New Books Network
Popular Culture
Critical Theory November 30, 2020

The Empire Strikes Back

BFI Classics Series

Rebecca Harrison

Hosted by Dave O'Brien
Why does The Empire Strikes Back matter? In BFI Classics Series's The Empire Strikes Back (Bloomsbury, 2020), Rebecca Harrison, a lecturer in Film and Television Studies at the University of Glasgow, tells the …

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Popular Culture November 25, 2020

Batman and the Joker

Contested Sexuality in Popular Culture

Chris Richardson

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In Batman and The Joker: Contested Sexuality in Popular Culture (Routledge, 2020), Chris Richardson presents a cultural analysis of the ways gender, identity, and sexuality are negotiated in the rivalry …
Sports November 25, 2020

ABC Sports

The Rise and Fall of Network Sports Television

Travis Vogan

Hosted by Keith Rathbone
Today we are joined by Travis Vogan, Associate Professor of Journalism and American Studies at the University of Iowa, and the author of ABC Sports: The Rise and Fall of …
Native American Studies November 20, 2020

Picturing Indians

Native Americans in Film, 1941-1960

Liza Black

Hosted by Annabel LaBrecque
Behind the braided wigs, buckskins, and excess bronzer that typified the mid-century "filmic Indian" lies a far richer, deeper history of Indigenous labor, survival, and agency. This history takes center …
Food November 19, 2020

Diners, Dudes, and Diets

How Gender and Power Collide in Food Media and Culture

Emily J. H. Contois

Hosted by Carrie Tippen
In Diners, Dudes, and Diets: How Gender and Power Collide in Food Media and Culture (UNC Press, 2020), Emily Contois argues that the figure of The Dude was invented (or …
Hindu Studies November 18, 2020

Bollywood Horrors

Religion, Violence and Cinematic Fears in India

Ellen Goldberg, Aditi Sen and Brian Collins

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
Bollywood Horrors: Religion, Violence and Cinematic Fears in India (Bloomsbury, 2020) is a multi-faceted and wide-ranging collection that examines cinematic representations of real-life horror, the religious aspects of horror imagery …
Literary Studies November 18, 2020

Producing Mass Entertainment

The Serial Life of the Yellow Kid

Christina Meyer

Hosted by Miranda Corcoran
The Yellow Kid was a ubiquitous figure at the end of the nineteenth century. Originally created by Richard F. Outcault, the Kid first appeared as a character in the comic …
Anthropology November 18, 2020

Manufacturing Celebrity

Latino Paparazzi and Women Reporters in Hollywood

Vanessa Diaz

Hosted by Reighan Gillam
While Hollywood’s images present a veneer of fantasy for some, the work to create such images is far from escapism. In Manufacturing Celebrity: Latino Paparazzi and Women Reporters in Hollywood …
Caribbean Studies November 18, 2020

The Cuban Hustle

Culture, Politics, Everyday Life

Sujatha Fernandes

Hosted by Alejandra Bronfman
Cuban resourcefulness is on full display in Cuban Hustle: Culture, Politics, Everyday Life (Duke UP, 2020), as sociologist Sujatha Fernandes presents an array of strategies not just for survival but …
Drugs, Addiction and Recovery November 13, 2020

American Trip

Set, Setting, and the Psychedelic Experience in the Twentieth Century

Ido Hartogsohn

Hosted by Emily Dufton
Are psychedelics invaluable therapeutic medicines, or dangerously unpredictable drugs that precipitate psychosis? Tools for spiritual communion or cognitive enhancers that spark innovation? Activators for one’s private muse or part of …
Popular Culture November 13, 2020

Graphic Indigeneity

Comics in the Americas and Australasia

Frederick Luis Aldama

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In Graphic Indigeneity: Comics in the Americas and Australasia (UP of Mississippi, 2020), Frederick Luis Aldama brings together comics scholars Joshua T. Anderson, Chad A. Barbour, Susan Bernardin, Mike Borkent …
Film November 11, 2020

Cary Grant

The Making of a Hollywood Legend

Mark Glancy

Hosted by Joel Tscherne
Cary Grant: The Making of a Hollywood Legend (Oxford University Press, 2020) tells the incredible story of how a sad, neglected boy became the suave, glamorous star many know and …
Popular Culture November 11, 2020

We're Not Here to Entertain

Punk Rock, Ronald Reagan, and the Real Culture War of 1980s America

Kevin Mattson

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In his new book, We're Not Here to Entertain: Punk Rock, Ronald Reagan, and the Real Culture War of 1980s America (Oxford UP, 2020), Kevin Mattson documents punk rock in …
Philosophy November 10, 2020

Games

Agency As Art

C. Thi Nguyen

Hosted by Carrie Figdor
Monopoly, Solitaire, football and Minecraft are all games, but for C. Thi Nguyen they are also an art form – specifically, the art form of agency, our capacity to set …
Music November 6, 2020

Harnessing Harmony

Music, Power, and Politics in the United States, 1788-1865

Billy Coleman

Hosted by Sam Backer
CAN you hear the people sing? Political music is often understood as the property of the commoners, used as a potent (and noisy) weapon against the interests of the powerful …
Music October 30, 2020

The Meaning of Soul

Black Music and Resilience Since the 1960s

Emily J. Lordi

Hosted by Kristen Turner
Soul is one of those concepts that is often evoked, but rarely satisfactorily defined. In The Meaning of Soul: Black Music and Resilience Since the 1960s (Duke University Press 2020) …
Performing Arts October 28, 2020

The Great White Way

Race and the Broadway Musical, 2nd Edition

Warren Hoffman

Hosted by Andy Boyd
Warren Hoffman’s The Great White Way: Race and the Broadway Musical, 2nd edition (Rutgers UP, 2020) explores the ways that race and racism have shaped the American musical from Show …
Performing Arts October 26, 2020

Radical Ritual

How Burning Man Changed the World

Neil Shister

Hosted by Emily Ruth Allen
Written from Neil Shister’s perspective as a journalist, student of American culture, and six-time participant in Burning Man, Radical Ritual: How Burning Man Changed the World (Counterpoint, 2019) presents the …
Music October 26, 2020

To Live and Defy in LA

How Gangsta Rap Changed America

Felicia Angeja Viator

Hosted by Stephen Hausmann
In 1985, Greg Mack, a DJ working for Los Angeles radio station KDAY, played a song that sounded like nothing else on West Coast airwaves: Toddy Tee’s “The Batteram,” a …
Literary Studies October 26, 2020

Transmedia Adaptation in the Nineteenth Century

Lissette Lopez Szwydky

Hosted by Miranda Corcoran
In this episode of New Books in Literary Studies we speak with Lissette Lopez Szwydky, author of the new book Transmedia Adaptation in the Nineteenth Century (Ohio State UP, 2020) …