New Books Network
South Asian Studies
Indian Religions January 20, 2022

Swami Vivekananda

His Life, Legacy, and Liberative Ethics

Rita D. Sherma

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
Rita D. Sherma's book Swami Vivekananda: His Life, Legacy, and Liberative Ethics (Lexington Books, 2021) re-assesses the life and legacy of Swami Vivekananda from the vantage point of socially-engaged religion in …

South Asian Studies

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Interviews with scholars of South Asia about their new books.

Art January 18, 2022

Partisan Aesthetics

Modern Art and India's Long Decolonization

Sanjukta Sunderason

Hosted by Holiday Powers
In Partisan Aesthetics: Modern Art and India's Long Decolonization (Stanford UP, 2020), Sanjukta Sunderason explores art's entanglements with histories of war, famine, mass politics and displacements that marked late-colonial and …
Nordic Asia Podcast January 14, 2022

Heritage, Humour and Regional Identity in Goa

A Conversation with Prakruti Ramesh

Prakruti Ramesh

Hosted by Kenneth Bo Nielsen
Since the 1980s, pictures by the late Goan cartoonist Mario Miranda have been used to adorn and confer ‘local’ flavour on a variety of public settings in Goa. Today, Miranda’s …
Asian Review of Books January 13, 2022

Kashmir at the Crossroads

Inside a 21st-Century Conflict

Sumantra Bose

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
“Kashmir” carries the burden of being known as one of the world’s biggest flashpoints. If a novel, TV show, or video game wants an easy international crisis, there’s a good …
Indian Religions January 13, 2022

A Conversation with Laurie Patton

Professor of Religions and President of Middlebury College

Laurie Patton

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
Raj Balkaran speaks with Laurie Patton, Professor of Religions and President at Middlebury College, about her scholarly journey, educational administration, poetry, trends in scholarship, the significance of Indian myth, and …
Indian Religions January 11, 2022

Hindu Theology and Biology

The Bhagavata Purana and Contemporary Theory

Jonathan B. Edelmann

Hosted by Shruti Dixit
In Hindu Theology and Biology: The Bhagavata Purana and Contemporary Theory (Oxford University Press, 2020), Professor Jonathan B. Edelmann develops a constructive and comparative theological dialogue between Hinduism and Western …
Indian Religions January 6, 2022

Neha Sahgal on the Pew Study “Religion in India: Tolerance and Segregation”

Neha Sahgal

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
Neha Sahgal, Associate Director, Research, at the Pew Research Center speaks of Pew’s ground-breaking research on Indian public opinion on religion. The data shows that Indians maintain a commitment to …
Asian Review of Books December 30, 2021

Mountain Tales

Love and Loss in the Municipality of Castaway Belongings

Saumya Roy

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
In 2016, the city of Mumbai was blanketed in toxic smog. The source? Fires at the nearby dumping ground of Deonar: the country’s oldest. The Deonar fire became an embarrassment …
Indian Religions December 30, 2021

Vaiśeṣikasūtra

A Translation

Ionut Moise and Ganesh U. Thite

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
This book introduces readers to Indian philosophy by presenting the first integral English translation of Vaiśeṣikasūtra with the earliest extant commentary of Candrānanda on the old aphorisms of Vaiśeṣika school …
Literary Studies December 27, 2021

World Literature Decentered

Beyond the 'West' Through Turkey, Mexico and Bengal

Ian Almond

Hosted by Bryant Scott
Ian Almond is Professor of World Literature at Georgetown University in Qatar, and author of six books, including Two Faiths, One Banner: When Muslims Marched with Christians across Europe’s Battlegrounds …
Islamic Studies December 24, 2021

Intersectionality in the Muslim South Asian-American Middle Class

Lifestyle Consumption Beyond Halal and Hijab

Farha Bano Ternikar

Hosted by Shehnaz Haqqani
In Intersectionality in the Muslim South Asian-American Middle Class: Lifestyle Consumption beyond Halal and Hijab (Lexington Books, 2021), wherein Ternikar theorizes the everyday consumption of South Asian Muslim American women …
Indian Religions December 21, 2021

A Conversation with Vasudha Narayanan about Hindu Studies

Vasudha Narayanan

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
Raj Balkaran has a candid conversation with seasoned scholar Dr. Vasudha Narayanan about her academic journey, the current state of Hindu Studies and her ground-breaking work on Hindu temples and …
The Future of Higher Education December 20, 2021

Wasif Rizvi

President of Habib University, Karachi, Pakistan

Hosted by David Finegold
Wasif Rizvi is the founding president of Habib University, the first liberal arts institution in Pakistan. Planning for the University began in 2010, with the first calls of students accepted …
Nordic Asia Podcast December 13, 2021

Autocratization in South Asia

Sten Widmalm

Hosted by Kenneth Bo Nielsen
Although autocratic forms of rule have a longer history in postcolonial South Asia, the slide towards autocratization has arguably accelerated in recent years, albeit unevenly. In this episode Kenneth Bo …
South Asian Studies January 20, 2022

Gentlemanly Terrorists

Political Violence and the Colonial State in India, 1919–1947

Durba Ghosh

Hosted by Shatrunjay Mall
Gentlemanly Terrorists: Political Violence and the Colonial State in India, 1919-1947 (Cambridge University Press, 2017) by Durba Ghosh uncovers the critical place of revolutionary terrorism in the colonial and postcolonial …
Sports January 12, 2022

The Story of Yoga

From Ancient India to the Modern West

Alistair Shearer

Hosted by Keith Rathbone
Today we are joined by Alistair Shearer, a freelance scholar of South Asian religion and culture, and teacher of yoga and the psychology of yoga. He is also the author …
Indian Religions January 4, 2022

Words of Destiny

Practicing Astrology in North India

Caterina Guenzi

Hosted by Ujaan Ghosh
Astrologers play an important role in Indian society, but there are very few studies on their social identity and professional practices. Based on extensive fieldwork carried out in the city …
South Asian Studies December 27, 2021

Making Women Pay

Microfinance in Urban India

Smitha Radhakrishnan

Hosted by Saronik Bosu
In Making Women Pay: Microfinance in Urban India (Duke UP, 2022), Smitha Radhakrishnan explores India's microfinance industry, which in the past two decades has come to saturate the everyday lives …
Indian Religions December 23, 2021

The Cloud of Longing

A New Translation and Eco-Aesthetic Study of Kalidasa's Meghaduta

E. H. Rick Jarow

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
The Cloud of Longing: A New Translation and Eco-Aesthetic Study of Kalidasa's Meghaduta (Oxford UP, 2021) is a translation and full-length study of the great Sanskrit poet Kālidāsa's famed Meghadūta …
Indian Religions December 16, 2021

Savoring God

Comparative Theopoetics

Gloria Maité Hernández

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
Gloria Maité Hernández's Savoring God: Comparative Theopoetics (Oxford UP, 2021) compares two mystical works central to the Christian Discalced Carmelite and the Hindu Bhakti traditions: the sixteenth-century Spanish Cántico espiritual …