African Studies

African Studies

episodes

Interviews with scholars of Africa about their new books.

10.4 Place Presents Itself To You in Fragments: Ivan Vladislavić and Jeanne-Marie Jackson (MAT)

May 7, 2026

Place Presents Itself To You in Fragments

Hosted by Novel Dialogue

How to write about place is a question that cuts across the career of the South African Ivan Vladislavić. The questions of place and space are pressin…

Jeremy Harding's Analogue Africa: Notes on the Anti-Colonial Imagination

May 5, 2026

Analogue Africa

Jeremy Harding
Hosted by Leonard Benardo

Jeremy Harding has long been one of the premier essayists and journalists of our day. Elegant, committed and free of cant, Harding's writing has often…

D. Vance Smith, "Atlas’s Bones: The African Foundations of Europe" (U Chicago Press, 2025)

May 2, 2026

Atlas's Bones

D. Vance Smith

A major new look at Africa’s influence on European culture and how colonization remade Africa in the image of a medieval Europe. Virgil. Chaucer.…

Rhea Rahman, "Racializing the Ummah: Muslim Humanitarians Beyond Black, Brown, and White" (U Minnesota Press, 2026)

April 29, 2026

Racializing the Ummah

Rhea Rahman
Hosted by Amanie Antar

Racializing the Ummah: Muslim Humanitarians Beyond Black, Brown and White (U Minnesota Press, 2026) is an ethnography of Islamic Relief (IR), the larg…

Oil and Militancy in Nigeria: A Conversation with Noo Saro-Wiwa

April 26, 2026

The Burning Ground

Noo Saro-Wiwa
Hosted by Ayisha Osori

Noo Saro-Wiwa is an author and journalist. Born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, and raised in England, she attended King's College London and Columbia Univ…

Michael W. Tuck, "The Castle Slaves of the Gambia River: A Creole Community in the Eighteenth Century Atlantic World" (Brill, 2026)

April 8, 2026

The Castle Slaves of the Gambia River

Michael W. Tuck
Hosted by Amisah Bakuri

In his new book, The Castle Slaves of the Gambia River: A Creole Community in the Eighteenth Century Atlantic World (Brill, 2026) historian Dr. Michae…

Bimbola Akinbola, "Transatlantic Disbelonging: Unruliness, Pleasure, and Play in Nigerian Diasporic Women's Art" (Duke UP, 2025)

April 6, 2026

Transatlantic Disbelonging

Bimbola Akinbola
Hosted by Abigail Celis

In Transatlantic Disbelonging: Unruliness, Pleasure and Play in Nigerian Diasporic Women's Art (Duke University Press, 2025), Bimbola Akinbola redirec…

Stephen Onyango Ouma, "Africa Unbound: Decolonial Pathways to Sovereignty and Liberation" (Brill, 2026)

April 5, 2026

Africa Unbound

Stephen Onyango Ouma
Hosted by Amisah Bakuri

I had a substantive conversation with Dr. Stephen Onyango Ouma, author of Africa Unbound: Decolonial Pathways to Sovereignty and Liberation (Brill, 20…

Hilary Matfess, "After Liberation: Women and the Politics of Expectations in Rebel-to-Party Transitions" (Stanford UP, 2026)

April 5, 2026

After Liberation

Hilary Matfess
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

War offers opportunities for women to liberate their communities and build a better life for themselves. When women join rebel groups, they often take…

Jeanne-Marie Jackson, "The Letter of the Law in J. E. Casely Hayford's West Africa" (Princeton UP, 2026)

March 31, 2026

The Letter of the Law in J. E. Casely Hayford's West Africa

Jeanne-Marie Jackson

The African Gold Coast writer and statesman J. E. Casely Hayford (1866–1930) was a key figure in liberal anticolonial thought as well as African and B…

Emmanuel Ofuasia, "Ìwà: the Process-Relational Dimension to African Metaphysics" (Springer, 2024)

March 29, 2026

Ìwà: the Process-Relational Dimension to African Metaphysics

Emmanuel Ofuasia
Hosted by Jessica Zu

Correction: In the interview, the host mistakenly mentioned that Prof. Ofuasia is teaching the University of Pretoria. In reality, Prof Ofuasia is cur…

Ainehi Edoro, "Forest Imaginaries: How African Novels Think" (Columbia UP, 2026)

March 29, 2026

Forest Imaginaries

Ainehi Edoro

Forests in fiction are often understood simply as settings, symbols, or remnants of a premodern past. Yet many African novelists have turned to the fo…

Michael Allan, "Cinema before the World: The Global Routes of the Lumière Brothers" (Fordham UP, 2026)

March 29, 2026

Cinema before the World

Michael Allan
Hosted by Tugrul Mende

Cinema Before the World: The Global Routes of the Lumière Brothers (Fordham UP, 2026) investigates the transnational origins of filmmaking by focusing…

James McDougall, "Worlds of Islam: A Global History" (Basic Books, 2026)

March 27, 2026

Worlds of Islam

James McDougall
Hosted by Tugrul Mende

From its birth in seventh-century Arabia, Islam has been a faith on the move. In Worlds of Islam: A Global History (Basic Books, 2026), James McDougal…

Nana Osei-Opare, "Socialist De-Colony: Black and Soviet Entanglements in Ghana's Cold War" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

March 24, 2026

Socialist De-Colony

Nana Osei-Opare

Led by the charismatic Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana won its political independence from the United Kingdom in 1957. It precipitated both the dying spiral of c…

Craig Perry, "Slavery and the Jews of Medieval Egypt: A History" (Princeton UP, 2026)

March 21, 2026

Slavery and the Jews of Medieval Egypt

Craig Perry
Hosted by Marc Katz

What did slavery actually look like in the everyday lives of Jews in the medieval Middle East? In this episode, Rabbi Marc Katz sits down with histori…

Maria A. Sanchez, "Deference and Divergence in Regional Human Rights Courts" (Cornell UP, 2026)

March 20, 2026

Deference and Divergence in Regional Human Rights Courts

Maria A. Sanchez
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In Deference and Divergence in Regional Human Rights Courts (Cornell UP, 2026), Dr. Maria A. Sanchez tackles a central tension in global governance: h…

Lauren M. MacLean, "Negotiating Power and Inequality in Ghana: Electricity and Citizenship as Reciprocity (Indiana UP, 2026)

March 15, 2026

Negotiating Power and Inequality in Ghana

Lauren Morris MacLean

In Ghana, much as in other parts of the Global South, postcolonial leaders aimed for industrial growth through the establishment of affordable hydroel…

Jessica Ann Levy, "Black Power, Inc.: Corporate America and the Rise of Multinational Empowerment Politics" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2026)

March 13, 2026

Black Power, Inc.

Jessica Ann Levy
Hosted by Brigid Wallace

Black Power, Inc.: Corporate America and the Rise of Multinational Empowerment Politics, (U Pennsylvania Press, 2026), traces the rise of Black empowe…

Selina Nwulu, "Black Climates: Notes on Race, Our Environment, and Visions for Equitable Futures" (Chatto & Windus, 2025)

March 11, 2026

Black Climates

Selina Nwulu

Brought to you by the BISA Environment and Climate Politics Working Group. Globally, Black people are among the most affected by the climate crisis,…