New Books Network

On Religion August 8, 2022

On Online Churches

A Discussion with Tim Hutchings

Tim Hutchings

Hosted by Gregory Soden

Dr. Tim Hutchings is a sociologist of digital religion. His Ph.D. (Durham University, 2010) was an ethnographic study of five online Christian churches. Dr. Hutchings is interested in the relationship …

Food August 8, 2022

What a Mushroom Lives For

Matsutake and the Worlds They Make

Michael J. Hathaway

Hosted by Miranda Melcher

What a Mushroom Lives For: Matsutake and the Worlds They Make (Princeton University Press, 2022) by Dr. Michael Hathaway pushes today’s mushroom renaissance in compelling new directions. For centuries, Western …

Anthropology August 5, 2022

Sextarianism

Sovereignty, Secularism, and the State in Lebanon

Maya Mikdashi

Hosted by Alize Arıcan

The Lebanese state is structured through religious freedom and secular power sharing across sectarian groups. Every sect has specific laws that govern kinship matters like marriage or inheritance. Together with …

Political Science August 4, 2022

The Knowledge Polity

Teaching and Research in the Social Sciences

Paul A. Djupe, Anand Edward Sokhey, and Amy Erica Smith

Hosted by Lilly Goren

Paul A. Djupe, Anand Edward Sokhey, and Amy Erica Smith, The Knowledge Polity: Teaching and Research in the Social Sciences (Oxford UP, 2022) explores a more holistic understanding of knowledge production in …

Anthropology August 4, 2022

Academic Outsider

Stories of Exclusion and Hope

Victoria Reyes

Hosted by Reighan Gillam

In Academic Outsider: Stories of Exclusion and Hope (Stanford University Press, 2022), sociologist Victoria Reyes combines her personal experiences with research findings to examine how academia creates conditional citizenship for its …

Anthropology August 3, 2022

Routledge Handbook of Ecocultural Identity

Tema Milstein and José Castro-Sotomayor

Hosted by Adam Bobeck

The Routledge Handbook of Ecocultural Identity (Routledge, 2020) brings the ecological turn to sociocultural understandings of self. Tema Milstein and José Castro-Sotomayor introduce a broad, insightful assembly of original theory and research …

Intellectual History August 1, 2022

Social Science for What? (Part 2 of 2)

Battles over Public Funding for the “Other Sciences” at the National Science Foundation

Mark Solovey

Hosted by Keith Krueger

This is part two of a two part interview. Mark Solovey’s Social Science for What? is essential reading for anyone in either the history of science policy or the history of …

Grinnell College: Authors and Artists August 1, 2022

Tasting Paradise on Earth

Jiangnan Foodways

Jin Feng

Hosted by Marshall Poe

Today I talked to Jin Feng of Grinnell College about her fascinating book Tasting Paradise on Earth: Jiangnan Foodways (U Washington Press, 2019). Preparing and consuming food is an integral part …

Mobilities and Methods July 29, 2022

The Diasporic Condition

Ethnographic Explorations of the Lebanese in the World

Ghassan Hage

Hosted by Alize Arıcan

Bridging the gap between migration studies and the anthropological tradition, Ghassan Hage illustrates that transnationality and its attendant cultural consequences are not necessarily at odds with classic theory. In The …

Indian Religions July 28, 2022

Democracy and Social Cleavage in India

Ethnography of Riots, Everyday Politics and Communalism in West Bengal C. 2012-2021

Suman Nath

Hosted by Raj Balkaran

Suman Nath's book Democracy and Social Cleavage in India: Ethnography of Riots, Everyday Politics and Communalism in West Bengal (2012-2021) (Routledge, 2022) explores the emergence of identity politics and violence at …

Anthropology July 27, 2022

After The Apocalypse

Finding Hope in Organizing

Monika Kostera

Hosted by Joan Matamoros

Our times of crumbling structures and decaying social bonds are often depicted as apocalyptic. Monika Kostera's book After The Apocalypse: Finding Hope in Organizing (John Hunt, 2020) takes the apocalypse as …

Mobilities and Methods July 26, 2022

Radical Resilience

Athenian Topographies of Precarity and Possibility

Othon Alexandrakis

Hosted by Alize Arıcan

Radical Resilience: Athenian Topographies of Precarity and Possibility (Cornell UP, 2022) relates narratives of Athenians struggling to survive the impoverishment of relentless austerity measures, compounding emergencies, and human disasters of …

Anthropology July 26, 2022

Being Single in India

Stories of Gender, Exclusion, and Possibility

Sarah Lamb

Hosted by Garima Jaju

Today, the majority of the world's population lives in a country with falling marriage rates, a phenomenon with profound impacts on women, gender, and sexuality. In Being Single in India …

Critical Theory July 26, 2022

The Flexibility Paradox

Why Flexible Working Leads To (Self-)Exploitation

Heejung Chung

Hosted by Dave O'Brien

Why are we working harder? In The Flexibility Paradox: Why Flexible Working Leads To (Self-)Exploitation (Polity Press, 2022), Heejung Chung, a professor of sociology and social policy at the University of …

Gender Studies July 26, 2022

Tying the Knot

A Feminist/Womanist guide to Muslim Marriage in America

Kecia Ali

Hosted by Iqra Shagufta Cheema

Are you a born, revert, or convert Muslim who is trying to navigate the puzzle that is Muslim marriage in America? Do you want an egalitarian and fair Muslim marriage …

Intellectual History July 25, 2022

Social Science for What? (Part 1 of 2)

Battles over Public Funding for the "Other Sciences" at the National Science Foundation

Mark Solovey

Hosted by Keith Krueger

This is part one of a two part interview. "The social sciences have prospered best in the federal government where they have been included under broad umbrella classifications of the …

Chinese Studies July 25, 2022

Chinese Village Life Today

Building Families in an Age of Transition

Gonçalo Santos

Hosted by Suvi Rautio

Today I had the pleasure of talking to Professor Gonçalo Santos (University of Coimbra), about his new book, Chinese Village Life Today: Building Families in an Age of Transition, which was published …

Military History July 18, 2022

Why Humans Fight

The Social Dynamics of Close-Range Violence

Siniša Malešević

Hosted by Christian Nielsen

In his book Why Humans Fight: The Social Dynamics of Close-Range Violence (2022, Cambridge University Press), Siniša Malešević emphasises the centrality of the social and historical contexts that make fighting …

Middle Eastern Studies July 18, 2022

South Yemen's Independence Struggle

Generations of Resistance

Anne-Linda Amira Augustin

Hosted by Miranda Melcher

At its beginning in 2007, the Southern Movement in South Yemen was a loose merger of different people, most of them former army personnel and state employees of the People’s …

Mobilities and Methods July 15, 2022

Victims of Commemoration

The Architecture and Violence of Confronting the Past in Turkey

Eray Çayli

Hosted by Alize Arıcan

“Confronting the past” has become a byword for democratization. How societies and governments commemorate their violent pasts is often appraised as a litmus test of their democratization claims. Regardless of …