New Books Network Podcast

American Studies May 28, 2023

The War is Here

Newark 1967

Chris Campion and Bud Lee

Hosted by Deidre Tyler

July 1967. After the arrest, beating, and imprisonment of cab driver John Smith by local police, the city of Newark--already a tinderbox, became a hotbed of protest and retaliation. Over …

African American Studies April 12, 2023

Deadpan

The Aesthetics of Black Inexpression

Tina Post

Hosted by Brittney Edmonds

Explores expressionlessness, inscrutability, and emotional withholding in Black cultural production. Arguing that inexpression is a gesture that acquires distinctive meanings in concert with blackness, Deadpan: The Aesthetics of Black Inexpression …

Medicine March 25, 2023

Photos from the Front Lines

A Year on the Streets of Alameda County

Derek Hanley

Hosted by Deidre Tyler

Photos from the Front Lines follows medics from Falck Alameda County ambulance during one of the most tumultuous years in recent collective memory - 2020. From a global pandemic to demonstrations …

Art March 22, 2023

Visual Culture and the Forensic

Culture, Memory, Ethics

David Houston Jones

Hosted by Pierre d'Alancaisez

The relationship between images and truth has a complicated history. In the Western tradition, the Kantian settlement on aesthetic judgment as detached from external interests gave rise to artistic production …

Art March 19, 2023

Autonomy

The Social Ontology of Art under Capitalism

Nicholas Brown

Hosted by Kaveh Rafie

In Autonomy: The Social Ontology of Art under Capitalism (Duke University Press, 2019), Nicholas Brown offers a fresh perspective on aesthetic autonomy and its political value, one of the great debates of the twentieth century …

Why We Argue February 23, 2023

Seeing Truth in Photographs

A Conversation with Artist Penelope Umbrico about Democracy, Tyranny, and Pinterest

Penelope Umbrico

Hosted by Alexis Boylan

Artist Penelope Umbrico talks about her work, images as currency, and how technology and various platforms herd images. And is photography tyrannical? Umbrico has some thoughts. Learn more about the …

African American Studies February 12, 2023

Black Matrilineage, Photography, and Representation

Another Way of Knowing

Lesly Deschler Canossi and Zoraida Lopez-Diago

Hosted by Deidre Tyler

Lesly Deschler Canossi and Zoraida Lopez-Diago's edited volume Black Matrilineage, Photography, and Representation: Another Way of Knowing (Leuven UP, 2022) questions how the Black female body, specifically the Black maternal body …

American West December 22, 2022

Defending the Arctic Refuge

A Photographer, an Indigenous Nation, and a Fight for Environmental Justice

Finis Dunaway

Hosted by Stephen Hausmann

In far northeastern Alaska lies one of the most remarkable, and contested, places in North America: the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. This coastal arctic region is a place of great natural …

South Asian Studies November 29, 2022

Motherland

Pushpamala N. 's 'Woman and Nation'

Monica Juneja and Sumathi Ramaswamy

Hosted by Ujaan Ghosh

Monica Juneja and Sumathi Ramaswamy's Motherland: Pushpamala N.'s 'Woman and Nation' (Roli Books, 2022) examines Motherland, an important series of photo-performances by the acclaimed artist Pushpamala N. on the Indian …

African Studies November 22, 2022

African Ecomedia

Network Forms, Planetary Politics

Cajetan Iheka

Hosted by Sara Katz

In African Ecomedia: Network Forms, Planetary Politics (Duke UP, 2021), Cajetan Iheka examines the ecological footprint of media in Africa alongside the representation of environmental issues in visual culture. Iheka …

Sociology November 10, 2022

Food Instagram

Identity, Influence, and Negotiation

Emily J. H. Contois and Zenia Kish

Hosted by Rituparna Patgiri

Image by image and hashtag by hashtag, Instagram has redefined the ways we relate to food. Emily J. H. Contois and Zenia Kish’s edited book Food Instagram: Identity, Influence, and …

Anthropology November 10, 2022

The Second Wave

Reflections on the Pandemic Through Photography, Performance and Public Culture

Rustom Bharucha

Hosted by Garima Jaju

Lessons in resilience in the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in India. Focusing on the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in India between April and December 2021, Rustom …

Music October 14, 2022

B. B. King: From Indianola to Icon

A Personal Odyssey with the "King of the Blues"

Charles Sawyer

Hosted by David Golland

Want to take a trip with the king of the Blues? As B.B. King’s photographer and original biographer, Charlie Sawyer was along for the ride. In B.B. King from Indianola …

Middle Eastern Studies October 13, 2022

Camera Palaestina

Photography and Displaced Histories of Palestine

Salim Tamari, Issam Nassar, and Stephen Sheehi

Hosted by Roberto Mazza

Camera Palaestina: Photography and Displaced Histories of Palestine (U California Press, 2022) is a critical exploration of Jerusalemite chronicler Wasif Jawhariyyeh (1904–1972) and his seven photography albums entitled The Illustrated …

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 …