not get anything [before] the flood-tide set in. They went home. Coyote was angry. He defecated and spoke to his excrements: ''You are a liar.'' They said to him: ''You with your bandylegs. When people kill a salmon they do not jump over the net. You must not step over your net. When the fi rst salmon are killed, they are not cut until the afternoon.'' ''Oh,'' said Coyote, ''You told me enough.''-''Coyo…
Going Native
Book Review| March 01 2002 Going Native: Indians in the American Cultural Imagination By Shari M. Huhndorf. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Univ. Press. 2001. xiv, 220 pp. Cloth, $42.50; paper, $16.95. Michael A. Elliott Michael A. Elliott Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google American Literature (2002) 74 (1): 183–185. https://doi.org/10.1215/00029831-74-1-183 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permission…
Telling the Difference
“Telling the Difference” focuses on two legal opinions from the nineteenth century that carefully distinguish between those who should be racially marked as nonwhite and those who should not. In the first instance, a Michigan judge decides the appropriate “blood fraction” of African-American heritage that would prohibit a free man from voting. In the second, a New Mexico judge rules that the Native Americans of Cochiti Pueblo are not legally “Ind…
Telling the Difference
“Telling the Difference” focuses on two legal opinions from the nineteenth century that carefully distinguish between those who should be racially marked as nonwhite and those who should not. In the first instance, a Michigan judge decides the appropriate “blood fraction” of African-American heritage that would prohibit a free man from voting. In the second, a New Mexico judge rules that the Native Americans of Cochiti Pueblo are not legally “Ind…
That the People Might Live
In this book Weaver looks at Native American literature in order to reflect on Native American values and spirituality. In 500 years of contact and colonization Christianity has been unable to displace traditional religious beliefs and practice, Weaver notes, and even among Indians who consider themselves Christian, traditional ways are often still important and honored. Many practise syncretism and religious dimorphism, religious pluralism that …
Ethnography, Reform, and the Problem of the Real
Ethnography, Reform, and the Problem of the Real: James Mooney's Ghost-Dance Religion Michael A. Elliott (bio) Mak' sito'maniyañ ukiye, Oya'te uki'ye, oya'te uki'ye, Wa'ñbali oya'te wañ hoshi'hi-ye lo, Ate heye lo, ate heye lo, Maka o'wañcha'ya uki'ye Pte kiñ ukiye, pte kiñ ukiye, Kañghi oya'te wañ hoshi'hi-ye lo, A'te he'ye lo, a'te he'ye lo. The whole world is coming, A nation is coming, a nation is coming, The Eagle has brought the message to …
The Day before Yesterday
Journal Article The Day before Yesterday: Reconsidering Americas Fast, Rediscovering the Present. By Michael Elliott. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996. 320 pp. $24.00, ISBN 0-684-80991-5.) Get access Norman Rosenberg Norman Rosenberg Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 84, Issue 1, June 1997, Pages 320–321, https://doi.org/10.2307/295…
The Day before Yesterday
Human Rights and the Triumph of the Individual in World Culture
Despite ongoing attention to the subject, cultural accounts of the globalization of human rights are surprisingly scarce. Most accounts describe this phenomenon either as a function of evolutionary progress or the rational/strategic action of states and social movement organizations. As a result, they have difficulty explaining both the moral impulse to act on behalf of human rights and the tremendous expansion of the ideology itself. Borrowing i…
Facade Diversity
Diversity and multiculturalism are widely embraced principles, championed by many social movements and promoted through the programs and policies of states, businesses, schools and other organizations throughout the world. Purportedly celebrating and protecting group differences, these principles translate concretely into differences that operate as facades masking the underlying individualization of world society. Fundamental to this process is …
World heritage
The institutional expansion of human rights, 1863-2003
This article summarizes the results of a recently completed, comprehensive coding of 779 human rights instruments from 1863 to 2003. As such, it offers an extensive portrayal of how, and to what degree, this powerful doctrine has been formally institutionalized over time. Following a brief overview of the data collection process, selected results from this study are presented that highlight how many human rights instruments have been drafted, wha…
World heritage and the scientific consecration of ‘outstanding universal value’
Since World War II, the world heritage movement generated widespread support for preserving various sites of natural and cultural significance deemed to have outstanding universal value (OUV) for humanity. While the designation and evaluation of OUV were initially ambiguous, this process underwent expansive rationalization over time. Building on world society scholarship, we argue that specialized international nongovernmental organizations (INGO…
Ethnography, Reform, and the Problem of the Real
Ethnography, Reform, and the Problem of the Real: James Mooney's Ghost-Dance Religion Michael A. Elliott (bio) Mak' sito'maniyañ ukiye, Oya'te uki'ye, oya'te uki'ye, Wa'ñbali oya'te wañ hoshi'hi-ye lo, Ate heye lo, ate heye lo, Maka o'wañcha'ya uki'ye Pte kiñ ukiye, pte kiñ ukiye, Kañghi oya'te wañ hoshi'hi-ye lo, A'te he'ye lo, a'te he'ye lo. The whole world is coming, A nation is coming, a nation is coming, The Eagle has brought the message to …
