Media

Media

episodes

Interviews with scholars of media and communications about their new books.

Tyler W. Williams, "If All the World Were Paper: A History of Writing in Hindi" (Columbia UP, 2024)

November 14, 2024

If All the World Were Paper

Tyler W. Williams
Hosted by Raj Balkaran

In If All the World Were Paper: A History of Writing in Hindi (Columbia UP, 2024), Tyler W. Williams puts questions of materiality, circulation, and p…

David Shoemaker, "Wisecracks: Humor and Morality in Everyday Life" (U Chicago Press, 2024)

November 13, 2024

Wisecracks

David Shoemaker
Hosted by Damian Maher

What good is a good sense of humour especially when the humour may be ethically questionable? Although humour seems a valuable part of a good conversa…

Sarah Cleary, "The Myth of Harm: Horror, Censorship and the Child" (Bloomsbury, 2022)

November 12, 2024

The Myth of Harm

Sarah Cleary
Hosted by Jazz Walker

The horror genre has endured a long and controversial success within popular culture. Fraught with accusations pertaining to its alleged ability to ha…

Hunter Hargraves, "Uncomfortable Television" (Duke UP, 2024)

November 12, 2024

Uncomfortable Television

Hunter Hargraves
Hosted by Cory Barker

From The Wire to Intervention to Girls, postmillennial American television has dazzled audiences with novelistic seriality and cinematic aesthetics. Y…

Seth E. Jenny et al., "Routledge Handbook of Esports" (Routledge, 2024)

November 9, 2024

Routledge Handbook of Esports

Seth E. Jenny

The Routledge Handbook of Esports (Routledge, 2024) offers the first fully comprehensive, interdisciplinary study of esports, one of the fastest growi…

Texas Book Festival 2024: November 16-17

November 8, 2024

Texas Book Festival 2024

Hannah Gabel
Hosted by Caleb Zakarin

I spoke with Hannah Gabel, Literary Director of the Texas Book Festival. The Festival first began in 1995, and has since donated over $3.5 million to …

Yaraslau Kot, "Central and Eastern European Histories and Heritages in Video Games" (Routledge, 2024)

November 7, 2024

Central and Eastern European Histories and Heritages in Video Games

Michal Mochocki, Pawel Schreiber, Jakub Majewski, and Yaraslau Kot

Focusing on games that examine a range of national histories and heritages from across Central and Eastern Europe, Central and Eastern European Histor…

Celebrating University Press Week with AUPresses President, Anthony Cond

November 6, 2024

Celebrating University Press Week

Anthony Cond
Hosted by Caleb Zakarin

The Association of University Presses (AUPresses), a global organization of 161 mission-driven publishers, is proud to announce a collection of 123 bo…

Elia Powers, "Performing the News: Identity, Authority, and the Myth of Neutrality" (Rutgers UP, 2024)

November 6, 2024

Performing the News

Elia Powers
Hosted by Cory Barker

Elia Powers' book Performing the News: Identity, Authority, and the Myth of Neutrality (Rutgers UP, 2024) explores how journalists from historically m…

David Rowell, "The Endless Refrain: Memory, Nostalgia, and the Threat to New Music" (Melville House, 2024)

November 6, 2024

The Endless Refrain

David Rowell
Hosted by Bradley Morgan

A veteran music journalist argues that the rise of music streaming and the consolidation of digital platforms is decimating the musical landscape, wit…

Hannah Weaver, "Experimental Histories: Interpolation and the Medieval British Past" (Cornell UP, 2024)

November 4, 2024

Experimental Histories

Hannah Weaver
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In Experimental Histories: Interpolation and the Medieval British Past (Cornell University Press, 2024), Dr. Hannah Weaver examines the mediaeval prac…

Ben Yagoda, "Gobsmacked!: The British Invasion of American English" (Princeton UP, 2024)

November 1, 2024

Gobsmacked!

Ben Yagoda
Hosted by Mark Klobas

The British love to complain that words and phrases imported from America--from French fries to Awesome, man!--are destroying the English language. Bu…

Angel Daniel Matos, "The Reparative Impulse of Queer Young Adult Literature" (Routledge, 2024)

November 1, 2024

The Reparative Impulse of Queer Young Adult Literature

Angel Daniel Matos
Hosted by Pete Kunze

The Reparative Impulse of Queer Young Adult Literature (Routledge, 2024) is a provocative meditation on emotion, mood, history, and futurism in the cr…

Jamie Hakim, "Digital Intimacies: Queer Men and Smartphones in Times of Crisis" (Bloomsbury, 2024)

October 31, 2024

Digital Intimacies

Jamie Hakim, James Cummings, and Ingrid Young
Hosted by Qing Shen

Queer men's cultures of intimacy have long been sites of fierce contestation. Indeed, debates have raged for decades over issues such as monogamy, saf…

Judging Refugees: Narrative and Oral Testimony in Refugee Status Determination

October 30, 2024

Judging Refugees

Anthea Vogl

Dr Laura Smith-Khan speaks with Dr Anthea Vogl about her new book, Judging Refugees: Narrative and Oral Testimony in Refugee Status Determination (Cam…

Greg Epstein, "Tech Agnostic: How Technology Became the World's Most Powerful Religion, and Why It Desperately Needs a Reformation" (MIT Press, 2024)

October 30, 2024

Tech Agnostic

Greg Epstein
Hosted by Meghan Cochran

Technology has surpassed religion as the central focus of our lives, from our dependence on smartphones to the way that tech has infused almost every …

Jia Tan, "Digital Masquerade: Feminist Rights and Queer Media in China" (NYU Press, 2023)

October 29, 2024

Digital Masquerade

Jia Tan
Hosted by Qing Shen

Digital Masquerade: Feminist Rights and Queer Media in China (NYU Press, 2023) offers a trenchant and singular analysis of the convergence of digital …

Andrew deWaard, "Derivative Media: How Wall Street Devours Culture" (U California Press, 2024)

October 27, 2024

Derivative Media

Andrew deWaard
Hosted by Pete Kunze

Sequels, reboots, franchises, and songs that remake old songs—does it feel like everything new in popular culture is just derivative of something old?…

Landon Palmer, "Rock Star/Movie Star: Power and Performance in Cinematic Rock Stardom" (Oxford UP, 2020)

October 26, 2024

Rock Star/Movie Star

Landon Palmer
Hosted by Pete Kunze

During the mid-1950s, when Hollywood found itself struggling to compete within an expanding entertainment media landscape, certain producers and studi…

Megan Steigerwald Ille, "Opera for Everyone: The Industry's Experiments with American Opera in the Digital Age" (U Michigan Press, 2024)

October 25, 2024

Opera for Everyone

Megan Steigerwald Ille
Hosted by Kristen Turner

Every year a relatively small number of canonic operas are produced around the world. Many companies shy away from new works, afraid of alienating a p…