New Books Network
Anthropology
General History January 26, 2022

Eaters of the Dead

Myths and Realities of Cannibal Monsters

Kevin J. Wetmore

Hosted by Jana Byars
Spanning myth, history, and contemporary culture, a terrifying and illuminating excavation of the meaning of cannibalism. Every culture has monsters that eat us, and every culture repels in horror when …

Anthropology

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Interviews with anthropologists about their new books.

SSEAC Stories January 21, 2022

Speaking Bones

Unearthing Ancient Stories of Illness and Disease

Melandri Vlok

Hosted by Natali Pearson
From mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue to chronic bacterial infections such as yaws, Southeast Asia is home to a wide range of tropical diseases. For a long time …
Critical Theory January 21, 2022

Confidence Culture

Shani Orgad and Rosalind Gill

Hosted by Louisa Hann
In Confidence Culture (Duke UP, 2022), Shani Orgad and Rosalind Gill argue that imperatives directed at women to “love your body” and “believe in yourself” imply that psychological blocks rather …
Environmental Studies January 21, 2022

Climate Chaos

Lessons on Survival from Our Ancestors

Brian Fagan and Nadia Durrani

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
Human-made climate change may have begun in the last two hundred years, but our species has witnessed many eras of climate instability. The results have not always been pretty. From …
Anthropology January 21, 2022

Afterlives of Affect

Science, Religion, and an Edgewalker’s Spirit

Matthew C. Watson

Hosted by Adam Bobeck
In Afterlives of Affect: Science, Religion, and an Edgewalker’s Spirit (Duke UP, 2020), Matthew C. Watson considers the life and work of artist and Mayanist scholar Linda Schele (1942-1998) as …
Asian Review of Books January 20, 2022

On the Edge

Life Along the Russia-China Border

Franck Billé and Caroline Humphrey

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
The border between Russia and China is one of the world’s longest, spanning thousands of miles. It’s one of the few extended land borders between two great powers, subject to …
Australian and New Zealand Studies January 19, 2022

Stepping Up

COVID-19 Checkpoints and Rangatiratanga

Luke Fitzmaurice and Maria Bargh

Hosted by Ed Amon
Stepping Up: COVID-19 Checkpoints and Rangatiratanga (Huia Publishers, 2021) discusses the roadside checkpoints that were set up by Māori to protect communities during the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown in 2020. Case …
Middle Eastern Studies January 18, 2022

Embattled Dreamlands

The Politics of Contesting Armenian, Kurdish and Turkish Memory

David Leupold

Hosted by Ronay Bakan
Embattled Dreamlands: The Politics of Contesting Armenian, Kurdish and Turkish Memory (Routledge, 2020) explores the complex relationship between competing national myths, imagined boundaries and local memories in the threefold-contested geography …
Folklore January 18, 2022

Folk Literati, Contested Tradition, and Heritage in Contemporary China

Incense Is Kept Burning

Ziying You

Hosted by Timothy Thurston
In Folk Literati, Contested Tradition, and Heritage in Contemporary China: Incense Is Kept Burning (Indiana UP, 2020), Ziying You explores the role of the "folk literati" in negotiating, defining, and …
Geography January 17, 2022

Toward Camden

Mercy Romero

Hosted by Stentor Danielson
In Toward Camden (Duke UP, 2021), Mercy Romero writes about the relationships that make and sustain the largely African American and Puerto Rican Cramer Hill neighborhood in New Jersey where …
Ethnographic Marginalia January 14, 2022

Ethnography in Rural Indonesia

In Conversation with Tania Li

Tania Murray Li

Hosted by Alexander Diamond
What can years of ethnographic engagement with rural Indonesia teach us about capitalism, development, and resistance? On this episode of Ethnographic Marginalia, our guest is Dr. Tania Li, Professor of …
Anthropology January 14, 2022

Being a Human

Adventures in Forty Thousand Years of Consciousness

Charles Foster

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
How did humans come to be who we are? In his marvelous, eccentric, and widely lauded book Being a Beast, legal scholar, veterinary surgeon, and naturalist extraordinaire Charles Foster set …
Anthropology January 12, 2022

Becoming Palestine

Toward an Archival Imagination of the Future

Gil Z. Hochberg

Hosted by Fulya Pinar
In Becoming Palestine: Toward an Archival Imagination of the Future (Duke UP, 2021), Gil Z. Hochberg examines how contemporary Palestinian artists, filmmakers, dancers, and activists use the archive in order …
Anthropology January 7, 2022

Between Gaia and Ground

Four Axioms of Existence and the Ancestral Catastrophe of Late Liberalism

Elizabeth A. Povinelli

Hosted by Adam Bobeck
In Between Gaia and Ground: Four Axioms of Existence and the Ancestral Catastrophe of Late Liberalism (Duke UP, 2021),  Elizabeth A. Povinelli theorizes the climatic, environmental, viral, and social catastrophe …
African American Studies January 5, 2022

Metaphysical Africa

Truth and Blackness in the Ansaru Allah Community

Michael Muhammad Knight

Hosted by Adam Bobeck
The Ansaru Allah Community, also known as the Nubian Islamic Hebrews (AAC/NIH) and later the Nuwaubians, is a deeply significant and controversial African American Muslim movement. Founded in Brooklyn in …
Anthropology January 4, 2022

Playing Jazz in Socialist Vietnam

Quyền Văn Minh and Jazz in Hà Nội

Stan BH Tan-Tangbau and Quyền Văn Minh

Hosted by Adam Bobeck
Quyền Văn Minh (b. 1954) is not only a jazz saxophonist and lecturer at the prestigious Vietnam National Academy of Music, but he is also one of the most preeminent …
Japanese Studies January 3, 2022

The Politics of International Marriage in Japan

Viktoriya Kim, Nelia Balgoa, and Beverley Anne Yamamoto

Hosted by Jingyi Li
Viktoriya Kim, Nelia Balgoa, and Beverley Anne Yamamoto's book The Politics of International Marriage in Japan (Rutgers UP, 2021) provides an in-depth exploration and analysis of marriages between Japanese nationals and migrants …
Food December 31, 2021

A Recipe for Gentrification

Food, Power, and Resistance in the City

Alison Hope Alkon, Yuki Kato, and Joshua Sbicca

Hosted by Aubrey Thamann
A Recipe for Gentrification: Food, Power, and Resistance in the City (NYU Press, 2020), edited by Alison Hope Alkon, Yuki Kato, and Joshua Sbicca, is a collection of essays examining how …
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 …
Critical Theory December 24, 2021

The Interfact

On Structure and Compatibility in Object-Oriented Ontology

Gabriel Yoran

Hosted by Adam Bobeck
Objects in object-oriented ontology (OOO) are mysterious and inexhaustible entities. But since OOO grants ontological priority to objects, it should have an easy time referring to objects. But this is …