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Anthropology
South Asian Studies February 3, 2023

Claiming the State

Active Citizenship and Social Welfare in Rural India

Gabrielle Kruks-Wisner

Hosted by Alok Prasanna and Sarayu Natarajan
Citizens around the world look to the state for social welfare provision, but often struggle to access essential services in health, education, and social security. Claiming the State: Active Citizenship …

Anthropology

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Interviews with anthropologists about their new books.

Scholarly Communication February 2, 2023

Monumental Names

Archival Aesthetics and the Conjuration of History in Moscow

Galina Oustinova-Stjepanovic

Hosted by Jen Hoyer
Monumental Names: Archival Aesthetics and the Conjuration of History in Moscow (Routledge, 2022) asks us to consider: what stands behind the propensity to remember victims of mass atrocities by their personal …
Caribbean Studies February 2, 2023

Dougla in the Twenty-First Century

Adding to the Mix

Sue Ann Barratt and Aleah N. Ranjitsingh

Hosted by Aleem Mahabir
Identity is often fraught for multiracial Douglas, people of both South Asian and African descent in the Caribbean. In this groundbreaking volume titled Dougla in the Twenty-First Century: Adding to …
Anthropology February 2, 2023

Computing Taste

Algorithms and the Makers of Music Recommendation

Nick Seaver

Hosted by Mathew Gagné
The people who make music recommender systems have lofty goals: they want to broaden listeners’ horizons and help obscure musicians find audiences, taking advantage of the enormous catalogs offered by …
Southeast Asian Studies February 1, 2023

Religious Tourism in Northern Thailand

Encounters with Buddhist Monks

Brooke Schedneck

Hosted by Patrick Jory
The city of Chiang Mai in northern Thailand has become the destination for a growing segment of the international tourism market: religious tourism. International tourists visit Buddhist temples, volunteer as …
LGBTQ+ Studies February 1, 2023

Queering the Midwest

Forging LGBTQ Community

Clare Forstie

Hosted by Clayton Jarrard
Drag shows that test the capacity of bars persist alongside wishes for stronger community among River City's LGBTQ population. In this examination of LGBTQ community in a small, Midwestern city …
Secularism January 31, 2023

The Varieties of Atheism

Connecting Religion and Its Critics

David Newheiser

Hosted by Carrie Lynn Evans
The Varieties of Atheism: Connecting Religion and Its Critics (University of Chicago Press, 2022), edited by Professor David Newheiser reveals the diverse nonreligious experiences obscured by the combative intellectualism of …
Gender Studies January 31, 2023

Missing: Men at Work

A Conversation with Nick Eberstadt

Nick Eberstadt

Hosted by Annika Nordquist
Over six million prime-age men are neither working nor looking for work; America's low unemployment rate hides the fact that many men have dropped out of the workforce altogether. Our …
High Theory January 30, 2023

Queer Space

A Discussion with Jack Jen Gieseking

Jack Jen Gieseking

Hosted by Kim Adams and Saronik Bosu
In this episode of High Theory, Jack Jen Gieseking tells us about queer space. Queer geographies matter alongside queer temporalities. And it turns out that lesbian life in the 1950s …
South Asian Studies January 30, 2023

Last Among Equals

Power, Caste and Politics in Bihar's Villages

M. R. Sharan

Hosted by Alok Prasanna and Sarayu Natarajan
M. R. Sharan is an Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland, studying questions centred around development economics and political economy. He obtained his PhD from Harvard University in 202 …
Sociology January 29, 2023

Stacked Decks

Building Inspectors and the Reproduction of Urban Inequality

Robin Bartram

Hosted by Michael Johnston
Though we rarely see them at work, building inspectors have the power to significantly shape our lives through their discretionary decisions. The building inspectors of Chicago are at the heart …
South Asian Studies January 28, 2023

The Vulgarity of Caste

Dalits, Sexuality, and Humanity in Modern India

Shailaja Paik

Hosted by Niharika Yadav
The Vulgarity of Caste: Dalits, Sexuality, and Humanity in Modern India (Stanford UP, 2022) offers the first social and intellectual history of Dalit performance of Tamasha—a popular form of public, secular …
Nordic Asia Podcast January 27, 2023

Myanmar Jewellers in China

A Discussion with Juliet Zhu

Juliet Zhu

Hosted by Julie Yu-Wen Chen
China re-opened border in a final farewell to its strict zero-COVID policy on the 8th of January, 2023. But in the first few weeks of January, the Myanmar side of …
Dan Hill's EQ Spotlight January 26, 2023

Between Us

How Cultures Create Emotions

Batja Mesquita

Hosted by Dan Hill
Today I talked to Batja Mesquita about her book Between Us: How Cultures Create Emotions (Norton, 2022). To a degree sometimes not realized, we discuss emotions through the lens of what have been …
Geography January 25, 2023

Just One Rain Away

The Ethnography of River-City Flood Control

Stephanie C. Kane

Hosted by Stentor Danielson
Not long ago it seemed flood control experts were close to mastering the unruly flows funnelling toward Hudson Bay and the Prairie city of Winnipeg. But as more intense and …
Nomads, Past and Present January 24, 2023

Pastures of Change

Contemporary Adaptations and Transformations among Nomadic Pastoralists of Eastern Tibet

Gillian G. Tan

Hosted by Maggie Freeman
Tibetan nomads have developed a way of life that is dependent in multiple ways on their animals and shaped by the phenomenological experience of mobility. These pastoralists have adapted to …
Anthropology January 24, 2023

Undocumented Motherhood

Conversations on Love, Trauma, and Border Crossing

Elizabeth Farfán-Santos

Hosted by Reighan Gillam
Claudia Garcia crossed the border because her toddler, Natalia, could not hear. Leaving behind everything she knew in Mexico, Claudia recounts the terror of migrating alone with her toddler and …
Scholarly Communication January 24, 2023

Unsaid

Analyzing Harmful Silences

Lois Presser

Hosted by Jen Hoyer
Harm takes shape in and through what is suppressed, left out, or taken for granted. Unsaid: Analyzing Harmful Silences (U California Press, 2022) is a guide to understanding and uncovering what …
Anthropology January 22, 2023

The Industrial Ephemeral

Labor and Love in Indian Architecture and Construction

Namita Vijay Dharia

Hosted by Garima Jaju
What transformative effects does a multimillion-dollar industry have on those who work within it? The Industrial Ephemeral: Labor and Love in Indian Architecture and Construction (U California Press, 2022), presents …
Economic and Business History January 21, 2023

Critical Junctures and Historical Legacies

Insights and Methods for Comparative Social Science

David Collier and Gerardo L. Munck

Hosted by Javier Mejia
Over the past 50 years, scholars across the social sciences have employed critical juncture analysis to understand how social orders are created, become entrenched, and change. In this book, leading …