About Lance Thurner

Lance C. Thurner teaches history at Rutgers Newark. His research and writing address the production of knowledge, political subjectivities, and racial and national identities in eighteenth and nineteenth-century Mexico. He can be reached at lancet@rutgers.edu.

Lance's website

NBN Episodes hosted by Lance:

Amelia Moore, "Destination Anthropocene: Science and Tourism in The Bahamas" (U California Press, 2019)

August 21, 2020

Destination Anthropocene

Amelia Moore
Hosted by Lance Thurner

Despite being a minor contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions, like many other small island nations, The Bahamas’s ecology and society are espe…

Katie Day Good, "Bring the World to the Child: Technologies of Global Citizenship in American Education" (MIT Press, 2020)

August 17, 2020

Bring the World to the Child

Katie Day Good
Hosted by Lance Thurner

Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, boosters of digital educational technologies emphasized that these platforms are vital tools for cultivating global…

Austin Choi-Fitzpatrick, "The Good Drone: How Social Movements Democratize Surveillance" (MIT Press, 2020)

August 14, 2020

The Good Drone

Austin Choi-Fitzpatrick
Hosted by Lance Thurner

The Good Drone: How Social Movements Democratize Surveillance (MIT Press), by Austin Choi-Fitzpatrick, demonstrates that this technology – which is mo…

Allison Bigelow, "Mining Language: Racial Thinking, Indigenous Knowledge, and Colonial Metallurgy in the Early Modern Iberian World" (UNC Press 2020)

July 6, 2020

Mining Language

Allison Bigelow
Hosted by Lance Thurner

Historians of Latin America have long appreciated the central role of mining and metallurgy in the region. The Spanish Empire in particular was create…

Matthew D. O'Hara, "The History of the Future in Colonial Mexico" (Yale UP, 2018)

January 6, 2020

The History of the Future in Colonial Mexico

Matthew D. O'Hara
Hosted by Lance Thurner

Latin America – especially colonial Latin America – is not particularly known for futurism. For popular audiences, the region’s history likely evokes …

M. Schneider-Mayerson and B. R. Bellamy, "An Ecotopian Lexicon" (U Minnesota Press, 2019)

December 27, 2019

An Ecotopian Lexicon

Matthew Schneider-Mayerson and Brent Ryan Bellamy
Hosted by Lance Thurner

By choice or not, the catastrophes of global warming and mass extinction task young generations with reorienting human relationships with the earth’s …

Cara New Daggett, "The Birth of Energy: Fossil Fuels, Thermodynamics, and the Politics of Work" (Duke UP, 2019)

November 4, 2019

The Birth of Energy

Cara New Daggett
Hosted by Lance Thurner

In The Birth of Energy: Fossil Fuels, Thermodynamics, and the Politics of Work (Duke University Press, 2019), Cara New Daggett suggests that reassessi…

Ann Elias, "Coral Empire: Underwater Oceans, Colonial Tropics, Visual Modernity" (Duke UP, 2019)

October 24, 2019

Coral Empire

Ann Elias
Hosted by Lance Thurner

With the threats of sea water warming and ocean acidification, coral reefs have become both a fire alarm and a barometer for the dangers of human indu…

Elizabeth DeLoughrey, "Allegories of the Anthropocene" (Duke UP, 2019)

October 15, 2019

Allegories of the Anthropocene

Elizabeth DeLoughrey
Hosted by Lance Thurner

While the mainstream discourses on global warming characterize it as an unprecedented catastrophe that unites the globe in a common challenge, Elizabe…

Cymene Howe and Dominic Boyer, "Wind and Power in the Anthropocene" (Duke UP, 2019)

September 10, 2019

Wind and Power in the Anthropocene

Cymene Howe and Dominic Boyer
Hosted by Lance Thurner

This is the third of three interviews with Cymene Howe and Dominic Boyer about their duo-graph, Wind and Power in the Anthropocene. Also listen to my …

Cymene Howe, "Ecologics: Wind and Power in the Anthropocene" (Duke UP, 2019)

August 27, 2019

Ecologics

Cymene Howe
Hosted by Lance Thurner

This is the first of three interviews with Cymene Howe and Dominic Boyer about their duo-graph, Wind and Power in the Anthropocene (Duke University Pr…

Daniel Nemser, "Infrastructures of Race: Concentration and Biopolitics in Colonial Mexico" (U Texas Press, 2017)

June 28, 2019

Infrastructures of Race

Daniel Nemser
Hosted by Lance Thurner

Daniel Nemser’s Infrastructures of Race: Concentration and Biopolitics in Colonial Mexico (University of Texas Press, 2017) examines the long history …

