New Books Network Podcast

Middle Eastern Studies November 28, 2023

Waiting for the Revolution to End

Syrian Displacement, Time and Subjectivity

Charlotte Al-Khalili

Hosted by Miranda Melcher

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Waiting for the Revolution to End: Syrian Displacement, Time and Subjectivity (UCL Press, 2023) by Dr. Charlotte Al-Khalili explores the Syrian revolution through the experiences of citizens in exile. Based on …

Anthropology November 27, 2023

‘Ritual Litter' Redressed

Ceri Houlbrook

Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Ritual deposition is not an activity that many people in the Western world would consider themselves participants of. The enigmatic beliefs and magical thinking that led to the deposition of …

Sociology November 27, 2023

Performing Memories and Weaving Archives

Creolized Cultures across the Indian Ocean

Sayan Dey

Hosted by Rituparna Patgiri

Usually, discourses on the planetary evolution and the movements of slaves remain restricted within the narratives and scholarships of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and hardly engage with the evolution, movements …

Mobilities and Methods November 19, 2023

Moving Words

Literature, Memory, and Migration in Berlin

Andrew Brandel

Hosted by Alize Arıcan

In the decades since the fall of the Berlin Wall, Berlin has re-emerged as a global city in large part thanks to its reputation as a literary city – a …

Sociology November 17, 2023

Sex Work on Campus

Terah J. Stewart

Hosted by Ari Barbalat

Terah J. Stewart's book Sex Work on Campus (Routledge, 2022) examines the experiences of college students engaged in sex work and sparks dialogue about the ways educators might develop a deeper …

Anthropology November 17, 2023

A Synthesis of Time

Zakat, Islamic Micro-finance and the Question of the Future in 21st-Century Indonesia

Konstantinos Retsikas

Hosted by Yadong Li

In A Synthesis of Time: Zakat, Islamic Micro-finance and the Question of the Future in 21st-Century Indonesia (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), Konstantinos Retsikas has anthropological investigation into the different forms the …

Recall This Book November 16, 2023

Laurence Ralph Reckons With Police Violence (EF, JP)

Laurence Ralph

Hosted by Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz

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In the third episode of our Global Policing series, Elizabeth and John spoke back in 2020 with anthropologist Laurence Ralph about The Torture Letters: Reckoning with Police Violence (U Chicago Press …

World Christianity November 15, 2023

Cambodian Evangelicalism

Cosmological Hope and Diasporic Resilience

Briana L. Wong

Hosted by Byung Ho Choi

The Cambodian Civil War and genocide of the late 1960s and ’70s left the country and its diaspora with long-lasting trauma that continues to reverberate through the community. In Cambodian …

Digital Humanities November 15, 2023

History without Chronology

Stefan Tanaka

Hosted by Sarah Kearns

In this interview, we talk with Stefan Tanaka, professor emeritus of UCSD and a specialist in modern Japanese history. He is author of two books on modern Japan, Japan's Orient: Rendering Pasts …

Anthropology November 13, 2023

The Currency of Truth

Newsmaking and the Late-Socialist Imaginaries of China's Digital Era

Emily H. C. Chua

Hosted by Yadong Li

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China’s news sector is a place where newsmakers, advertising executives, company bosses, and Party officials engage one another in contingent and evolving arrangements that run from cooperation and collaboration to …

Indian Ocean World November 11, 2023

Corporeal Life of Seafaring

Laleh Khalili

Hosted by Ahmed Almaazmi

The body of the seafarer is a fulcrum upon which global systems of power, longstanding maritime traditions, and gendered and racialised pressures all rest. In this vital new essay, scholar …

Anthropology November 11, 2023

Pilgrimage to Broken Mountain

Nahua Sacred Journeys in Mexico's Huasteca Veracruzana

Alan R. Sandstrom and Pamela Effrein Sandstrom

Hosted by Nathan Moore

An ethnographic study based on decades of field research, Pilgrimage to Broken Mountain: Nahua Sacred Journeys in Mexico's Huasteca Veracruzana (UP of Colorado, 2023) explores five sacred journeys to the …

Chinese Studies November 10, 2023

Governing Death, Making Persons

The New Chinese Way of Death

Huwy-min Lucia Liu

Hosted by Victoria Lupascu

Governing Death, Making Persons: The New Chinese Way of Death (Cornell UP, 2023) tells the story of how economic reforms and changes in the management of death in China have …

Sociology November 9, 2023

Homelessness and Housing Advocacy

The Role of Red-Tape Warriors

Curtis Smith

Hosted by Ari Barbalat

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Through compelling ethnography, Homelessness and Housing Advocacy: The Role of Red-Tape Warriors (Routledge, 2022) reveals the creative and ambitious methods that social service providers use to house their clients despite the …

LGBTQ+ Studies November 6, 2023

Transgender Refugees and the Imagined South Africa

Bodies Over Borders and Borders Over Bodies

B Camminga

Hosted by Clayton Jarrard

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Transgender Refugees and the Imagined South Africa: Bodies Over Borders and Borders Over Bodies (Palgrave MacMillan, 2018) tracks the conceptual journeying of the term ‘transgender’ from the Global North—where it …

Ethnographic Marginalia November 5, 2023

Coastlines, Climate, and Comics: In conversation with Dr. V. Chitra

In conversation with Dr. V. Chitra

V. Chitra

Hosted by Sneha Annavarapu

How can we use comics to present ethnographic research in new and unique ways? In this episode, we talk with Dr. V. Chitra about the fieldwork and comics in her …

Japanese Studies November 4, 2023

The Work of Gender

Service, Performance and Fantasy in Contemporary Japan

Gitte Marianne Hansen and Fabio Gygi

Hosted by Nathan Hopson

The Work of Gender: Service, Performance and Fantasy in Contemporary Japan (NIAS Press, 2022) is an edited volume of ethnographic research organized around a cluster of key themes such as …

Anthropology November 3, 2023

Why Men?

A Human History of Violence and Inequality

Nancy Lindisfarne and Jonathan Neale

Hosted by Miranda Melcher

How did humans, a species that evolved to be cooperative and egalitarian, develop societies of enforced inequality? Why did our ancestors create patriarchal power and warfare? Did it have to …

Animal Studies November 3, 2023

How Our Love of Dogs Creates Social Conflict

James K. Beggan

Hosted by Miranda Melcher

For the last twenty-thousand years, dogs and people have shared a unique bond in the animal kingdom. In How Our Love of Dogs Creates Social Conflict (Lexington Books, 2022), Dr …

Latin American Studies November 3, 2023

Keep the Bones Alive

Missing People and the Search for Life in Brazil

Graham Denyer Willis

Hosted by Ari Barbalat

Every year at least 20,000 people go missing in São Paulo, Brazil. Many will be found, sometimes in mundane mass graves, but thousands will not. Keep the Bones Alive: Missing …