New Books Network
Anthropology
Critical Theory July 29, 2021

Eating in Theory

Annemarie Mol

Hosted by Kai Wortmann
As we taste, chew, swallow, digest, and excrete, our foods transform us, while our eating, in its turn, affects the wider earthly environment. In Eating in Theory (Duke UP, 2021) …

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Gender Studies July 29, 2021

Hijras, Lovers, Brothers

Surviving Sex and Poverty in Rural India

Vaibhav Saria

Hosted by Shraddha Chatterjee
Hijras, one of India’s third gendered or trans populations, have been an enduring presence in the South Asian imagination—in myth, in ritual, and in everyday life, often associated in stigmatized …
Australian and New Zealand Studies July 29, 2021

Creating God

The Birth and Growth of Major Religions

Robin Derricourt

Hosted by Bede Haines
What do we really know about how and where religions began, and how they spread?  Robin Derricourt considers the birth and growth of several major religions, using history and archaeology …
Anthropology July 28, 2021

Boasians at War

Anthropology, Race, and World War II

Anthony Q. Hazard

Hosted by Alex Golub
The realities of race that continue to plague the United States have direct ties to the anthropology. Anthropologists often imagine their discipline as inherently anti-racist and historically connected to …
Medicine July 23, 2021

Distributing Condoms and Hope

The Racialized Politics of Youth Sexual Health

Chris A. Barcelos

Hosted by Rachel Pagones
Distributing Condoms and Hope: The Racialized Politics of Youth Sexual Health (U California Press, 2020) is a feminist ethnographic account of how youth sexual health programs in the racially and …
Interpretive Political and Social Science July 23, 2021

Gendered Citizenship

Understanding Gendered Violence in Democratic India

Natasha Behl

Hosted by Nick Cheesman
Why do we find pervasive gender-based discrimination, exclusion and violence in India when the Indian constitution builds an inclusive democracy committed to gender equality? This is the puzzle that animates …
Science, Technology, and Society July 23, 2021

Radiant Infrastructures

Media, Environment, and Cultures of Uncertainty

Rahul Mukherjee

Hosted by Noopur Raval
In Radiant Infrastructures: Media, Environment, and Cultures of Uncertainty (Duke UP, 2020), Rahul Mukherjee explores how the media coverage of nuclear power plants and cellular phone antennas in India—what he …
Medicine July 22, 2021

Epidemic Illusions

On the Coloniality of Global Public Health

Eugene T. Richardson

Hosted by Catriona Gold
In Epidemic Illusions: On the Coloniality of Global Public Health (MIT Press, 2020), physician-anthropologist Eugene T. Richardson explores how public health practices—from epidemiological modeling to outbreak containment—help perpetuate global inequities. This book questions …
Sociology July 22, 2021

Chasing World-Class Urbanism

Global Policy Versus Everyday Survival in Buenos Aires

Jacob Lederman

Hosted by Sneha Annavarapu
What makes some cities world class? Increasingly, that designation reflects the use of a toolkit of urban planning practices and policies that circulates around the globe. These strategies—establishing creative districts …
Anthropology July 21, 2021

Finding Afro-Mexico

Race and Nation after the Revolution

Theodore W. Cohen

Hosted by Reighan Gillam
In Finding Afro-Mexico: Race and Nation after the Revolution (Cambridge University Press, 2020) Theodore Cohen examines the ways in which different protagonists sought to incorporate Blackness into Mexican national identity …
Chinese Studies July 21, 2021

Embodying Middle Class Gender Aspirations

Perspectives from China’s Privileged Young Women

Kailing Xie

Hosted by Suvi Rautio
Today I interviewed Kailing Xie on her recently published book, Embodying Middle Class Gender Aspirations: Perspectives from China's Privileged Young Women (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021). This book takes a feminist approach to …
General History July 21, 2021

Everything Ancient Was Once New

Indigenous Persistence from Hawaiʻi to Kahiki

Emalani Case

Hosted by Holger Droessler
In Everything Ancient Was Once New: Indigenous Persistence from Hawaiʻi to Kahiki (U Hawaii Press, 2021), Emalani Case explores Indigenous persistence through the concept of Kahiki, a term that is …
Ideas Roadshow Podcast July 20, 2021

How Social Science Creates the World

Mark Bevir

Hosted by Howard Burton
How Social Science Creates the World is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and UC Berkeley political scientist Professor Mark Bevir. Mark Bevir is an internationally acclaimed …
Science, Technology, and Society July 20, 2021

Seeing Silicon Valley

Life Inside a Fraying America

Mary Beth Meehan and Fred Turner

Hosted by Matthew Jordan
It’s hard to imagine a place more central to American mythology today than Silicon Valley. To outsiders, the region glitters with the promise of extraordinary wealth and innovation. But behind …
Gender Studies July 19, 2021

Militarized Maternity

Experiencing Pregnancy in the U. S. Armed Forces

Megan D. McFarlane

Hosted by Lee Pierce
The rights of pregnant workers as well as (the lack of) paid maternity leave have increasingly become topics of a major policy debate in the United States. Yet, few discussions …
Anthropology July 19, 2021

Voyagers

The Settlement of the Pacific

Nicholas Thomas

Hosted by Alex Golub
In Voyagers: The Settlement of the Pacific (Apollo, 2020), the distinguished anthropologist Nicholas Thomas tells the story of the peopling of the Pacific. In clear, accessible language Thomas shows us that …
Mobilities and Methods July 16, 2021

Blackness in Morocco

Gnawa Identity Through Music and Visual Culture

Cynthia J. Becker

Hosted by Alize Arıcan
For more than thirteen centuries, caravans transported millions of enslaved people from Africa south of the Sahara into what is now the Kingdom of Morocco. Today there are no museums …
Ethnographic Marginalia July 16, 2021

Violence, Gender, and Policing in Colombia

In Conversation with Dr. Jon Gordon

Jon Gordon

Hosted by Sneha Annavarapu
In today’s interview, we speak with Dr. Jon Gordon, incoming Assistant Professor of Sociology at Appalachian State University, who tells us about his research with criminalized men in an armed …
Southeast Asian Studies July 15, 2021

Contested Territory

Ðien Biên Phu and the Making of Northwest Vietnam

Christian C. Lentz

Hosted by Duncan McCargo
Why is Vietnam's modern history so closely associated with a place that lies only just within the country's borders? What was at stake in the contest for the mountainous Black …
Gender Studies July 14, 2021

The Perfect Vagina

Cosmetic Surgery in the Twenty-First Century

Lindy McDougall

Hosted by Jana Byars
Today on New Books in Gender Studies Jana Byars talks with Lindy McDougall, of Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia about her new book, The Perfect Vagina: Cosmetic Surgery in the …