New Books Network
Art
Art December 6, 2021

Art of the Northwest Coast

Second Edition

Aldona Jonaitis

Hosted by Kirstin Ellsworth
Originally published in 2006, Art of the Northwest Coast offers an expansive history of this great tradition, from the earliest known works to those made at the beginning of the twenty-first …

Art

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Interviews with artists and scholars of art about their new books.

Grinnell College: Authors and Artists December 1, 2021

A Conversation with Anne F. Harris, Medieval Art Historian and President of Grinnell College

"Medieval Art 250-1450: Matter, Making, and Meaning" (Oxford UP, 2021)

Anne F. Harris

Hosted by Marshall Poe
Today I talked to Anne F. Harris. Anne wears two hats: she's a medieval art historian and president of Grinnell College. We talked about her new book Medieval Art 250-1450: Matter, Making, and Meaning …
Environmental Studies November 30, 2021

Performing Environmentalisms

Expressive Culture and Ecological Change

John Holmes McDowell, Katherine Borland, Rebecca Dirksen, and Sue Tuohy

Hosted by Matthew Brown
The volume, Performing Environmentalisms: Expressive Culture and Ecological Change, edited by John Holmes McDowell, Katherine Borland, Rebecca Dirksen, and Sue Tuohy (University of Illinois Press, 2021), illustrates the power of …
Art November 30, 2021

Sociopolitical Aesthetics

Art, Crisis and Neoliberalism

Kim Charnley

Hosted by Pierre d'Alancaisez
Since the turn of the millennium, protests, meetings, schoolrooms, reading groups and many other social forms have been proposed as artworks or, more ambiguously, as interventions that are somewhere between …
Art November 26, 2021

A History of Arab Graphic Design

Bahia Shehab and Haytham Nawar

Hosted by Holiday Powers
Arab graphic design emerged in the early twentieth century out of a need to influence, and give expression to, the far-reaching economic, social, and political changes that were taking place …
Russian and Eurasian Studies November 23, 2021

Snapshots of the Soul

Photo-Poetic Encounters in Modern Russian Culture

Molly Thomasy Blasing

Hosted by Steven Seegel
Snapshots of the Soul: Photo-Poetic Encounters in Modern Russian Culture (Cornell UP, 2021) considers how photography has shaped Russian poetry from the early twentieth century to the present day. Drawing …
Eastern European Studies November 16, 2021

Contemporary Ukrainian and Baltic Art

Political and Social Perspectives, 1991-2021

Svitlana Biedarieva

Hosted by Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed
Contemporary Ukrainian and Baltic Art (Ibidem Press, 2021) focuses on political and social expressions in contemporary art of Ukraine, Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia. It explores the transformations that art in …
Intellectual History November 16, 2021

Magnetic Woman

Toyen and the Surrealist Erotic

Karla Huebner

Hosted by John Raimo
Karla Huebner’s Magnetic Woman: Toyen and the Surrealist Erotic (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2020) follows the life and career Czech artist Toyen (Marie Čermínová, 1902-1980). Toyen’s career spans the twentieth …
Art November 12, 2021

Communions

Adam Lehrer

Hosted by Pierre d'Alancaisez
[This episode contains explicit content.] Artists from Kurt Cobain to Amy Winehouse command fascination not only for their work but also for their drug addictions and the manner of their death. Communions …
Eastern European Studies November 11, 2021

Art Work

Invisible Labour and the Legacy of Yugoslav Socialism

Katja Praznik

Hosted by Iva Glisic
In Art Work: Invisible Labour and the Legacy of Yugoslav Socialism (U Toronto Press, 2021), Katja Praznik counters the Western understanding of art – as a passion for self-expression and an …
Film November 3, 2021

Girl Head

Feminism and Film Materiality

Genevieve Yue

Hosted by Annie Berke
The female form has been a fraught site of filmic meaning – of desire and violence, of sex and death – from the very beginnings of cinema. But how …
Geography November 2, 2021

The Smell of Risk

Environmental Disparities and Olfactory Aesthetics

Hsuan L. Hsu

Hosted by Stentor Danielson
Our sense of smell is a uniquely visceral—and personal—form of experience. As Hsuan L. Hsu points out, smell has long been spurned by Western aesthetics as a lesser sense for …
Architecture October 28, 2021

Empty Spaces

Perspectives on Emptiness in Modern History

Jennifer Keating, Courtney J. Campbell, and Allegra Giovine

Hosted by Sergio Lopez-Pineiro
How is emptiness made and what historical purpose does it serve? What cultural, material and natural work goes into maintaining 'nothingness'? Why have a variety of historical actors, from colonial …
East Asian Studies October 26, 2021

Decadence in Modern Chinese Literature and Culture

A Comparative and Literary-Historical Reevaluation

Hongjian Wang

Hosted by Victoria Lupascu
European Decadence, a controversial artistic movement that flourished mainly in late-nineteenth-century France and Britain, has inspired several generations of Chinese writers and literary scholars since it was introduced to China …
Architecture October 22, 2021

Sandfuture

Justin Beal

Hosted by Bryan Toepfer
Sandfuture (MIT Press, 2021) is a book about the life of the architect Minoru Yamasaki (1912–1986), who remains on the margins of history despite the enormous influence of his work on American …
Psychology October 20, 2021

Hold on

The Life, Science, and Art of Waiting

Peter Toohey

Hosted by Reyes Bertolin
What do you do when you're not asleep and when you're not eating? You're most likely waiting--to finish work, to get home, or maybe even to be seen by your …
Art October 19, 2021

Investigative Aesthetics

Conflicts and Commons in the Politics of Truth

Matthew Fuller

Hosted by Pierre d'Alancaisez
Today, journalists, legal professionals, activists, and artists challenge the state's monopoly on investigation and the production of narratives of truth. They probe corruption, human rights violations, environmental crimes, and technological …
General History October 18, 2021

Rebirth of the English Comic Strip

A Kaleidoscope, 1847-1870

David Kunzle

Hosted by Mark Klobas
Rebirth of the English Comic Strip: A Kaleidoscope, 1847-1870 (UP of Mississippi, 2021) enters deep into an era of comic history that has been entirely neglected. This buried cache of mid-Victorian …
Art October 13, 2021

Between Discipline and a Hard Place

The Value of Contemporary Art

Alana Jelinek

Hosted by Pierre d'Alancaisez
Some fields have an easier time describing themselves than others. "History is the study of past events." "Biology is the study of living organisms." But art? Is art a discipline …
Folklore October 12, 2021

Alabama Quilts

Wilderness Through World War II, 1682-1950

M. E. J. Huff and Carole Ann King

Hosted by Stephanie Khattak
Stephanie Khattak speaks with Carole Ann King, who, along with Mary Elizabeth “Sunshine” Johnson Huff, wrote Alabama Quilts: Wilderness Through World War II, 1682-1950 (UP of Mississippi, 2020). Alabama Quilts …