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High Theory
High Theory August 24, 2023

Polyphony

A Discussion with Brian Fairley

Brian Fairley

Hosted by Kim Adams and Saronik Bosu
Listen:
In this episode of High Theory, Brian Fairley tells us about Polyphony, a concept from music that describes multiple melodic lines sounding at once. The many voices of polyphony have …

High Theory

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High Theory is a produced and edited by Kim Adams and Saronik Bosu, two tired academics trying to save critique from itself, along with two amazing collaborators, Júlia Irion Martins and Nathan Kim. In this podcast, we get high on the substance of theory, and we try to explain difficult ideas from the academy with irreverence. You can learn more about us on our website, or find us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

High Theory August 7, 2023

Horses

Sillies Series

Hosted by Kim Adams and Saronik Bosu
Listen:
In our new summer series of “Sillies,” Saronik and Kim ask each other how simple things will achieve the grandiose task of saving the world. In this episode, Kim asks …
High Theory July 20, 2023

Wirschig

Bombay Talkies B-Side

Debashree Mukherjee

Hosted by Kim Adams and Saronik Bosu
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In this episode of High Theory, we continue our conversation with Debashree Mukherjee about the pioneering film studio Bombay Talkies, founded in 1934 in the city of Bombay (now Mumbai) …
High Theory July 20, 2023

Bombay Talkies

A Discussion with Debashree Mukherjee

Debashree Mukherjee

Hosted by Kim Adams and Saronik Bosu
Listen:
Debashree Mukherjee talks about the pioneering film studio founded in 1934 in the city of Bombay (now Mumbai) by Himansu Rai and Devika Rani. Its cast and crew of diverse …
High Theory July 7, 2023

Shortage

A Discussion with Eram Alam

Eram Alam

Hosted by Kim Adams and Saronik Bosu
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In this episode of High Theory, Eram Alam talks with us about shortage. A political tool, rather than a natural lack, the concept of a shortage changes the flows of …
High Theory June 29, 2023

Queer Mysticism

Jamie Staples

Hosted by Kim Adams and Saronik Bosu
Listen:
We close Pride Month of 2023 with Jamie Staples talking about queer mysticism. This includes instances in medieval Christianity where an embodied and erotic experience of life, within and between …
High Theory June 20, 2023

The Environmental Unconscious

A Discussion with Steven Swarbrick

Steven Swarbrick

Hosted by Kim Adams and Saronik Bosu
Steven Swarbrick talks about poetic engagement with nature in the work of early modern poets ​​Edmund Spenser, Walter Ralegh, Andrew Marvell, and John Milton. Here language is influenced not by …
High Theory June 15, 2023

The Rhetoric of Decline

A Conversation with Jed Esty

Jed Esty

Hosted by Kim Adams and Saronik Bosu
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In this episode of High Theory, Jed Esty talks about the Rhetoric of Decline. Declinism names the contradictory political narrative that America will always be the greatest country in the …
High Theory June 2, 2023

Jeans

High Theory "Sillies" Series

Hosted by Kim Adams and Saronik Bosu
Warning: this episode of High Theory is very silly. In our new summer series of “Sillies,” Saronik and Kim ask each other how simple things will achieve the grandiose task …
High Theory May 23, 2023

Party

A Discussion with Sheila Liming

Sheila Liming

Hosted by Kim Adams and Saronik Bosu
Sheila Liming talks about the party, social gatherings that occasion joy and dread and various emotions in between. The party is both a pause and an acceleration in the life-work …
High Theory May 12, 2023

Global Asia

A Discussion with Cheryl Narumi Naruse

Cheryl Narumi Naruse

Hosted by Saronik Bosu
Cheryl Narumi Naruse talks about the transformation of Singapore over the past decades into a site of postcolonial promise, with economic prosperity and cultural soft power. She discusses a range …
High Theory April 27, 2023

Computer Graphics

A Discussion with Bernard Dionysius Geoghegan

Bernard Dionysius Geoghegan

Hosted by Kim Adams and Saronik Bosu
In this episode of High Theory, Bernard Dionysius Geoghegan talks with us about computer graphics. Emerging from tools for sailing and warmaking, like sea charts and radar, modern computer graphics …
High Theory April 20, 2023

Reading

A Discussion with Swati Moitra

Swati Moitra

Hosted by Kim Adams and Saronik Bosu
Swati Moitra explains how reading can be a subversive and even revolutionary act in certain socio-historical contexts. She draws especially from her own work in the history of women’s reading …
High Theory April 10, 2023

The Cooperative Extension System

Karl Dudman

Hosted by Kim Adams and Saronik Bosu
In this episode of High Theory, Karl Dudman tells us about the Cooperative Extension System. Formed in 1914 as an extension of the Land Grant University system in the United …
High Theory March 23, 2023

ACLA 2023

How Will Critique Save the World?: Popular Theory and Public Humanities

Kim Adams and Saronik Bosu

Hosted by Kim Adams and Saronik Bosu
This episode of High Theory is based upon a conference paper Saronik and Kim wrote for the American Comparative Literature Association Conference in 2023. It departs from our usual conversational …
High Theory March 7, 2023

Choice Architecture

A Discussion with Eli Cook

Eli Cook

Hosted by Kim Adams and Saronik Bosu
In this episode of High Theory, Eli Cook tells us about choice architecture. The term was invented by behavioral economists in 2008 who proposed it as a soft-power model of …
High Theory February 27, 2023

Affective Masculinities

A Discussion with Amrita De

Amrita De

Hosted by Kim Adams and Saronik Bosu
Amrita De talks about affective masculinities, aspirational linkages with dominant scripts of masculinities, socially organized. As she expands her work beyond her study of South Asian masculinities, she talks about …
High Theory February 6, 2023

Index

A Discussion with Dennis Duncan

Dennis Duncan

Hosted by Kim Adams and Saronik Bosu
In this episode of High Theory, Dennis Duncan tells us about the history of the index. At it’s simplest, an index is a table with columns that allow you to …
High Theory January 30, 2023

Queer Space

A Discussion with Jack Jen Gieseking

Jack Jen Gieseking

Hosted by Kim Adams and Saronik Bosu
In this episode of High Theory, Jack Jen Gieseking tells us about queer space. Queer geographies matter alongside queer temporalities. And it turns out that lesbian life in the 1950s …
High Theory January 23, 2023

Near Death Experience

A Discussion with Laura Wittman

Laura Wittman

Hosted by Kim Adams and Saronik Bosu
In this episode of High Theory, Laura Wittman tells us about near death experiences. The central feature of these experiences is a vision and a story, which it turns out …