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Western European Studies
International Horizons May 30, 2023

Negotiating Decolonization

The Limits of a Fairy Tale

Valerie Rosoux

Hosted by International Horizons
In this episode of International Horizons, Valerie Rosoux, Research Director at the Belgian Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS) discusses the disagreements in the historiography of Belgium's human rights violations during …

Western European Studies

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Interviews with scholars of Western Europe about their new books.

The Future of . . . with Owen Bennett-Jones May 29, 2023

The Future of Wales

A Discussion with Will Hayward

Will Hayward

Hosted by Owen Bennett-Jones
Will Wales ever become an independent country? The UK’s other constituent parts – Scotland and Northern Ireland - seem more likely to breakaway: the Scots voted no to independence in …
Jewish Studies May 27, 2023

The Shamama Case

Contesting Citizenship Across the Modern Mediterranean

Jessica M. Marglin

Hosted by Geraldine Gudefin
In the winter of 1873, Nissim Shamama, a wealthy Jew from Tunisia, died suddenly in his palazzo in Livorno, Italy. His passing initiated a fierce lawsuit over his large estate …
General History May 27, 2023

The West

A New History of an Old Idea

Naoíse Mac Sweeney

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
Dr. Naoíse Mac Sweeney presents a radical new account of how the idea of the West has shaped our history, told through the stories of fourteen fascinating lives in her …
Early Modern History May 26, 2023

In Fortune's Theater

Financial Risk and the Future in Renaissance Italy

Nicholas Scott Baker

Hosted by Michael Martoccio
In this episode, I was joined by Nicholas Scott Baker to discuss his book, In Fortune’s Theater: Financial Risk and the Future in Renaissance Italy (Cambridge University Press, 2021). Professor …
Nordic Asia Podcast May 26, 2023

Sweden-North Korea Relations

Neither Friend nor Enemy

Benjamin Katzeff Silberstein

Hosted by Myunghee Lee
Welcome to the fourth NIAS-Korea episode. We invite Dr. Benjamin Katzeff Silberstein to discuss Sweden-North Korea relations. It may seem odd that among the Western countries, Sweden is the one …
Secularism May 26, 2023

Empire and Progress in the Victorian Secularist Movement

Imagining a Secular World

Patrick J. Corbeil

Hosted by Carrie Lynn Evans
Empire and Progress in the Victorian Secularist Movement: Imagining a Secular World (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022) by Dr. Patrick Corbeil is the first extensive historical analysis of the relationship between empire …
General History May 26, 2023

On Time

A History of Western Timekeeping

Kenneth Mondschein

Hosted by Boris Karpa
Western culture has been obsessed with regulating society by the precise, accurate measurement of time since the Middle Ages. In On Time: A History of Western Timekeeping (Johns Hopkins UP …
MIT Press Podcast May 25, 2023

Black Film, British Cinema II

Clive Nwonka and Anamik Saha

Hosted by MIT Press
Clive Nwonka and Anamik Saha discuss their forthcoming book Black Film, British Cinema II (publishing in March with Goldsmiths Press), a book which brings together scholars, thinkers and practitioners to …
MIT Press Podcast May 24, 2023

The Place Is Here

The Work of Black Artists in 1980s Britain

Nick Aikens and Elizabeth Robles

Hosted by MIT Press
Nick Aikens and Elizabeth Robles discuss The Place Is Here (Sternberg Press, 2019) and the range of perspectives on black art in Thatcherite Britain offered by the collection of artworks …
Early Modern History May 24, 2023

Intelligence and Espionage in the English Republic C. 1600-60

Alan Marshall

Hosted by Crawford Gribben
Alan Marshall's book Intelligence and Espionage in the English Republic C. 1600-60 (Manchester UP, 2023) is a richly detailed account of the ideas and activities in the early-modern 'secret state' and its …
General History May 23, 2023

Southern Europe in the Age of Revolutions

Maurizio Isabella

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
After the turbulent years of the Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna’s attempt to guarantee peace and stability across Europe, a new revolutionary movement emerged in the southern peripheries …
General History May 23, 2023

Postcolonial People

The Return from Africa and the Remaking of Portugal

Christoph Kalter

Hosted by Michael Vann
In the space of a few months in 1975, more than 500,000 Portuguese settlers fled their homes in Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Sao Tomé and Principe, and East Timor and “returned” …
Medieval History May 23, 2023

Rome and the Invention of the Papacy

The Liber Pontificalis

Rosamond McKitterick

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
The remarkable, and permanently influential, papal history known as the Liber pontificalis shaped perceptions and the memory of Rome, the popes, and the many-layered past of both city and papacy …
Military History May 23, 2023

The Rise of the Military Entrepreneur

War, Diplomacy, and Knowledge in Habsburg Europe

Suzanne Sutherland

Hosted by Douglas Bell
In The Rise of the Military Entrepreneur: War, Diplomacy, and Knowledge in Habsburg Europe (Cornell UP, 2022), Suzanne Sutherland explores the role of the military entrepreneur and explains how these international …
Madison's Notes May 21, 2023

The 10,000 Year Build-Up to Brexit

A Conversation with Ian Morris

Ian Morris

Hosted by Annika Nordquist
How did Britain become a global superpower? Historian and classicist Ian Morris thinks geography has a lot to do with it. Prof. Morris discusses his latest book, Geography is Destiny …
Military History May 20, 2023

Dagger Fencing

The Italian School

Carlo Parisi

Hosted by Boris Karpa
Today, fighting with dagger versus dagger, or with knife versus knife, is not a common scenario that people might expect to face. However, it was more common in the Middle …
British Studies May 19, 2023

Eating the Empire

Food and Society in Eighteenth-Century Britain

Troy Bickham

Hosted by Morteza Hajizadeh
When students gathered in a London coffeehouse and smoked tobacco; when Yorkshire women sipped sugar-infused tea; or when a Glasgow family ate a bowl of Indian curry, were they aware …
MIT Press Podcast May 19, 2023

Ithell Colquhoun

Genius of The Fern Loved Gully

Amy Hale

Hosted by MIT Press
Tai Shani (Turner Prize winning artist, educator and author of Our Fatal Magic) and Amy Hale (anthropologist, folklorist, and writer) discuss the work of artist, occultist and writer Ithell Colquhoun …
Sociology May 17, 2023

The Political Durkheim

Sociology, Socialism, Legacies

Matt Dawson

Hosted by Rituparna Patgiri
Matt Dawson's The Political Durkheim: Sociology, Socialism, Legacies (Routledge, 2023) presents Durkheim as an important political sociologist, inspired by and advocating socialism. Through a series of studies, it argues that …