New Books Network

Catholic Studies October 25, 2021

America's Most Famous Catholic (According to Himself)

Stephen Colbert and American Religion in the Twenty-First Century

Stephanie N. Brehm

Hosted by Carlos Ruiz Martinez

For nine years, Stephen Colbert’s persona “Colbert”?—a Republican superhero and parody of conservative political pundits--informed audiences on current events, politics, social issues, and religion while lampooning conservative political policy, biblical …

Music October 22, 2021

Major Labels

A History of Popular Music in Seven Genres

Kelefa Sanneh

Hosted by Franz Nicolay

Kelefa Sanneh was born in England, and lived in Ghana and Scotland before moving with his parents to the United States in the early 1980s. He was a pop music …

Media October 22, 2021

Politics for the Love of Fandom

Fan-Based Citizenship in a Digital World

Ashley Hinck

Hosted by Lee Pierce

Politics for the Love of Fandom: Fan-Based Citizenship in a Digital World (Louisiana State Press, 2019) examines what Ashley Hinck calls “fan-based citizenship”: civic action that blends with and arises from …

Latino Studies October 21, 2021

Sounds of Crossing

Music, Migration, and the Aural Poetics of Huapango Arribeño

Alex E. Chávez

Hosted by David-James Gonzales

In Sounds of Crossing: Music, Migration, and the Aural Poetics of Huapango Arribeño (Duke UP, 2017), Alex E. Chávez explores the contemporary politics of Mexican migrant cultural expression manifest in the …

Political Science October 21, 2021

Hot Pants and Spandex Suits

Gender Representation in American Superhero Comic

Esther De Dauw

Hosted by Lilly Goren

Superman, Batman, Captain America, and Iron Man are names that are often connected to the expansive superhero genre, including the multi-billion-dollar film and television franchises. But these characters are older …

Film October 19, 2021

Reclaiming Popular Documentary

Christie Milliken and Steve F. Anderson

Hosted by Joel Tscherne

The documentary has achieved rising popularity over the past two decades, thanks to streaming services like Netflix and Hulu. Despite this fact, documentary studies still tends to favor works that appeal primarily to …

Music October 18, 2021

A Punkhouse in the Deep South

The Oral History Of 309

Aaron Cometbus and Scott Satterwhite

Hosted by Emily Ruth Allen

Told in personal interviews, A Punkhouse in the Deep South: The Oral History of 309 (University Press of Florida, 2021) is the collective story of a punk community in an unlikely …

Film October 18, 2021

Lucasfilm

Filmmaking, Philosophy, and the Star Wars Universe

Cyrus R.K. Patell

Hosted by Galina Limorenko

From A New Hope to The Rise of Skywalker and beyond, this book offers the first complete assessment and philosophical exploration of the Star Wars universe. Lucasfilm: Filmmaking, Philosophy, and …

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 …

Gender Studies October 18, 2021

Queer Nightlife

Kemi Adeyemi, Kareem Khubchandani and Ramon H. Rivera-Servera

Hosted by Isabel Machado

The mass shooting at a queer Latin Night in Orlando in July 2016 sparked a public conversation about access to pleasure and selfhood within conditions of colonization, violence, and negation …

Popular Culture October 12, 2021

The Punk Reader

Research Transmissions from the Local and the Global

Russ Bestley, Mike Dines, Alastair “Gords” Gordon, and Paula Guerra

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan

Intellect’s Global Punk Series (2019-present) has produced edited collections of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary work into local, national, global, and trans-global punk scenes. Series editors, Russ Bestley, Mike Dines, Alastair “Gords” …

Sports October 11, 2021

Loving Sports When They Don't Love You Back

Dilemmas of the Modern Fan

Jessica Luther and Kavitha Davidson

Hosted by Keith Rathbone

Today we are joined by Jessica Luther, a freelance investigative journalist, and Kavitha Davidson, a sport and culture writer with the Athletic, who together are the authors of Loving Sports …

Religion October 5, 2021

PTL

The Rise and Fall of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker's Evangelical Empire

John Wigger

Hosted by Joseph Stuart

In 1974 Jim and Tammy Bakker launched their television show, the "PTL Club," from a former furniture store in Charlotte, N.C. with half a dozen friends. By 1987 they stood at …

Popular Culture September 28, 2021

Politics as Sound

The Washington, DC, Hardcore Scene, 1978-1983

Shayna Maskell

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan

Washington, DC is known as the birthplace of hardcore punk. The raw, innovative, new sound coming out of the nation’s capital in the late 1970s is examined in Shayna Maskell’s …

Popular Culture September 24, 2021

Perspectives on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

Nuanced Postnetwork Television

Amanda Konkle and Charles Burnetts

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan

The new collection, Perspectives on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: Nuanced Postnetwork Television (Syracuse University Press, 2021) by Amanda Konkle and Charles Burnetts explores the hit series with an off-putting title and a decidedly retrograde …

Architecture September 21, 2021

Open Plan

A Design History of the American Office

Jennifer Kaufmann-Buhler

Hosted by Nushelle de Silva

Albeit inspired by a progressive vision of a working environment without walls or hierarchies, the open plan office has come to be associated with some of the most dehumanizing and …

Science September 21, 2021

Living with Robots

What Every Anxious Human Needs to Know

Ruth Aylett and Patricia A. Vargas

Hosted by Galina Limorenko

There's a lot of hype about robots; some of it is scary and some of it utopian. In this accessible book, two robotics experts reveal the truth about what robots …

Popular Culture September 20, 2021

A Very Nervous Person's Guide to Horror Movies

Mathias Clasen

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan

Horror fans are attracted to movies designed to scare us, but others shudder already at the thought of the sweat-drenched nightmares that terrifying movies often trigger. The fear of sleepless nights …

Islamic Studies September 17, 2021

Muslims in the Movies

A Global Anthology

Kristian Petersen

Hosted by Shobhana Xavier

Kristian Petersen’s new edited volume Muslims in the Movies: A Global Anthology (Ilex Foundation and Harvard University Press, 2021), introduces the subject of Muslims and film. The volume contains nineteen …

Sociology September 16, 2021

Where Misfits Fit

Counterculture and Influence in the Ozarks

Thomas Michael Kersen

Hosted by Michael Johnston

All regions and places are unique in their own way, but the Ozarks have an enduring place in American culture. Studying the Ozarks offers the ability to explore American life …