African Studies

African Studies

episodes

Interviews with scholars of Africa about their new books.

Lawrence Douglas, "The Criminal State: War, Atrocity, and the Dream of International Justice" (Princeton UP, 2026)

June 3, 2026

The Criminal State

Lawrence Douglas

The Criminal State: War, Atrocity, and the Dream of International Justice (Princeton University Press, 2026) offers a gripping account of how law has …

Paige Towers, "What They Stole: A Familicide Rooted in Intercountry Adoption" (U Iowa Press, 2026)

May 28, 2026

What They Stole

Paige Towers
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In 1955, following the devastation of the Korean War, Bertha and Harry Holt made headlines for adopting eight Korean children. Driven by evangelical c…

Timothy Mason Roberts, "After Barbary: Algeria's Roles in the French and American Empires" (Cornell UP, 2025)

May 28, 2026

After Barbary

Timothy Mason Roberts
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

After Barbary: Algeria's Roles in the French and American Empires (Cornell University Press, 2025) by Dr. Timothy Mason Roberts explores the connectio…

Hannah Shepherd, "The Narrowing Sea: Fukuoka, Pusan, and the Rise and Fall of an Imperial Region" (U California Press, 2025)

May 27, 2026

The Narrowing Sea

Hannah Shepherd
Hosted by Samee Siddiqui

In The Narrowing Sea: Fukuoka, Pusan, and the Rise and Fall of an Imperial Region (U California Press, 2025), Hannah Shepherd examines the shared hist…

Robert Rouphail, "Cyclonic Lives in an Indian Ocean World: Environment, Disaster, and Identity in Modern Mauritius" (Ohio UP, 2026)

May 18, 2026

Cyclonic Lives in an Indian Ocean World

Robert M. Rouphail
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In a world marked by increasingly destructive ecological and meteorological upheavals, Cyclonic Lives in an Indian Ocean World: Environment, Disaster,…

Inken Von Borzyskowski and Felicity Vabulas, "Exit from International Organizations: Costly Negotiation for Institutional Change” (Cambridge UP, 2025)

May 18, 2026

Exit from International Organizations

Inken von Borzyskowski and Felicity Vabulas

Why do states exit international organizations (IOs)? How often does exit from IOs – including voluntary withdrawal and forced suspension – occur? Wha…

Gregg A. Brazinsky, "Cold War Comrades: An Emotional History of the Sino-North Korean Alliance" (Cambridge UP, 2026)

May 16, 2026

Cold War Comrades

Gregg A. Brazinsky
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In this major new interpretation of Sino-North Korean relations, Dr. Gregg A. Brazinsky argues that neither the PRC nor the DPRK would have survived a…

Fyodor Tertitskiy, "Pyongyang on the Brink: Sixteen Crises That Shaped North Korea" (Hurst, 2026)

May 14, 2026

Pyongyang on the Brink

Fyodor Tertitskiy
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

North Korea has survived wars, sanctions, and isolation—to the point where it now seems that the continuation of the Kim dynasty, and a starkly divide…

Samiha Rahman, "Black Muslim Freedom Dreams: Islamic Education, Pan-Africanism, and Collective Care" (NYU Press, 2026)

May 11, 2026

Black Muslim Freedom Dreams

Samiha Rahman
Hosted by Shobhana Xavier

Samiha Rahman’s Black Muslim Freedom Dreams: Islamic Education, Pan-Africanism, and Collective Care (New York University Press, 2026) follows three ge…

Young People and Democracy in Africa: Between Engagement and Disillusionment

May 11, 2026

Young People and Democracy in Africa

Cynthia Mbamalu
Hosted by Temitayo Odeyemi

What explains the growing tension between young people and democracy in Africa? Why are some increasingly frustrated, disengaged, or even open to auth…

Mariam Goshadze, "The Noise Silence Makes: Secularity and Ghana's Drum Wars" (Duke UP, 2025)

May 10, 2026

The Noise Silence Makes

Mariam Goshadze

In The Noise Silence Makes: Secularity and Ghana's Drum Wars (Duke UP, 2025) Mariam Goshadze traces the history of noise regulation in Accra, Ghana, s…

10.4 Place Presents Itself To You in Fragments: Ivan Vladislavić and Jeanne-Marie Jackson (MAT)

May 7, 2026

Place Presents Itself To You in Fragments

Hosted by Novel Dialogue

How to write about place is a question that cuts across the career of the South African Ivan Vladislavić. The questions of place and space are pressin…

Jeremy Harding's Analogue Africa: Notes on the Anti-Colonial Imagination

May 5, 2026

Analogue Africa

Jeremy Harding
Hosted by Leonard Benardo

Jeremy Harding has long been one of the premier essayists and journalists of our day. Elegant, committed and free of cant, Harding's writing has often…

David Krolikoski, "Lyrical Translation: The Creation of Modern Poetry in Colonial Korea" (U Hawai'i Press, 2026)

May 2, 2026

Lyrical Translation

David Krolikoski
Hosted by Leslie Hickman

Lyrical Translation: The Creation of Modern Poetry in Colonial Korea (U Hawai'i Press, 2026)is a literary history of modern Korean poetry's origins an…

D. Vance Smith, "Atlas’s Bones: The African Foundations of Europe" (U Chicago Press, 2025)

May 2, 2026

Atlas's Bones

D. Vance Smith

A major new look at Africa’s influence on European culture and how colonization remade Africa in the image of a medieval Europe. Virgil. Chaucer.…

Rhea Rahman, "Racializing the Ummah: Muslim Humanitarians Beyond Black, Brown, and White" (U Minnesota Press, 2026)

April 29, 2026

Racializing the Ummah

Rhea Rahman
Hosted by Amanie Antar

Racializing the Ummah: Muslim Humanitarians Beyond Black, Brown and White (U Minnesota Press, 2026) is an ethnography of Islamic Relief (IR), the larg…

Oil and Militancy in Nigeria: A Conversation with Noo Saro-Wiwa

April 26, 2026

The Burning Ground

Noo Saro-Wiwa
Hosted by Ayisha Osori

Noo Saro-Wiwa is an author and journalist. Born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, and raised in England, she attended King's College London and Columbia Univ…

Han Jin-myung with Nicolas Levi, "I Was a North Korean Diplomat: Inside the Secret World of Pyongyang's Foreign Service" (Independently Published, 2026)

April 18, 2026

I Was a North Korean Diplomat

Myung-jin Han with Nicolas Levi
Hosted by Anthony Kao

Nicolas Levi is a researcher at the Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He has authored numerous books…

Michael W. Tuck, "The Castle Slaves of the Gambia River: A Creole Community in the Eighteenth Century Atlantic World" (Brill, 2026)

April 8, 2026

The Castle Slaves of the Gambia River

Michael W. Tuck
Hosted by Amisah Bakuri

In his new book, The Castle Slaves of the Gambia River: A Creole Community in the Eighteenth Century Atlantic World (Brill, 2026) historian Dr. Michae…

Bimbola Akinbola, "Transatlantic Disbelonging: Unruliness, Pleasure, and Play in Nigerian Diasporic Women's Art" (Duke UP, 2025)

April 6, 2026

Transatlantic Disbelonging

Bimbola Akinbola
Hosted by Abigail Celis

In Transatlantic Disbelonging: Unruliness, Pleasure and Play in Nigerian Diasporic Women's Art (Duke University Press, 2025), Bimbola Akinbola redirec…