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African Studies
African Studies August 17, 2022

From Rebels to Rulers

Writing Legitimacy in the Early Sokoto State

Paul Naylor

Hosted by Sara Katz
Sokoto was the largest and longest lasting of West Africa's nineteenth-century Muslim empires. Its intellectual and political elite left behind a vast written record, including over 300 Arabic texts authored …

African Studies

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Interviews with scholars of Africa about their new books.

On Religion August 16, 2022

On Vodun, Voodoo, and the Movies

A Discussion with Emily Crews

Emily Crews

Hosted by Gregory Soden
Emily Crews is a Ph.D. candidate in History of Religions at the University of Chicago Divinity School. Her dissertation project traces the relationship between movement and identity formation in the …
General History August 16, 2022

Building States

The United Nations, Development, and Decolonization, 1945–1965

Eva-Maria Muschik

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
Postwar multilateral cooperation is often viewed as an attempt to overcome the limitations of the nation-state system. However, in 1945, when the United Nations was founded, large parts of the …
General History August 12, 2022

A Brief History of the Atlantic

Jeremy Black

Hosted by Charles Coutinho
The Atlantic has borne witness to major historic events that have drastically shaped humanity with each crossing of its path. In A Brief History of the Atlantic (Robinson, 2022), Jeremy …
African Studies August 12, 2022

When Soldiers Rebel

Ethnic Armies and Political Instability in Africa

Kristen A. Harkness

Hosted by Andrew Miller
Military coups are a constant threat in Africa and many former military leaders are now in control of 'civilian states', yet the military remains understudied, especially over the last decade …
British Studies August 10, 2022

Built on the Ruins of Empire

British Military Assistance and African Independence

Blake Whitaker

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
During the Cold War, the British government oversaw the transition to independence of dozens of colonies. Often the most challenging aspect of this transition was the creation of a national …
Middle Eastern Studies August 3, 2022

Second-Generation Liberation Wars

Yaniv Voller

Hosted by Dilan Okcuoglu
The formation of post-colonial states in Africa, and the Middle East gave birth to prolonged separatist wars. Exploring the evolution of these separatist wars, In Second-Generation Liberation Wars Cambridge UP, 2022),Yaniv …
Middle Eastern Studies August 1, 2022

The Italian Empire and the Great War

Vanda Wilcox

Hosted by Roberto Mazza
The Italian Empire and the Great War (Oxford UP, 2021) by Vanda Wilcox brings an imperial and colonial perspective to the Italian experience of the First World War. Italy's decision for …
British Studies July 25, 2022

Humanitarian Governance and the British Antislavery World System

Maeve Ryan

Hosted by Joseph Krulder
Maeve Ryan’s new book Humanitarian Governance and the British Antislavery World System (Yale UP, 2022) highlights Britain’s early-nineteenth-century, Royal Navy seizures of slave ships and the processes involved in the “liberation” of …
Catholic Studies July 19, 2022

The Genocide Against the Tutsi, and the Rwandan Churches

Between Grief and Denial

Philippe Denis

Hosted by Allison Isidore
Why did some sectors of the Rwandan churches adopt an ambiguous attitude towards the genocide against the Tutsi which claimed the lives of around 800,000 people in three months between …
On Religion July 15, 2022

Visions of Zion

Ethiopians and Rastafari in the Search for the Promised Land

Erin C. MacLeod

Hosted by Gregory Soden
In reggae song after reggae song Bob Marley and other reggae singers speak of the Promised Land of Ethiopia. "Repatriation is a must!" they cry. The Rastafari have been travelling to Ethiopia since …
Grinnell College: Authors and Artists July 15, 2022

Signs of the Spirit

Music and the Experience of Meaning in Ndau Ceremonial Life

Tony Perman

Hosted by Marshall Poe
In 2005, Tony Perman attended a ceremony alongside the living and the dead. His visit to a Zimbabwe farm brought him into contact with the madhlozi, outsider spirits that Ndau people …
General History July 7, 2022

Colonial Internationalism and the Governmentality of Empire, 1893–1982

Florian Wagner

Hosted by Elisa Prosperetti
Today I talked to Florian Wagner about his new book Colonial Internationalism and the Governmentality of Empire, 1893–1982 (Cambridge UP, 2022). From its founding in 1893, to its decline in the …
Jewish Studies July 4, 2022

Recording History

Jews, Muslims, and Music Across Twentieth-Century North Africa

Christopher Silver

Hosted by Avery Weinman
Recording History: Jews, Muslims, and Music Across Twentieth-Century North Africa (Stanford UP, 2022) offers a new history of twentieth-century North Africa, one that gives voice to the musicians who defined …
American West July 4, 2022

The Chinese Question

The Gold Rushes, Chinese Migration, and Global Politics

Mae Ngai

Hosted by Stephen Hausmann
Between 1848 and 1899, miners extracted more gold from the earth than in the previous 3,000 years of human history combined. Each gold rush in this period, from the Sierra …
Medicine June 29, 2022

Partial Stories

Maternal Death from Six Angles

Claire L. Wendland

Hosted by Rachel Pagones
A close look at stories of maternal death in Malawi that considers their implications in the broader arena of medical knowledge. By the early twenty-first century, about one woman in …
African Studies June 21, 2022

Emirs in London

Subalteran Travel and Nigeria's Modernity

Moses E. Ochonu

Hosted by Sara Katz
Emirs in London: Subalteran Travel and Nigeria's Modernity (Indiana UP, 2022) recounts how Northern Nigerian Muslim aristocrats who traveled to Britain between 1920 and Nigerian independence in 1960 relayed that experience …
African Studies June 21, 2022

Shari'a, Inshallah

Finding God in Somali Legal Politics

Mark Fathi Massoud

Hosted by Sara Katz
Western analysts have long denigrated Islamic states as antagonistic, even antithetical, to the rule of law. Mark Fathi Massoud tells a different story: for nearly 150 years, the Somali people …
African Studies June 17, 2022

Fashioning Postfeminism

Spectacular Femininity and Transnational Culture

Simidele Dosekun

Hosted by Gummo Clare
Women in Lagos, Nigeria, practice a spectacularly feminine form of black beauty. From cascading hair extensions to immaculate makeup to high heels, their style permeates both day-to-day life and media …
Biology and Evolution June 14, 2022

Sloth Lemur's Song

Madagascar from the Deep Past to the Uncertain Present

Alison F. Richard

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
Madagascar is a place of change. A biodiversity hotspot and the fourth largest island on the planet, it has been home to a spectacular parade of animals, from giant flightless …