New Books Network Podcast

Literary Studies September 16, 2023

Emergency

Reading the Popol Vuh in a Time of Crisis

Edgar Garcia

Hosted by John Yargo

Today’s guest is Edgar Garcia. Garcia’s new book Emergency: Reading the Popol Vuh in a Time of Crisis (University of Chicago Press, 2022). Emergency takes nine words—“birds,” “wealth,” “caves,” “television,” …

General History September 4, 2023

Since Time Immemorial

Native Custom and Law in Colonial Mexico

Yanna Yannakakis

Hosted by Joaquín Rivaya-Martínez

In Since Time Immemorial: Native Custom and Law in Colonial Mexico (Duke UP, 2023), Yanna Yannakakis traces the invention of Native custom, a legal category that Indigenous litigants used in disputes …

Jewish Studies August 30, 2023

The Secret of the Torah

A Translation of Abraham Ibn Ezra's Sefer Yesod Mora

H. Norman Strickman, trans.

Hosted by Ari Barbalat

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Rabbi Abraham Ibn Ezra is one of the most important Jewish personalities of all time. Aside from being a Bible commentator of great consequence, his works in Jewish philosophy - …

Nordic Asia Podcast August 25, 2023

Journalism History in Macau: A Abelha da China in its 200 Years

A Conversation with Hugo Pinto

Hugo Pinto

Hosted by Joanne Kuai

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How did the first newspaper in Macau come into being? What was the first foreign language newspaper on Chinese soil about? How was the dynamic between the Chinese and Portuguese …

Early Modern History August 21, 2023

Praying to Portraits

Audience, Identity, and the Inquisition in the Early Modern Hispanic World

Adam Jasienski

Hosted by Jana Byars

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Praying to Portraits: Audience, Identity, and Inquisition in the Early Modern Hispanic World (Penn State University Press, 2023), art historian Adam Jasienski examines the history, meaning, and cultural significance of …

Jewish Studies August 15, 2023

Jewish Socratic Questions in an Age Without Plato

Permitting and Forbidding Open-Inquiry in 12-15th Century Europe and North Africa

Yehuda Halper

Hosted by Ari Barbalat

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In Jewish Socratic Questions in an Age Without Plato: Permitting and Forbidding Open-Inquiry in 12-15th Century Europe and North Africa (Brill, 2021), Yehuda Halper examines Jewish depictions of Socrates and Socratic questioning …

Mexican Studies July 27, 2023

Stormy Passage

Mexico from Colony to Republic, 1750-1850

Eric Van Young

Hosted by Richard Grijalva

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In Stormy Passage: Mexico from Colony to Republic, 1750-1850 (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022), Eric Van Young draws on four decades of extraordinary scholarship on colonial and nineteenth-century Mexico to capture the crucial hundred …

Jewish Studies July 23, 2023

The Mysticism of Andalusia

Exploring HaRambam's Mystical Tradition

Yamin Levy

Hosted by Ohad Fedida

Yamin Levy's The Mysticism of Andalusia: Exploring HaRambam's Mystical Tradition (MHC Press, 2023) is a groundbreaking book that delves into the mystical tradition of Andalusia and specifically of Maimonides. Unlike …

Military History July 22, 2023

Conquistadors and Aztecs

A History of the Fall of Tenochtitlan

Stefan Rinke

Hosted by AJ Woodhams

Five hundred years ago, a flotilla landed on the coast of Yucatán under the command of the Spanish conquistador Hérnan Cortés. While the official goal of the expedition was to …

Early Modern History July 5, 2023

Rethinking Zapotec Time

Cosmology, Ritual, and Resistance in Colonial Mexico

David Tavárez

Hosted by Krzysztof Odyniec

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Professor David Tavárez, historian and linguistic anthropologist, is Professor of Anthropology and at Vassar College. He is a specialist in Nahuatl and Zapotec texts, the study of Mesoamerican religions and …

Peoples & Things June 26, 2023

The Singer Sewing Machine in Spain and Mexico

Multinational Business, Gender, and Technologies

Paula A. De La Cruz-Fernández

Hosted by Lee Vinsel

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Historian Paula de la Cruz-Fernandez talks about her book, Gendered Capitalism: Sewing Machines and Multinational Business in Spain and Mexico, 1850-1940 (Routledge, 2021), with Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel …

Iberian Studies June 5, 2023

The Melancholy Void

Lyric and Masculinity in the Age of Góngora

Felipe Valencia

Hosted by Julia Gossard

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On today’s episode on New Books Network, we're joined by Dr. Felipe Valencia, Associate Professor of Spanish in the World Languages and Cultures Department at Utah State University to discuss …

Early Modern History June 3, 2023

We, the King

Creating Royal Legislation in the Sixteenth-Century Spanish New World

Adrian Masters

Hosted by Miranda Melcher

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We, the King: Creating Royal Legislation in the Sixteenth-Century Spanish New World (Cambridge University Press, 2023) by Dr. Adrian Masters challenges the dominant top-down interpretation of the Spanish Empire and …

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” …

African Studies May 20, 2023

Touts

Recruiting Indentured Labor in the Gulf of Guinea

Enrique Martino

Hosted by Sara Katz

Touts: Recruiting Indentured Labor in the Gulf of Guinea (de Gruyter, 2022) is a historical account of the troubled formation of a colonial labor market in the Gulf of Guinea …

Latin American Studies April 30, 2023

Death in Old Mexico

The 1789 Dongo Murders and How They Shaped the History of a Nation

Nicole von Germeten

Hosted by Ethan Fredrick

In a Mexico City mansion on October 23, 1789, Don Joaquín Dongo and ten of his employees were brutally murdered by three killers armed with machetes. Investigators worked tirelessly to …

Indian Religions April 20, 2023

Religion and Empire in Portuguese India: Conversion, Resistance, and the Making of Goa

Ângela Barreto Xavier

Hosted by Raj Balkaran

How did the colonization of Goa in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries take place? How was it related to projects for the conversion of Goan colonial subjects to Catholicism? In …

Jewish Studies April 2, 2023

The Land Is Mine

Sephardi Jews and Bible Commentary in the Renaissance

Andrew D. Berns

Hosted by Ari Barbalat

After their expulsion from Spain in 1492, Sephardi Jews such as Isaac Abravanel, Abraham Saba, and Isaac Arama wrote biblical commentaries that stressed the significance of land. They interpreted Judaism …

Scholarly Communication March 4, 2023

Decolonizing American Spanish

Eurocentrism and the Limits of Foreignness in the Imperial Ecosystem

Jeffrey Herlihy-Mera

Hosted by Avi Staiman

Jeffrey joins the podcast to discuss the prevalence of English in the academic ecosystem and in research publishing. Jeffrey critiques the lackadaisical approach US institutions take towards Spanish language content …