New Books Network Podcast

American West August 10, 2022

Visions of Nature

How Landscape Photography Shaped Settler Colonialism

Jarrod Hore

Hosted by Stephen Hausmann

During the early years of photography, settlers around the Pacific World were fascinated with the landscapes of the places they conquered. According to Dr. Jarrod Hore, a postdoctoral researcher and …

Music August 1, 2022

Sight Readings

Photographers and American Jazz, 1900-1960

Alan John Ainsworth

Hosted by Adam Bobeck

Alan John Ainsworth's book Sight Readings: Photographers and American Jazz, 1900-1960 (Intellect, 2022) explores the work of a wide range of American photographers attracted to jazz during the period 1900–60. It …

LGBTQ+ Studies July 13, 2022

Selfie Aesthetics

Seeing Trans Feminist Futures in Self-Representational Art

Nicole Erin Morse

Hosted by Daniela Meneses Sala

In Selfie Aesthetics: Seeing Trans Feminist Futures in Self-Representational Art (Duke University Press, 2022) Nicole Erin Morse examines how trans feminine artists use selfies and self-representational art to explore transition, selfhood, and …

Critical Theory June 22, 2022

The Homoerotics of Orientalism

Joseph A. Boone

Hosted by Morteza Hajizadeh

One of the largely untold stories of Orientalism is the degree to which the Middle East has been associated with "deviant" male homosexuality by scores of Western travelers, historians, writers …

Asian American Studies June 17, 2022

Shadow Traces

Seeing Japanese/American and Ainu Women in Photographic Archives

Elena Tajima Creef

Hosted by Deidre Tyler

Images of Japanese and Japanese American women can teach us what it meant to be visible at specific moments in history. In Shadow Traces: Seeing Japanese/American and Ainu Women in Photographic …

On Religion June 9, 2022

On Religion and Photography in 19th-Century America

A Discussion with Rachel Lindsey

Rachel Lindsey

Hosted by Gregory Soden

Dr. Rachel Lindsey is Assistant Professor in Saint Louis University’s Department of Theological Studies. She has a Ph.D. and M.A. in American Religion from Princeton University, and a B.A. in …

Environmental Studies May 24, 2022

Whole Earth

The Many Lives of Stewart Brand

John Markoff

Hosted by Caleb Zakarin

Stewart Brand has long been famous if you know who he is, but for many people outside the counterculture, early computing, or the environmental movement, he is perhaps best known …

British Studies April 19, 2022

The Culture of Male Beauty in Britain

From the First Photographs to David Beckham

Paul R. Deslandes

Hosted by Manamee Guha

Spanning the decades from the rise of photography to the age of the selfie, The Culture of Male Beauty in Britain: From the First Photographs to David Beckham (University of Chicago Press …

Art March 4, 2022

Killing for Show

Photography, War, and the Media in Vietnam and Iraq

Julian Stallabrass

Hosted by Pierre d'Alancaisez

In the autumn of 2014, the Royal Air Force released blurry video of a missile blowing up a pick-up truck that may have had a weapon attached to its flatbed …

African Studies February 28, 2022

Imaging Culture

Photography in Mali, West Africa

Candace M. Keller

Hosted by Sara Katz

Imaging Culture: Photography in Mali, West Africa (Indiana University Press, 2021) is a sociohistorical study of the meaning, function, and aesthetic significance of photography in Mali, West Africa, from the 1930s to the …

East Asian Studies February 2, 2022

Developing Mission

Photography, Filmmaking, and American Missionaries in Modern China

Joseph W. Ho

Hosted by Linshan Jiang

Joseph W. Ho’s book Developing Mission: Photography, Filmmaking, and American Missionaries in Modern China (Cornell University Press, 2021) offers a transnational cultural history of US and Chinese communities framed by …

Art January 24, 2022

A Sojourn in Paradise

Jack Robinson in 1950s New Orleans

Howard Philips Smith

Hosted by Isabel Machado

Jack Robinson made his name as a much-sought-after fashion and celebrity photographer during the 1960s and early 1970s, and his work is well documented in hundreds of pages of Vogue …

African Studies December 6, 2021

Filtering Histories

The Photographic Bureaucracy in Mozambique, 1960 to Recent Times

Drew A. Thompson

Hosted by Sara Katz

Photographers and their images were critical to the making of Mozambique, first as a colony of Portugal and then as independent nation at war with apartheid in South Africa. When …

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 …

Anthropology October 20, 2021

Screen Shots

State Violence on Camera in Israel and Palestine

Rebecca L. Stein

Hosted by Mathew Gagné

In the last two decades, amid the global spread of smartphones, state killings of civilians have increasingly been captured on the cameras of both bystanders and police. Screen Shots: State …

Australian and New Zealand Studies October 13, 2021

A Queer Existence

The Lives of Young Gay Men in Aotearoa New Zealand

Mark Beehre

Hosted by Ed Amon

Today I talk to Mark Beehre about his new book, A Queer Existence, published by Massey University Press New Zealand 2021. A Queer Existence is a major documentary project that …

African American Studies July 21, 2021

The Black Civil War Soldier

A Visual History of Conflict and Citizenship

Deborah Willis

Hosted by N'Kosi Oates

Photography emerged in the 1840s in the United States, and it became a visual medium that documents the harsh realities of enslavement. Similarly, the photography culture grew during the Civil …

Art July 20, 2021

The Decisive Network

Magnum Photos and the Postwar Image Market

Nadya Bair

Hosted by Duncan McCargo

The legendary Magnum photo agency has long been associated with heroic lone wolf male photographers such as Robert Capa and Henri Cartier-Bresson, roaming the world in search of the “decisive …

Science, Technology, and Society July 20, 2021

Seeing Silicon Valley

Life Inside a Fraying America

Mary Beth Meehan and Fred Turner

Hosted by Matthew Jordan

It’s hard to imagine a place more central to American mythology today than Silicon Valley. To outsiders, the region glitters with the promise of extraordinary wealth and innovation. But behind …

Sex, Sexuality, and Sex Work June 18, 2021

The People's Porn

A History of Handmade Pornography in America

Lisa Z. Sigel

Hosted by Zachary Lowell

The People's Porn: A History of Handmade Pornography in America (Reaktion Books, 2020) is a beautifully written and groundbreaking historical study of homemade, handmade and amateur pornographic artifacts. Covering everything …