About Lilian Calles Barger

Lilian Calles Barger is a native of Buenos Aires, Argentina and immigrated with her parents as a child. She holds a Ph.D. in Humanities/History of Ideas from the University of Texas at Dallas and currently works as an independent scholar. She speaks and writes for a scholarly and general audience and is the author of two trade books on women and religion. Oxford University Press published her book The World Come of Age: An Intellectual History of Liberation Theology in 2018 selected as one of that year's best books by the African American Intellectual History Society. She has appeared in Women's Studies Journal, Aeon, Yes! Magazine, Christian Century, the anthology The Religious Left in Modern America: Doorkeepers of a Radical Faith (Palgrave Macmillan 2018), and online venues including U.S. Intellectual History, Black Perspectives, Black Agenda Report, American Religion, and Political Theology. Her expertise is in the relationship between religion/theology and modernity, social thought, women, and gender. She is currently writing a history of feminism through the life and work of Simone de Beauvoir and is a podcast host for the New Books Network. She lives in Taos, NM.

Lilian Calles Barger is a cultural, intellectual and gender historian. Her most recent book is entitled The World Come of Age: An Intellectual History of Liberation Theology (Oxford University Press, 2018). Her current writing project is on the cultural and intellectual history of women and the origins of feminism seen through the emblematic life and work of Simone de Beauvoir.

Lilian's website

NBN Episodes hosted by Lilian:

Eileen Hunt Botting, "The Wollstonecraftian Mind" (Routledge, 2019)

January 6, 2024

The Wollstonecraftian Mind

Eileen Hunt Botting

Eileen Hunt Botting is Professor of Political Science at Notre Dame and co-editor with Sandrine Berges and Alan Coffee of the anthology The Wollstonec…

Kate Kirkpatrick, "Becoming Beauvoir: A Life" (Bloomsbury Academic, 2019)

January 5, 2024

Becoming Beauvoir

Kate Kirkpatrick

Kate Kirkpatrick is a lecturer in Religion, Philosophy and Culture at King’s College London and author of Becoming Beauvoir: A Life (Bloomsbury Academ…

Katherine M. Marino, "Feminism for the Americas: The Making of an International Human Rights Movement" (UNC Press, 2019)

January 3, 2024

Feminism for the Americas

Katherine M. Marino

Katherine M. Marino is an assistant professor of history at the University of California, Los Angeles. Feminism for the Americas: The Making of an Int…

Matthew Gutmann, "Are Men Animals? How Modern Masculinity Sells Men Short" (Basic Books, 2019)

January 2, 2024

Are Men Animals?

Matthew Gutmann

In Are Men Animals? How Modern Masculinity Sells Men Short (Basic Books, 2019), Matthew Gutmann examines how cultural expectations viewing men as viol…

Skye Cleary, "How to Be Authentic: Simone de Beauvoir and the Quest for Fulfillment" (St. Martin's Press, 2022)

July 27, 2022

How to Be Authentic

Skye Cleary

Skye C. Cleary is a philosopher, writer and university teacher. In her new book How to Be Authentic: Simone de Beauvoir and the Quest for Fulfillment …

Lillian Faderman, "Woman: The American History of an Idea" (Yale UP, 2022)

April 26, 2022

Woman

Lillian Faderman

Lillian Faderman is professor emerita at California State University, Fresno. An award-winning author Dr Faderman, widely known as the mother of lesbi…

Eileen Hunt Botting, "Portraits of Wollstonecraft" (Bloomsbury, 2021)

October 22, 2021

Portraits of Wollstonecraft

Eileen Hunt Botting

Eileen Hunt Botting is a Professor political science at the University of Notre Dame. Dr. Botting is a widely published and cited scholar on the thoug…

Meryl Altman, "Beauvoir in Time" (Brill, 2020)

July 23, 2021

Beauvoir in Time

Meryl Altman

Meryl Altman's new book Beauvoir in Time, published by Brill Rodopi Press (2020), situates Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex (1949) in its historica…

Elesha J. Coffman, "Margaret Mead: A Twentieth-Century Faith" (Oxford UP, 2021)

February 19, 2021

Margaret Mead

Elesha J. Coffman

Elesha J. Coffman's Margaret Mead: A Twentieth-Century Faith (Oxford UP, 2021) takes a careful look at Mead’s religious origins and influence. As a fa…

Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn, "Ars Vitae: The Fate of Inwardness and the Return of the Ancient Arts of Living" (U Notre Dame Press, 2020)

December 28, 2020

Ars Vitae

Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn

Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn is a professor of history at Syracuse University. Her new book Ars Vitae: The Fate of Inwardness and the Return of the Ancient A…

