New Books Network
African Studies
General History January 19, 2022

Quagmire in Civil War

Jonah Schulhofer-Wohl

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
In Quagmire in Civil War (Cambridge University Press, 2020), Dr. Jonah Schulhofer-Wohl provides the first treatment of quagmire in civil war, moving beyond the notion that quagmire is intrinsic to …

African Studies

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Interviews with scholars of Africa about their new books.

Military History January 6, 2022

Fighting for Time

Rhodesia's Military and Zimbabwe’s Independence

Charles Melson

Hosted by Boris Karpa
From the 1960s through 1970s there were a series of conflicts in Africa involving Rhodesia, South Africa, and Portugal in conflict with the so-called Frontline States. There was an international …
African Studies December 29, 2021

Making the World Global

U.S. Universities and the Production of the Global Imaginary

Isaac A. Kamola

Hosted by Sara Katz
Following World War II the American government and philanthropic foundations fundamentally remade American universities into sites for producing knowledge about the world as a collection of distinct nation-states. As neoliberal …
African Studies December 29, 2021

Lucy's People

An Ethiopian Memoir

Mesfin Tadesse and Ianet Bastyan

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
Lucy's People: An Ethiopian Memoir (Yerada Lij,2021) is the inspiring story of a country and a life. Young engineer Mesfin grows up under Emperor Haile Selassie I in Ethiopia. She …
Genocide Studies December 28, 2021

After Genocide

Memory and Reconciliation in Rwanda

Nicole Fox

Hosted by Kelly McFall
In the wake of unthinkable atrocities, it is reasonable to ask how any population can move on from the experience of genocide. Simply remembering the past can, in the shadow …
African Studies December 21, 2021

Apartheid's Black Soldiers

Unnational Wars and Militaries in Southern Africa

Lennart Bolliger

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
New oral histories from Black Namibian and Angolan troops who fought in apartheid South Africa’s security forces reveal their involvement, and its impact on their lives, to be far more …
Entrepreneurship and Leadership December 20, 2021

Gill Grose

A Volunteer Librarian Changing Lives in South Africa

Hosted by Richard Lucas and Kimon Fountoukidis
Gill has been s a volunteer librarian at Claremont Primary School in Cape Town South Africa since 2010. Through her initiative she has been able to give several hundred children …
Islamic Studies December 17, 2021

Leaving Iberia

Islamic Law and Christian Conquest in North West Africa

Jocelyn Hendrickson

Hosted by SherAli Tareen
In her landmark new book Leaving Iberia: Islamic Law and Christian Conquest in North West Africa (Harvard UP, 2021), Jocelyn Hendrickson launches a searingly brilliant legal history centered on the …
Science, Technology, and Society December 9, 2021

Edges of Exposure

Toxicology and the Problem of Capacity in Postcolonial Senegal

Noémi Tousignant

Hosted by Laura Stark
What is “capacity”? In science research and health interventions, it typically refers to the relative availability of equipment, infrastructure, personnel, and skills needed to get a job done. Noémi Tousignant’s …
African Studies December 6, 2021

Etre mère en situation coloniale

Gold Coast (années 1910-1950)

Anne Hugon

Hosted by Thomas Zuber
For a majority of African women, the “colonial encounter” occurred at the maternity ward, the health centre, or Maternal and Infant Welfare Centres. In Être mère en situation coloniale: Gold …
African Studies January 28, 2022

The Persistence of Slavery

An Economic History of Child Trafficking in Nigeria

Robin Phylisia Chapdelaine

Hosted by Thomas Zuber
Despite efforts to abolish slavery throughout Africa in the nineteenth century, the coercive labor systems that constitute "modern slavery" have continued to the present day. To understand why, Robin Phylisia …
General History January 25, 2022

Saving the International Justice Regime

Beyond Backlash against International Courts

Courtney Hillebrecht

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
Saving the International Justice Regime: Beyond Backlash against International Courts (Cambridge University Press, 2021) is at the forefront of a new conceptualization of backlash politics. Dr. Courtney Hillebrecht brings together …
Political Science January 17, 2022

Batman Saves the Congo

How Celebrities Disrupt the Politics of Development

Alexandra Cosima Budabin and Lisa Ann Richey

Hosted by Lamis Abdelaaty
Are celebrities “disruptors” who revitalize the development field, or are they just charismatic ambassadors for big business? In Batman Saves the Congo: How Celebrities Disrupt the Politics of Development (University …
African Studies January 17, 2022

Health, Healing and Illness in African History

Rebekah Lee

Hosted by Esperanza Brizuela-Garcia
In Health, Healing and Illness in African History (Bloomsbury, 2021), Rebekah Lee makes an overall assessment of the history and historiography and health, healing and illness in the African context. This …
French Studies January 14, 2022

Adventure Capital

Migration and the Making of an African Hub in Paris

Julie Kleinman

Hosted by Roxanne Panchasi
Every day, hundreds of thousands of people move through the Gare du Nord train station in the 10th arrondissement of Paris, the largest train station in Europe. Julie Kleinman's Adventure Capital …
French Studies December 31, 2021

Pasteur's Empire

Bacteriology and Politics in France, Its Colonies, and the World

Aro Velmet

Hosted by Roxanne Panchasi
Aro Velmet's Pasteur's Empire: Bacteriology in France, Its Colonies, and the World (Oxford UP, 2020) is a complex history of the Pasteur Institutes, a network of scientific laboratories established in France and throughout the French empire …
African Studies December 14, 2021

Indirect Subjects

Nollywood's Local Address

Matthew H. Brown

Hosted by Sara Katz
In Indirect Subjects: Nollywood's Local Address (Duke UP, 2021), Matthew H. Brown analyzes the content of the prolific Nigerian film industry's mostly direct-to-video movies alongside local practices of production and …
World Christianity December 10, 2021

The Scots Afrikaners

Identity Politics and Intertwined Religious Cultures in Southern and Central Africa

Retief Muller

Hosted by Byung Ho Choi
Drawing primarily on Dutch and Afrikaans archival sources including the Dutch Reformed Church Archive and private collections, Retief Muller's The Scots Afrikaners: Identity Politics and Intertwined Religious Cultures in Southern and …
World Christianity December 8, 2021

Kwame Bediako

African Theology for a World Christianity

Tim Hartman

Hosted by Byung Ho Choi
Kwame Bediako was one of the great African theologians of his generation. Challenging the assumption that Christianity is a Western religion, he presented a non-Western foundation for theological reflection, expanded …
African Studies December 6, 2021

Filtering Histories

The Photographic Bureaucracy in Mozambique, 1960 to Recent Times

Drew A. Thompson

Hosted by Sara Katz
Photographers and their images were critical to the making of Mozambique, first as a colony of Portugal and then as independent nation at war with apartheid in South Africa. When …