Performing Arts

Performing Arts

episodes

Interviews with performing artists and scholars of the performing arts about their new books.

Sam McPheeters, "Mutations: Twenty Years Embedded in Hardcore Punk" (Barnacle Book, 2020)

March 28, 2024

Mutations

Sam McPheeters
Hosted by Gregory Soden

How can so many people pledge allegiance to punk, something with no fixed identity? Depending on who and where you are, punk can be an outlet, excuse,…

Melodrama

March 25, 2024

Melodrama

Gregory Vargo

We often misuse the word melodrama with abandon, especially to characterize other people’s behaviors, but Greg Vargo defines it for us once and for al…

Caste, Music, and Microinequities with Supriya Subramani

March 23, 2024

Caste, Music, and Microinequities

Supriya Subramani
Hosted by Pat McConville

In this episode, Pat speaks with Dr Supriya Subramani. Dr Subramani's interest in morality and ethics has led her to explore morality, behaviour, and…

Radha Kapuria, "Music in Colonial Punjab" (Oxford UP, 2023)

March 21, 2024

Music in Colonial Punjab

Radha Kapuria
Hosted by Khadeeja Amenda

Music in Colonial Punjab (Oxford UP, 2023) offers the first social history of music in undivided Punjab (1800-1947), beginning at the Lahore court of …

Ellen E. Jones, "Screen Deep: How Film and TV Can Solve Racism and Save the World" (Faber and Faber, 2024)

March 16, 2024

Screen Deep

Ellen E. Jones
Hosted by Dave O'Brien

Why does race matter in film and TV? In Screen Deep: How Film and TV Can Solve Racism and Save the World (Faber and Faber, 2024), Ellen E. Jones, a jo…

Jonas Tinius, "State of the Arts: An Ethnography of German Theatre and Migration" (Cambridge UP, 2023)

March 15, 2024

State of the Arts

Jonas Tinius
Hosted by Adam Bobeck

State of the Arts: An Ethnography of German Theatre and Migration (Cambridge UP, 2023) is a bold and wide-ranging account of the unique German public …

Amy Lidster and Sonia Massai, "Shakespeare at War: A Material History" (Cambridge UP, 2023)

March 15, 2024

Shakespeare at War

Amy Lidster and Sonia Massai

Presenting engaging, thought-provoking stories across centuries of military activity, Shakespeare at War: A Material History (Cambridge UP, 2023) demo…

Gavin Butt, "No Machos Or Pop Stars: When the Leeds Art Experiment Went Punk" (Duke UP, 2022)

March 13, 2024

No Machos Or Pop Stars

Gavin Butt
Hosted by Dave O'Brien

How do art schools influence music? In No Machos or Pop Stars: When the Leeds Art Experiment Went Punk (Duke UP, 2022), Gavin Butt, a Professor of Fin…

Judith Tick, "Becoming Ella Fitzgerald: The Jazz Singer Who Transformed American Song" (Norton, 2023)

March 12, 2024

Becoming Ella Fitzgerald

Judith Tick
Hosted by Kristen Turner

Ella Fitzgerald (1917–1996) was one of America’s greatest musicians. In this major biography, Becoming Ella Fitzgerald: The Jazz Singer who Transforme…

David Savran, "Tell It to the World: The Broadway Musical Abroad" (Oxford UP, 2024)

March 11, 2024

Tell It to the World

David Savran
Hosted by Pete Kunze

Tell It to the World: The Broadway Musical Abroad (Oxford UP, 2024) offers a look at how the Broadway musical travels the world, influencing and even …

Reading Taylor Swift as a Cultural and Political Text

March 11, 2024

Reading Taylor Swift as a Cultural and Political Text

Hosted by UConn PopCast

It’s the UConn Popcast, and Taylor Swift is by some measures the most popular person on the planet. Her periodic reinventions set the mass cultural te…

Xin Gu, "Cultural Work and Creative Subjectivity: Recentralising the Artist Critique and Social Networks in the Cultural Industries" (Routledge, 2023)

March 11, 2024

Cultural Work and Creative Subjectivity

Xin Gu
Hosted by Dave O'Brien

How can artists survive today? In Cultural Work and Creative Subjectivity: Recentralising the Artist Critique and Social Networks in the Cultural Indu…

Priyanka Basu, "The Poet’s Song: ‘Folk’ and its Cultural Politics in South Asia" (Routledge, 2023)

March 6, 2024

The Poet’s Song

Priyanka Basu
Hosted by Dave O'Brien

How can culture be authentic in the modern world? In The Poet's Song: Folk and its Cultural Politics in South Asia (Rouitledge, 2023), Dr Priyanka Bas…

Anna Dako, "Dances with Sheep: On RePairing the HumanNature Condition in Felt Thinking and Moving towards Wellbeing" (Intellect Books, 2023)

March 3, 2024

Dances with Sheep

Anna Dako
Hosted by Brandon Sward

Anna Dako,'s book Dances with Sheep: On RePairing the HumanNature Condition in Felt Thinking and Moving towards Wellbeing (Intellect Books, 2023) pres…

Joseph Cone, "Seeing Opera Anew: A Cultural and Biological Perspective" (Routledge, 2023)

March 3, 2024

Seeing Opera Anew

Joseph Cone
Hosted by James Kates

What people ultimately want from music-drama, audience research suggests, is to be absorbed in a story that engages their feelings, even moves them de…

Justin Owen Rawlins, "Imagining the Method: Reception, Identity, and American Screen Performance" (U Texas Press, 2024)

March 3, 2024

Imagining the Method

Justin Owen Rawlins
Hosted by Pete Kunze

Only one performance style has dominated the lexicon of the casual moviegoer: “Method acting.” The first reception-based analysis of film acting, Imag…

Jesse David Fox, "Comedy Book: How Comedy Conquered Culture–and the Magic That Makes It Work" (FSG, 2023)

March 2, 2024

Comedy Book

Jesse David Fox
Hosted by Pete Kunze

In Comedy Book: How Comedy Conquered Culture–and the Magic That Makes It Work (FSG, 2023), Jesse David Fox—the country’s most definitive voice in come…

Marchella Ward, "Blindness and Spectatorship in Ancient and Modern Theatres: Towards New Ways of Looking and Looking Back" (Cambridge UP, 2023)

March 1, 2024

Blindness and Spectatorship in Ancient and Modern Theatres

Marchella Ward
Hosted by Corinne Doria

The use of disability as a metaphor is ubiquitous in popular culture – nowhere more so than in the myths, stereotypes and tropes around blindness. To …

Ina Marie Lunde Ilkama, "The Play of the Feminine" (HASP, 2023)

February 29, 2024

The Play of the Feminine

Ina Marie Lunde Ilkama
Hosted by Raj Balkaran

In Tamil Nadu, the nine-night autumnal Navarātri festival can be viewed as a celebration of feminine powers in association with the goddess. Ina Marie…

Horace J. Maxile, Jr. and Kristen M. Turner, "Race and Gender in the Western Music History Survey: A Teacher's Guide" (Routledge, 2022)

February 27, 2024

Race and Gender in the Western Music History Survey

Horace J. Maxile, Jr. and Kristen M. Turner
Hosted by Emily Ruth Allen

Race and Gender in the Western Music History Survey: A Teacher’s Guide provides concrete information and approaches that will help instructors include…