The Institutionalization of Human Rights and its Discontents
A recurring theme in the sociology of human rights is the vast decoupling that exists between the formal codification of these rights in principle and their implementation in practice, fueling much debate about the effectiveness of international law. Yet, despite this disjuncture, a deeper question remains: given all the barriers that have impeded the realization of human rights, why have they become so widely institutionalized? Revisiting previo…
Rationalized authenticity and the transnational spread of intangible cultural heritage
Diffusion and decoupling in the world heritage movement
A common critique of world society theory is that it overemphasises processes of institutional expansion and isomorphism, and underemphasises instances of decoupling and local variation. We address this concern head-on through an analysis of the world heritage movement. On the one hand, we detail how this movement has expanded into a global institution with highly standardised procedures for evaluating the ‘outstanding universal value’ of cultura…
Coyote Comes to the Norton
They intended to catch salmon, but they did not get anything [before] the flood-tide set in. They went home. Coyote was angry. He defecated and spoke to his excrements: ''You are a liar.'' They said to him: ''You with your bandylegs. When people kill a salmon they do not jump over the net. You must not step over your net. When the fi rst salmon are killed, they are not cut until the afternoon.'' ''Oh,'' said Coyote, ''You told me enough.''-''Coyo…
The Day before Yesterday
The Day before Yesterday
Journal Article The Day before Yesterday: Reconsidering Americas Fast, Rediscovering the Present. By Michael Elliott. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996. 320 pp. $24.00, ISBN 0-684-80991-5.) Get access Norman Rosenberg Norman Rosenberg Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 84, Issue 1, June 1997, Pages 320–321, https://doi.org/10.2307/295…
That the People Might Live
In this book Weaver looks at Native American literature in order to reflect on Native American values and spirituality. In 500 years of contact and colonization Christianity has been unable to displace traditional religious beliefs and practice, Weaver notes, and even among Indians who consider themselves Christian, traditional ways are often still important and honored. Many practise syncretism and religious dimorphism, religious pluralism that …
Ethnography, Reform, and the Problem of the Real
Ethnography, Reform, and the Problem of the Real: James Mooney's Ghost-Dance Religion Michael A. Elliott (bio) Mak' sito'maniyañ ukiye, Oya'te uki'ye, oya'te uki'ye, Wa'ñbali oya'te wañ hoshi'hi-ye lo, Ate heye lo, ate heye lo, Maka o'wañcha'ya uki'ye Pte kiñ ukiye, pte kiñ ukiye, Kañghi oya'te wañ hoshi'hi-ye lo, A'te he'ye lo, a'te he'ye lo. The whole world is coming, A nation is coming, a nation is coming, The Eagle has brought the message to …
Telling the Difference
“Telling the Difference” focuses on two legal opinions from the nineteenth century that carefully distinguish between those who should be racially marked as nonwhite and those who should not. In the first instance, a Michigan judge decides the appropriate “blood fraction” of African-American heritage that would prohibit a free man from voting. In the second, a New Mexico judge rules that the Native Americans of Cochiti Pueblo are not legally “Ind…
Telling the Difference
“Telling the Difference” focuses on two legal opinions from the nineteenth century that carefully distinguish between those who should be racially marked as nonwhite and those who should not. In the first instance, a Michigan judge decides the appropriate “blood fraction” of African-American heritage that would prohibit a free man from voting. In the second, a New Mexico judge rules that the Native Americans of Cochiti Pueblo are not legally “Ind…
Going Native
Book Review| March 01 2002 Going Native: Indians in the American Cultural Imagination By Shari M. Huhndorf. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Univ. Press. 2001. xiv, 220 pp. Cloth, $42.50; paper, $16.95. Michael A. Elliott Michael A. Elliott Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google American Literature (2002) 74 (1): 183–185. https://doi.org/10.1215/00029831-74-1-183 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permission…
The Contemporary American Short-Story Cycle
Coyote Comes to the Norton
They intended to catch salmon, but they did not get anything [before] the flood-tide set in. They went home. Coyote was angry. He defecated and spoke to his excrements: ''You are a liar.'' They said to him: ''You with your bandylegs. When people kill a salmon they do not jump over the net. You must not step over your net. When the fi rst salmon are killed, they are not cut until the afternoon.'' ''Oh,'' said Coyote, ''You told me enough.''-''Coyo…
An Old Historicism, Reborn
Research Article| March 01 2006 An Old Historicism, Reborn Michael Elliott Michael Elliott Emory University [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google English Language Notes (2006) 44 (1): 275–277. https://doi.org/10.1215/00138282-44.1.275 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Michael Elliott; An Old Historicism, Reborn. English Language Notes 1 March 20…
Human Rights and the Triumph of the Individual in World Culture
Despite ongoing attention to the subject, cultural accounts of the globalization of human rights are surprisingly scarce. Most accounts describe this phenomenon either as a function of evolutionary progress or the rational/strategic action of states and social movement organizations. As a result, they have difficulty explaining both the moral impulse to act on behalf of human rights and the tremendous expansion of the ideology itself. Borrowing i…
