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Caribbean Studies
Ministry of Ideas December 10, 2023

A Medieval Anti-Racist

Genealogies of Modernity Episode 6

Hosted by Zachary Davis
What if racism shared an origin with opposition to racism? What if the condemnation of injustice gave rise both to an early form of anti-racism and to the racial hierarchies …

Caribbean Studies

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Interviews with scholars of the Caribbean about their new books.

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Caribbean Studies December 8, 2023

An American Icon in Puerto Rico

Barbie, Girlhood, and Colonialism at Play

Emily R. Aguiló-Pérez

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
Since her debut in 1959, Barbie has transcended boundaries and transformed into a global symbol of femininity, capturing the imaginations of girls all around the world. An American Icon in …
General History November 28, 2023

The Pirates’ Code

Laws and Life Aboard Ship

Rebecca Simon

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
Listen:
In The Pirate's Code: Laws and Life Aboard Ship (Reaktion, 2023), Dr. Rebecca Simon presents a rollicking account of pirates’ codes, the strict rules essential for survival at sea. Pirates …
Education November 25, 2023

Each One Teach One

Parental Involvement and Family Engagement in Jamaica's Education System

Saran Stewart, Sharline Cole, and Yewande Lewis-Fokum

Hosted by Madden Gilhooly
Each One Teach One: Parental Involvement and Family Engagement in Jamaica’s Education System (University of the West Indies Press, 2022) is a collection of research studies and essays across multiple …
African Studies November 13, 2023

On the Scale of the World

The Formation of Black Anticolonial Thought

Musab Younis

Hosted by Elisa Prosperetti
Listen:
On the Scale of the World: The Formation of Black Anticolonial Thought (U California Press, 2022) examines the reverberations of anticolonial ideas that spread across the Atlantic between the two …
Latino Studies November 12, 2023

Making the Latino South

A History of Racial Formation

Cecilia Márquez

Hosted by Anna Lindner
The presence of Latinx people in the American South has long confounded the region's persistent racial binaries. In Making the Latino South: A History of Racial Formation (UNC Press, 2023) …
Anthropology October 27, 2023

Crossing Waters

Undocumented Migration in Hispanophone Caribbean and Latinx Literature and Art

Marisel C. Moreno

Hosted by Reighan Gillam
Debates over the undocumented migration of Latin Americans invariably focus on the southern US border, but most migrants never cross that arbitrary line. Instead, many travel, via water, among the …
French Studies October 25, 2023

The Zombie in Contemporary French Caribbean Fiction

Lucy Swanson

Hosted by Annie de Saussure
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Believed to have emerged in the French Caribbean based on African spirit beliefs, the zombie represents not merely the walking dead, but also a walking embodiment of the region's history …
French Studies October 24, 2023

Transnational French Studies

Charles Forsdick and Claire Launchbury

Hosted by Amber Bal
On the 16th October 2023, I met with Claire Launchbury and Charles Forsdick to discuss the recent publication of Transnational French Studies (Liverpool UP, 2023), a collection of essays that …
Early Modern History October 23, 2023

Cultural Representations of Piracy in England, Spain, and the Caribbean

Travelers, Traders, and Traitors, 1570 to 1604

Mariana-Cecilia Velazquez

Hosted by Jana Byars
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Mariana-Cecilia Velazquez's book Cultural Representations of Piracy in England, Spain, and the Caribbean: Travelers, Traders, and Traitors, 1570 to 1604 (Routledge, 2023) examines the concept of piracy as an instrument for the …
African American Studies October 21, 2023

Voodoo

The History of a Racial Slur

Danielle N. Boaz

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
Coined in the middle of the nineteenth century, the term "voodoo" has been deployed largely by people in the U.S. to refer to spiritual practices--real or imagined--among people of African …
Recall This Book October 19, 2023

Sanjay Krishnan on V. S. Naipaul

To Make the Deformation the Formation (JP)

Sanjay Krishnan

Hosted by Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz
Listen:
John Plotz of Recall This Book spoke in 2020 with Sanjay Krishnan, Boston University English professor and Conrad scholar about his marvelous new book on that grumpiest of Nobel laureates …
African American Studies October 18, 2023

Black Crown

Henry Christophe, the Haitian Revolution and the Caribbean's Forgotten Kingdom

Paul Clammer

Hosted by Katrina Anderson
How did a Caribbean child, born into plantation slavery, come to defeat Napoleon's armies in battle and crown himself king of the first free black nation in the Americas? Black …
French Studies October 15, 2023

A Secret Among the Blacks

Slave Resistance Before the Haitian Revolution

John D. Garrigus

Hosted by Brigid Wallace
A bold rethinking of the Haitian Revolution reveals the roots of the only successful slave uprising in the modern world.Unearthing the progenitors of the Haitian Revolution has been a historical …
Caribbean Studies October 15, 2023

Cuba and Puerto Rico

Transdisciplinary Approaches to History, Literature, and Culture

Carmen Haydée Rivera and Jorge Duany

Hosted by Anna Lindner
Carmen Haydée Rivera and Jorge Duany's edited volume Cuba and Puerto Rico: Transdisciplinary Approaches to History, Literature, and Culture (U Florida Press, 2023) is the first systematic, comparative study of Cuba …
African American Studies October 15, 2023

The Interest

How the British Establishment Resisted the Abolition of Slavery

Michael Taylor

Hosted by Katrina Anderson
In 1807, Parliament outlawed the slave trade in the British Empire, but for the next quarter of a century, despite heroic and bloody rebellions, more than 700,000 people in the …
Latin American Studies October 13, 2023

The House on G Street

A Cuban Family Saga

Lisandro Pérez

Hosted by Katie Coldiron
In The House on G Street: A Cuban Family Saga (NYU Press, 2023), award-winning author Lisandro Pérez tells Cuba’s story through the lens of a single family: his own. His …
African American Studies October 13, 2023

In Search of Mary Seacole

The Making of a Black Cultural Icon

Helen Rappaport

Hosted by Katrina Anderson
Raised in Jamaica, Mary Seacole first came to England in the 1850s after working in Panama. She wanted to volunteer as a nurse and aide during the Crimean War. When …
General History October 4, 2023

Slavery, Capitalism and the Industrial Revolution

Maxine Berg and Pat Hudson

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
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In their remarkable new book Slavery, Capitalism, and the Industrial Revolution (Polity, 2023), Professor Maxine Berg and Professor Pat Hudson “follow the money” to document in revealing detail the role …
Anthropology September 29, 2023

Jobless Growth in the Dominican Republic

Disorganization, Precarity, and Livelihoods

Christian Krohn-Hansen

Hosted by Alexander Diamond
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The Dominican Republic has posted impressive economic growth rates over the past thirty years. Despite this, the generation of new, good jobs has been remarkably weak. How have ordinary and …