Paul Ramírez, "Enlightened Immunity: Mexico’s Experiments with Disease Prevention in the Age of Reason" (Stanford UP, 2018)

June 24, 2019

Enlightened Immunity

Paul Ramírez
Hosted by Lance Thurner

Paul Ramírez’s first book explores how laypeople impacted the new medical techniques and technologies implemented by the imperial state in the final d…

Terence Keel, "Divine Variations: How Christian Thought Became Racial Science" (Stanford UP, 2018)

June 17, 2019

Divine Variations

Terence Keel
Hosted by Lance Thurner

We often think of scientific racism as a pseudo-science of a bygone age, yet in both academic population genetics and popular ancestry testing, the sp…

Gökçe Günel, "Spaceship in the Desert: Energy, Climate Change, and Urban Design in Abu Dhabi" (Duke UP, 2019)

May 24, 2019

Spaceship in the Desert

Gökçe Günel
Hosted by Lance Thurner

Whether in space colonies or through geo-engineering, the looming disaster of climate change inspires no shortage of techno-utopian visions of human s…

Robert A. Voeks, "The Ethnobotany of Eden: Rethinking the Jungle Medicine Narrative" (U Chicago Press, 2018)

April 4, 2019

The Ethnobotany of Eden

Robert A. Voeks
Hosted by Lance Thurner

Jungle medicine: it's everywhere, from chia seeds to ginseng tea to CBD oil. In the US, what was once the province of counter culture has moved square…

Kate Ervine, "Carbon" (Polity, 2018)

March 12, 2019

Carbon

Kate Ervine
Hosted by Lance Thurner

The crisis of global warming overwhelms the imagination with its urgency, yet more than ever we need patient, clear-sighted. and careful assessments o…

Megan Finn, "Documenting Aftermath: Information Infrastructures in the Wake of Disasters" (MIT Press, 2018)

January 8, 2019

Documenting Aftermath

Megan Finn
Hosted by Lance Thurner

Megan Finn's Documenting Aftermath: Information Infrastructures in the Wake of Disasters (MIT Press, 2018) is a fascinating examination of how informa…

Suman Seth, "Difference and Disease: Medicine, Race, and the Eighteenth-Century British Empire" (Cambridge UP, 2018)

December 19, 2018

Difference and Disease

Suman Seth
Hosted by Lance Thurner

Suman Seth's new book Difference and Disease: Medicine, Race, and the Eighteenth-Century British Empire (Cambridge University Press, 2018) provides a …

Paola Bertucci, "Artisanal Enlightenment: Science and the Mechanical Arts in Old Regime France" (Yale UP, 2017)

December 6, 2018

Artisanal Enlightenment

Paola Bertucci
Hosted by Lance Thurner

Paola Bertucci's Artisanal Enlightenment: Science and the Mechanical Arts in Old Regime France (Yale University Press, 2017) is an innovative new look…

Amanda H. Lynch and Siri Veland, "Urgency in the Anthropocene" (MIT Press, 2018)

December 3, 2018

Urgency in the Anthropocene

Amanda H. Lynch and Siri Veland
Hosted by Lance Thurner

Amanda Lynch and Siri Veland’s Urgency in the Anthropocene (MIT Press, 2018) is a fascinating and trenchant analysis of the core beliefs and ideas tha…

Hugh Cagle, "Assembling the Tropics: Science and Medicine in Portugal’s Empire, 1450-1700" (Cambridge UP, 2018)

October 22, 2018

Assembling the Tropics

Hugh Cagle
Hosted by Lance Thurner

Assembling the Tropics: Science and Medicine in Portugal’s Empire, 1450-1700 (Cambridge University Press, 2018) by Hugh Cagle is an exciting analysis …

Cameron B. Strang, "Frontiers of Science: Imperialism and Natural Knowledge in the Gulf South Borderlands, 1500-1850" (UNC Press, 2018)

October 3, 2018

Frontiers of Science

Cameron B. Strang
Hosted by Lance Thurner

Cameron Strang’s Frontiers of Science: Imperialism and Natural Knowledge in the Gulf South Borderlands, 1500-1850 (University of North Carolina Press,…

Casey Walsh, "Virtuous Waters: Mineral Springs, Bathing, and Infrastructure in Mexico" (U California Press, 2018)

August 2, 2018

Virtuous Waters

Casey Walsh
Hosted by Lance Thurner

Water politics have long figured prominently in Mexico, and scholars have addressed such critical topics as irrigation, dam and canal building, and re…