Ellen Wayland-Smith, "The Angel in the Marketplace: Adwoman Jean Wade Rindlaub and the Selling of America" (U Chicago Press, 2020)

October 23, 2020

The Angel in the Marketplace

Ellen Wayland-Smith

Ellen Wayland-Smith is an associate professor of writing at University of Southern California. Her book The Angel in the Marketplace: Adwoman Jean Wad…

Lisa Levenstein, "They Didn’t See Us Coming: The Hidden History of Feminism in the Nineties" (Basic Books, 2020)

August 19, 2020

They Didn’t See Us Coming

Lisa Levenstein

Lisa Levenstein is the Director of the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program and an associate professor of history at the University of North …

Amy Aronson, "Crystal Eastman: A Revolutionary Life" (Oxford UP, 2019)

December 11, 2019

Crystal Eastman

Amy Aronson

Amy Aronson is an Associate Professor of Journalism and Media Studies at Fordham University and former editor at Working Woman and Ms. magazines. Her …

Sara Georgini, "Household Gods: The Religious Lives of the Adams Family" (Oxford UP, 2019)

September 18, 2019

Household Gods

Sara Georgini

Sara Georgini is a historian and series editor for The Papers of John Adams at the Massachusetts Historical Society. Household Gods: The Religious Liv…

Paul J. Croce, "Young William James Thinking" (John Hopkins UP, 2018)

July 2, 2019

Young William James Thinking

Paul J. Croce

Paul J. Croce, professor of history at Stetson University. Young William James Thinking (John Hopkins University Press, 2018) offers a developmental b…

Linda M. Grasso, "Equal under the Sky: Georgia O’Keeffe and Twentieth-Century Feminism" (U New Mexico Press, 2017)

May 27, 2019

Equal under the Sky

Linda M. Grasso

Linda M. Grasso's Equal under the Sky: Georgia O’Keeffe & Twentieth-Century Feminism (University of New Mexico Press, 2017) provides an in-depth l…

Erin M. Kempker, "Big Sister: Feminism, Conservatism and Conspiracy in the Heartland" (U Illinois, 2018)

May 3, 2019

Big Sister

Erin M. Kempker

Erin M. Kempker is an associate professor of history at Mississippi University for Women and the author of Big Sister: Feminism, Conservatism and Cons…

Christian Philip Peterson, "The Routledge History of World Peace Since 1750" (Routledge, 2018)

April 15, 2019

The Routledge History of World Peace since 1750

Christian Philip Peterson, William M. Knoblauch, and Michael Loadenthal

Christian Philip Peterson joins us today to talk about The Routledge History of World Peace since 1750 (Routledge, 2018), which he co-edited with Will…

Joyce Antler, "Jewish Radical Feminism: Voices from the Women’s Liberation Movement" (NYU Press, 2018)

March 6, 2019

Jewish Radical Feminism

Joyce Antler

Joyce Antler is the Samuel J. Lane Professor Emerita of American Jewish history and culture at Brandeis University. Jewish Radical Feminism: Voices fr…

Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen, "The Ideas that Made America: A Brief History" (Oxford UP, 2019)

February 27, 2019

The Ideas that Made America

Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen

Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen's The Ideas that Made America: A Brief History (Oxford University Press, 2019) is a sweeping examination of the key ideas t…

Robin Marie Averbeck, "Liberalism is not Enough: Race and Poverty in Postwar Political Thought" (UNC Press, 2018)

January 10, 2019

Liberalism is Not Enough

Robin Marie Averbeck

Robin Marie Averbeck is a writer, activist and teacher at California State University, Chico. Liberalism is Not Enough: Race and Poverty in Postwar Po…

Audra J. Wolfe, "Freedom’s Laboratory: The Cold War Struggle for the Soul of Science" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2018)

December 27, 2018

Freedom’s Laboratory

Audra J. Wolfe

Audra J. Wolfe, is a Philadelphia-based writer, editor and historian. Her book Freedom’s Laboratory: The Cold War Struggle for the Soul of Science (Jo…

Arlene M. Sánchez Walsh, "Pentecostals in America" (Columbia UP, 2018)

November 8, 2018

Pentecostals in America

Arlene M. Sánchez Walsh

Arlene M. Sánchez Walsh's Pentecostals in America (Columbia University Press, 2018) offers a critical look at the history, key figures, and ideas that…

John Kaag, "American Philosophy: A Love Story" (FSG, 2016)

September 20, 2018

American Philosophy

John Kaag

John Kaag is a professor of philosophy at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. American Philosophy: A Love Story (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016)…