Author: Melissa Bridwell

There is a certain type of anxiety that permeates every sports card show these days. Collectors squint at corners and surface texture, lean in close over tables, take out loupe magnifiers, and tilt cards under the light at strange angles. To some extent, they have always done this. However, it now has a benefit that wasn’t present a few years ago. Everyone in the hobby seems to know someone who was burned, and the problem of counterfeit goods has gotten worse. That reality is beginning to be reflected in the lawsuits. Counterfeit NFL rookie cards sold through online marketplaces are…

The academic community largely shrugged when David Gauntlett introduced a series of sociology trading cards via his website Theory.org in the year 2000. Some people thought it was adorable. It was referred to as a gimmick by some. Nobody anticipated that Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, and Anthony Giddens would wind up in students’ jacket pockets and be passed around seminar rooms like rare foil Pokémon cards. But here’s the thing: that’s essentially what took place. Each of the twelve cards in the original set, which was released once a month, featured a social or cultural theorist along with their main…

The concept has an almost rebellious quality. Reduce Foucault, Baudrillard, and Guy Debord—the most intimidating and dense thinkers in cultural and media theory—to a card that fits in your back pocket. Nor is it a simplified version. A distilled one. That was the wager David Gauntlett made in 2001 when he developed Theory Trading Cards via his website theory.org.uk, a tool designed for those attempting to comprehend cultural theory rather than merely get by. The trading cards seemed to mirror what British media and communications scholar Gauntlett had observed in lecture halls and classrooms: students weren’t failing to interact with…

A square of cloth, hardly larger than a postage stamp, sewn to a baseball jersey sleeve has an almost subdued quality. In most situations, it would go unnoticed. However, in the realm of baseball card collecting, that patch has begun to signify something quite different, more akin to a memento, evidence of existence, or tangible documentation of an unrepeatable moment. The idea behind Topps’ MLB Debut Patch cards, which were introduced a few years ago, is fairly simple: a specially prepared patch is embedded in a sleeve of a player’s jersey when he makes his first major league appearance. Following…

When you enter a mid-sized convention center on a Saturday morning in nearly any American city, you’ll notice that things have changed over the past ten years. Early on, the parking lot fills up. Before the main entrance even opens, families pour through glass doors. Inside, stacked booster boxes, binders, and display cases cover the wall-to-wall folding tables. Negotiation is a constant, low hum. Additionally, very few people are using their phones because the action is directly in front of them. It’s a Pokémon card show. Additionally, it is now drawing larger crowds than the nearby minor league baseball game…

The same irritated expression can be seen in almost every American philosophy or political theory classroom: a professor in the middle of a sentence, pointing to the board, attempting to explain why a hospital and a prison might be performing similar tasks. The pupils are not antagonistic. Simply put, they’re lost. That’s what Foucault does to people. In today’s academic world, Michel Foucault is one of the most assigned and least understood thinkers. His theories about power, which hold that it is a diffuse, generative force ingrained in knowledge, institutions, and everyday life rather than just something the powerful use…

On a Tuesday afternoon, you can find the typical scene in almost any after-school program in a mid-sized American city: kids slumped over homework, sneakers squeaking on gym floors, and the occasional argument over a snack. However, there are decks of cards hidden between the folding tables and the backpacks in an increasing number of programs. Not Pokémon. The Gathering is not magic. Children are trading, debating, and incorporating sociology trading cards—small printed rectangles with ideas like confirmation bias, agenda-setting, gatekeeping, and source credibility—into decks as though they truly matter. It turns out that they do. At first, the concept…

What occurs when a school bans something is almost predictable. Whatever the object in question is, it instantly becomes more fascinating. more worthwhile. More valuable to possess. The trading card craze that swept through British primary schools is about the clearest example of this pattern that occurs every generation. You’ll notice it almost instantly if you walk past the gates of any elementary school during a ban. Children staying a bit closer to the fence. Fast conversations taking place right outside the school. Before the bell rings, the glossy, colorful, and expertly sleeved cards are passed from one small hand…

When a difficult concept finally makes sense, a certain kind of relief appears on a student’s face. The real thing—eyes widening slightly, a pause, and a slow “oh”—rather than the courteous nod that occurs in lecture halls. For a surprising number of students in the early 2000s, that moment came from a little cardboard box with 32 illustrated cards about Michel Foucault rather than from a lecturer or seminar. The deck arrived silently as part of a series published by a British design-meets-philosophy imprint. No advertising frenzy. No campaign for academic endorsement. Just a small, visually simplified deck of cards…

In 2001, David Gauntlett, a professor of media studies in Britain, began mailing out an odd little side project: trading cards with the faces of Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, and Anthony Giddens instead of athletes or cartoon monsters. Each of the twelve cards, which arrived once a month, featured a portrait of a theorist along with a summary of their theories. For a while, the entire thing read more like an inside joke from a hobbyist than a legitimate teaching tool. In Britain, the cards were never widely used in classrooms. They garnered some attention, sparked a wave of fan-made…