New Books Network Podcast

Sociology September 24, 2023

Good Soldiers Don't Rape

The Stories We Tell About Military Sexual Violence

Megan MacKenzie

Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Sexual violence is a significant problem within many Western militaries. Despite international attention to the issue and global #MeToo and #TimesUp movements highlighting the impact of sexual violence, rates of …

Australian and New Zealand Studies September 7, 2023

Making Mala

Malaita in Solomon Islands, 1870s–1930s

Clive Moore

Hosted by Ari Barbalat

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Malaita is one of the major islands in the Solomons Archipelago and has the largest population in the Solomon Islands nation. Its people have an undeserved reputation for conservatism and …

Australian and New Zealand Studies September 4, 2023

Science and Power in the Nineteenth-Century Tasman World

Popular Phrenology in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand

Alexandra Roginski

Hosted by Piers Kelly

The contentious science of phrenology once promised insight into character and intellect through external ‘reading’ of the head. In the transforming settler-colonial landscapes of nineteenth-century Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand …

General History August 20, 2023

Family History, Historical Consciousness and Citizenship

A New Social History

Tanya Evans

Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Family history is one of the most widely practiced forms of public history around the globe, especially in settler migrant nations like Australia and Canada. It empowers millions of researchers …

Military History August 9, 2023

Afterlives of War

A Descendants' History

Michael Roper

Hosted by Miranda Melcher

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Afterlives of War: A Descendants' History (Manchester University Press, 2023) by Dr. Michael Roper documents the lives and historical pursuits of the generations who grew up in Australia, Britain and …

Australian and New Zealand Studies August 9, 2023

How Labour Built Neoliberalism

Australia's Accord, the Labour Movement and the Neoliberal Project

Elizabeth Humphrys

Hosted by Reuben Niewenhuis

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Why do we always assume it was the New Right that was at the centre of constructing neoliberalism? How might corporatism have advanced neoliberalism? And, more controversially, were the trade …

Economic and Business History May 31, 2023

International Business in Australia before World War One

Shaping a Multinational Economy

Simon Ville and David Merrett

Hosted by Paula De La Cruz-Fernández

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This episode features Professor Simon Ville talking about his latest book with David Merrett International Business in Australia Before World War One: Shaping a Multinational Economy (Palgrave MacMillan, 2022). This …

Environmental Studies May 23, 2023

Sea Change

An Atlas of Islands in a Rising Ocean

Christina Gerhardt

Hosted by Brian Hamilton

Atlases are being redrawn as islands are disappearing. What does an island see when the sea rises? Sea Change: An Atlas of Islands in a Rising Ocean (U California Press …

British Studies April 21, 2023

Empire, Kinship and Violence

Family Histories, Indigenous Rights and the Making of Settler Colonialism, 1770-1842

Elizabeth Elbourne

Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Empire, Kinship and Violence: Family Histories, Indigenous Rights and the Making of Settler Colonialism, 1770-1842 (Cambridge University Press, 2022) by Dr. Elizabeth Elbourne traces the history of three linked imperial …

General History April 12, 2023

Settling for Less

Why States Colonize and Why They Stop

Lachlan McNamee

Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Over the past few centuries, vast areas of the world have been violently colonized by settlers. But why did states like Australia and the United States stop settling frontier lands …

Australian and New Zealand Studies April 8, 2023

Privilege in Perpetuity

Exploding a Pākehā Myth

Peter Meihana

Hosted by Ed Amon

'The idea of Māori privilege continues to be deployed in order to constrain Māori aspirations and maintain the power imbalance that colonisation achieved in the nineteenth century.' The ‘idea of …

Jewish Studies March 21, 2023

Jewish Antifascism and the False Promise of Settler Colonialism

Max Kaiser

Hosted by Miriam Schulz

Max Kaiser's book Jewish Antifascism and the False Promise of Settler Colonialism (Palgrave MacMillan, 2022) takes a timely look at histories of radical Jewish movements, their modes of Holocaust memorialisation, and …

Geography March 1, 2023

Indigenous Economics

Sustaining Peoples and Their Lands

Ronald L. Trosper

Hosted by Stentor Danielson

What does “development” mean for Indigenous peoples? Indigenous Economics: Sustaining Peoples and Their Lands (U Arizona Press, 2022) lays out an alternative path showing that conscious attention to relationships among …

Language December 25, 2022

Take My Word for It

A Dictionary of English Idioms

Anatoly Liberman

Hosted by Daniel Moran

Three centuries of English idioms—their unusual origins and unexpected interpretations. To pay through the nose. Raining cats and dogs. By hook or by crook. Curry favor. Drink like a fish …

African American Studies December 20, 2022

Pasifika Black

Oceania, Anti-colonialism, and the African World

Quito Swan

Hosted by Amanda Joyce Hall

Oceania is a vast sea of islands, large scale political struggles and immensely significant historical phenomena. Pasifika Black: Oceania, Anti-Colonialism, and the African World (NYU Press, 2022) is a compelling …

Human Rights December 16, 2022

Chasing Wrongs and Rights

My Experience Defending Human Rights Around the World

Elaine Pearson

Hosted by Nicholas Bequelin

Chasing Wrongs and Rights: My Experience Defending Human Rights Around the World (Simon & Schuster, 2022) by Elaine Pearson, the Asia Director at Human Rights Watch, is an intimate account …

Australian and New Zealand Studies November 21, 2022

More Zeros and Ones

Digital Technology, Maintenance and Equity in Aotearoa New Zealand

Anna Pendergrast and Kelly Pendergrast

Hosted by Ed Amon

Many of today’s digital technologies inadvertently amplify the power structures and prejudices of wider society. By examining the way digital tools and platforms are designed, built, and maintained, this BWB …

Australian and New Zealand Studies October 18, 2022

Towards a Grammar of Race in Aotearoa New Zealand

Arcia Tecun, Lana Lopesi, and Anisha Sankar

Hosted by Ed Amon

A search for new ways to talk about race in Aotearoa New Zealand brought together this powerful group of scholars, writers, and activists. For these authors, attempts to confront racism …

SSEAC Stories October 13, 2022

Ethics, Utopia and Materiality

Glimpses of Everyday Creativity and Hope in Indonesian Papua

Roberto Costa

Hosted by Natali Pearson

The Asmat are an indigenous people of Indonesian Papua and are renowned for their artistic carving flair and complex life-cycle rituals. They also have big ambitions that reach as far …

Medicine September 21, 2022

Tik Merauke

An Epidemic Like No Other

John Richens

Hosted by Rachel Pagones

A medical doctor with an inquisitive mind and a traveling spirit, John Richens thought he had hit upon an exemplary public health case study – the story of donovanosis among …