Public Native America
Book Review| June 01 2008 Public Native America: Tribal Self-Representation in Museums, Powwows, and Casinos; Disturbing Indians: The Archaeology of Southern Fiction; Matter, Magic, and Spirit: Representing Indian and African American Belief; Crossing Waters, Crossing Worlds: The African Diaspora in Indian Country Michael A. Elliott Michael A. Elliott Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google American Literature (2008) 80 (2): 41…
Facade Diversity
Diversity and multiculturalism are widely embraced principles, championed by many social movements and promoted through the programs and policies of states, businesses, schools and other organizations throughout the world. Purportedly celebrating and protecting group differences, these principles translate concretely into differences that operate as facades masking the underlying individualization of world society. Fundamental to this process is …
Our Memorials, Ourselves
Our Memorials, Ourselves Michael A. Elliott (bio) Embodying American Slavery in Contemporary Culture. By Lisa Woolfork. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2009. 233 pages. $40.00 (cloth). Here, George Washington Was Born: Memory, Material Culture, and the Public History of a National Monument. By Seth C. Bruggeman. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2008. 260 pages. $59.95 (cloth). $24.95 (paper). Memorial Mania: Public Feeling in America. …
The institutional expansion of human rights, 1863-2003
This article summarizes the results of a recently completed, comprehensive coding of 779 human rights instruments from 1863 to 2003. As such, it offers an extensive portrayal of how, and to what degree, this powerful doctrine has been formally institutionalized over time. Following a brief overview of the data collection process, selected results from this study are presented that highlight how many human rights instruments have been drafted, wha…
World heritage
The Institutionalization of Human Rights and its Discontents
A recurring theme in the sociology of human rights is the vast decoupling that exists between the formal codification of these rights in principle and their implementation in practice, fueling much debate about the effectiveness of international law. Yet, despite this disjuncture, a deeper question remains: given all the barriers that have impeded the realization of human rights, why have they become so widely institutionalized? Revisiting previo…
Strangely Interested
The proliferation of historical commemoration in the United States has led to the willful, overt manipulation of historical facts through imaginative fantasy. This essay argues that a strong literary tradition can help us understand this mode of historical fantasy. The essay surveys contemporary fictions of alternate history, particularly Philip Roth’s The Plot against America (2004). The essay contends that historical fantasy offers a particular…
Diffusion and decoupling in the world heritage movement
A common critique of world society theory is that it overemphasises processes of institutional expansion and isomorphism, and underemphasises instances of decoupling and local variation. We address this concern head-on through an analysis of the world heritage movement. On the one hand, we detail how this movement has expanded into a global institution with highly standardised procedures for evaluating the ‘outstanding universal value’ of cultura…
World heritage and the scientific consecration of ‘outstanding universal value’
Since World War II, the world heritage movement generated widespread support for preserving various sites of natural and cultural significance deemed to have outstanding universal value (OUV) for humanity. While the designation and evaluation of OUV were initially ambiguous, this process underwent expansive rationalization over time. Building on world society scholarship, we argue that specialized international nongovernmental organizations (INGO…
World Culture
Globalization studies tend to be dominated by accounts of political conflict or economic expansion, but accounts of world culture gained traction in the 1990s and have coalesced around four general approaches: (1) world culture as an ideology constructed by powerful, hegemonic actors; (2) world culture as a web of international norms that are used to pursue rational self‐interest; (3) world culture as an ontological framework that defines appropr…
Rationalized authenticity and the transnational spread of intangible cultural heritage
Fandom as religion
My objective in this article is to outline both a conceptual and a methodological reframing of the ‘fandom as religion’ comparison from a social-scientific perspective. This comparison is familiar territory by now. It has survived the decades because there are, in fact, some striking similarities between fan devotion and religious devotion. However, there are some lingering issues that continue to hamper this field. As a result, I begin by discus…
Beyond the "fandom as religion" comparison
Why do people become devoted fans of popular culture, such that it becomes a central and meaningful part of their lives? This is a fundamental question of fan studies research. We approach it from a sociological perspective, building on the "fandom as religion" comparison but clarifying the terms of this debate and gathering systematic data to explore it more fully. We begin by discussing some lingering issues of this comparison and suggest an al…
Sociology (17 works) · Political science (16 works) · Law (15 works) · History (12 works) · Art (9 works) · Politics (9 works) · Literature (8 works) · Computer Science (7 works) · Latin American and Latino Studies (7 works) · Law (7 works)