New Books Network
Politics & Society
History February 26, 2021

Pirating and Publishing

The Book Trade in the Age of Enlightenment

Robert Darnton

Hosted by Zachary McCulley
In the late-18th century, a group of publishers in what historian Robert Darnton calls the "Fertile Crescent" — countries located along the French border, stretching from Holland to Switzerland — …

Subscribe to

Politics & Society

on the NBN

South Asian Studies February 26, 2021

Rethinking Markets in Modern India

Embedded Exchange and Contested Jurisdiction

A. Gandhi, B. Harriss-White, D. E. Haynes and S. Schwecke

Hosted by Saronik Bosu
Modern markets and exchange, compared with other social and political spheres, are seen through technical abstractions. This intellectual compartmentalization has political consequences: if capitalism operates through arcane, objective, and rational …
East Asian Studies February 26, 2021

The Sea and the Sacred in Japan

Aspects of Maritime Religion

Fabio Rambelli

Hosted by Daigengna Duoer
In The Sea and the Sacred in Japan: Aspects of Maritime Religion (Bloomsbury 2018), Fabio Rambelli invites various fifteen scholars of Japanese religions to reflect on a well taken-for-granted fact: although the sea …
Islamic Studies February 26, 2021

Terror Epidemics

Islamophobia and the Disease Poetics of Empire

Anjuli Fatima Raza Kolb

Hosted by Kristian Petersen
Terrorism is a cancer, an infection, an epidemic, a plague. For more than a century, this metaphor has figured insurgent violence as contagion in order to contain its political energies …
National Security February 26, 2021

Reset

Reclaiming the Internet for Civil Society

Ronald J. Deibert

Hosted by John Sakellariadis
Ronald Deibert is a professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto and the Director of The Citizen Lab, a public interest research organization that uncovers privacy and human …
Christian Studies February 26, 2021

@ Worship

Liturgical Practices in Digital Worlds

Teresa Berger

Hosted by Ryan Shelton
Digital dualism, or a sharp division between online and offline activity as "virtual" or "real" has long been a feature of liturgical studies and discussions around worship gatherings for theorists and …
Ethnographic Marginalia February 26, 2021

Political Life in the Wake of the Plantation

Sovereignty, Witnessing, Repair

Deborah A. Thomas

Hosted by Sneha Annavarapu
How can ethnographers use multimedia presentations of their work to reach new audiences, build different relationships with their participants, and promote new practices of witnessing and representation? On today’s episode …
Religion February 26, 2021

Dangerous Religious Ideas

The Deep Roots of Self-Critical Faith in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

Rachel S. Mikva

Hosted by Yakir Englander
Dangerous Religious Ideas: The Deep Roots of Self-Critical Faith in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (Beacon, 2020) reveals how faith traditions have always passed down tools for self-examination and debate, because …
History February 26, 2021

Ruling Culture

Art Police, Tomb Robbers, and the Rise of Cultural Power in Italy

Fiona Greenland

Hosted by Jana Byars
Today we are joined by Fiona Greenland, Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia, to talk about her new book, Ruling Culture: Art Police, Tomb Raiders, and the …
Law February 25, 2021

Protecting Art in the Street

A Guide to Copyright in Street Art and Graffiti

Enrico Bonadio

Hosted by Nick Pozek
There has recently been a sharp increase in cases where corporations have been sued by street and graffiti artists because their artworks had been used and exploited without the artists’ …
Asian Review of Books February 25, 2021

Bombay Hustle

Making Movies in a Colonial City

Debashree Mukherjee

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
In 1935, the writer Baburao Patel writes the following about Bombay’s film industry: “In India, with financing conditions still precarious, the professional film distributor thrives. . . . He comes …
Political Science February 25, 2021

Madam President?

Gender and Politics on the Road to the White House

Lori Cox Han and Caroline Heldman

Hosted by Lilly Goren
Lori Cox Han and Caroline Heldman, both scholars of gender and politics as well as scholars of the American Presidency, have assembled a wide array of essays[*] to revisit the …
Academic Life February 25, 2021

Exploring STEM, Insulin Research, and Why We Get Sick

A Discussion with Benjamin Bikman

Benjamin Bikman

Hosted by Christina Gessler
Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts …
Dan Hill's EQ Spotlight February 25, 2021

Overground Railroad

The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America

Candacy Taylor

Hosted by Dan Hill
Today I talked to Candacy Taylor about her book Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America (Abrams Press, 2020) Taylor is an award-winning author …
SSEAC Stories February 25, 2021

A Thai Contemporary Artist on Identity, Power, and the Space In-Between

A Discussion with Phaptawan Suwannakudt

Phaptawan Suwannakudt

Hosted by Natali Pearson
As a Thai-Australian woman artist, Phaptawan Suwannakudt has long battled prejudice and discrimination relating to her gender. This disappointment with society’s dictates features at the heart of Phaptawan’s artistic practice …
Critical Theory February 24, 2021

Penguin Books and Political Change

Britain's Meritocratic Moment, 1937–1988

Dean Blackburn

Hosted by Dave O'Brien
Why do books and publishing matter to the contemporary history of Britain? In Penguin Books and Political Change: Britain's Meritocratic Moment, 1937–1988 (Manchester UP, 2020), Dean Blackburn, a Lecturer in Modern …
Science, Technology, and Society February 24, 2021

The Innovation Delusion

How Our Obsession with the New Has Disrupted the Work That Matters Most

Lee Vinsel and Andrew L. Russell

Hosted by Matthew Jordan
It’s hard to avoid innovation these days. Nearly every product gets marketed as being disruptive, whether it’s genuinely a new invention or just a new toothbrush. But in this manifesto …
East Asian Studies February 24, 2021

Buddhism after Mao

Negotiations, Continuities, and Reinventions

Zhe Ji, Gareth Fisher, André Laliberté

Hosted by Daigengna Duoer
With over 100 million followers, Buddhism in the People's Republic of China now fosters the largest community in the world of individuals who self-identify as Buddhists. Although Buddhism was harshly persecuted …
Chinese Studies February 24, 2021

Writing for Print

Publishing and the Making of Textual Authority in Late Imperial China

Suyoung Son

Hosted by Aliki Semertzi
Suyoung Son’s book Writing for Print: Publishing and the Making of Textual Authority in Late Imperial China (Harvard UP, 2018) examines the widespread practice of self-publishing by writers in late imperial …
East Asian Studies February 24, 2021

A Roundtable on the History of the Japanese Student Movement

A Discussion with Naoko Koda and Chelsea Szendi Schieder

Naoko Koda and Chelsea Szendi Schieder

Hosted by Nathan Hopson
Chelsea Szendi Schieder’s Co-Ed Revolution: The Female Student in the Japanese New Left and Naoko Koda’s The United States and the Japanese Student Movement, 1948-1973: Managing a Free World provide new …