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Critical Theory
High Theory April 1, 2022

Welcome to High Theory!

Kim Adams and Soronik Bosu

Hosted by Kim Adams and Saronik Bosu
Welcome to High Theory! High Theory is a podcast in which we get high on the substance of theory. And we ask the three standard questions, to each other, and …

Critical Theory

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Interviews with scholars of critical theory about their new books.

Critical Theory March 21, 2023

The Politics of Precarity

Spaces of Extractivism, Violence, and Suffering

Gediminas Lesutis

Hosted by Shraddha Chatterjee
Based on critical theory and ethnographic research, Gediminas Lesutis' book The Politics of Precarity: Spaces of Extractivism, Violence, and Suffering (Routledge, 2021) explores how intensifying geographies of extractive capitalism shape human …
Critical Theory March 21, 2023

Combat Trauma

Imaginaries of War and Citizenship in Post-9/11 America

Nadia Abu El-Haj

Hosted by Stephen Dozeman
One of the most recognizable tropes in American society in the past few decades is the scarred war veteran, returning from foreign lands with wounds both visible and invisible …
Policing, Incarceration, and Reform March 21, 2023

Injustice, Inc.

How America's Justice System Commodifies Children and the Poor

Daniel L. Hatcher

Hosted by Deidre Tyler
Injustice, Inc.: How America's Justice System Commodifies Children and the Poor (U California Press, 2023) exposes the ways in which justice systems exploit America's history of racial and economic inequality to …
Jewish Studies March 21, 2023

Jewish Antifascism and the False Promise of Settler Colonialism

Max Kaiser

Hosted by Miriam Schulz
Max Kaiser's book Jewish Antifascism and the False Promise of Settler Colonialism (Palgrave MacMillan, 2022) takes a timely look at histories of radical Jewish movements, their modes of Holocaust memorialisation, and …
Journalism March 20, 2023

Borderland

Decolonizing the Words of War

Chrisanthi Giotis

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
Every two seconds a person is displaced, caught in one of the more than 40 active conflicts around the world that show no sign of ending. Since 1994, there has …
Art March 19, 2023

Autonomy

The Social Ontology of Art under Capitalism

Nicholas Brown

Hosted by Kaveh Rafie
In Autonomy: The Social Ontology of Art under Capitalism (Duke University Press, 2019), Nicholas Brown offers a fresh perspective on aesthetic autonomy and its political value, one of the great debates of the twentieth century …
Politics & Polemics March 18, 2023

The Struggle for a Decent Politics

On "Liberal" as an Adjective

Michael Walzer

Hosted by Keith Krueger
The national purpose of the American state is to realize and then sustain the democracy and the equality that was the promise of our founding. I believe that requires perennial …
African American Studies March 17, 2023

It's Always Been Ours

Rewriting the Story of Black Women's Bodies

Jessica Wilson

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
In It's Always Been Ours: Rewriting the Story of Black Women's Bodies (Hachette Go, 2023) eating disorder specialist and storyteller Jessica Wilson challenges us to rethink what having a "good" …
Gender Studies March 17, 2023

Between Banat

Queer Arab Critique and Transnational Arab Archives

Mejdulene Bernard Shomali

Hosted by Fulya Pinar
In Between Banat: Queer Arab Critique and Transnational Arab Archives (Duke UP, 2023), Mejdulene Bernard Shomali examines homoeroticism and non-normative sexualities between Arab women in transnational Arab literature, art, and …
Think About It March 17, 2023

Vivian Gornick on Emma Goldman

Book Talk 58

Vivian Gornick

Hosted by Uli Baer
What Is to Be Done? In her luminous biography Emma Goldman: Revolution as a Way of Life (Yale UP, 2011), Vivian Gornick brings us back to this question, originally made …
Critical Theory March 16, 2023

Playing Oppression

The Legacy of Conquest and Empire in Colonialist Board Games

Mary Flanagan and Mikael Jakobsson

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
Playing Oppression: The Legacy of Conquest and Empire in Colonialist Board Games (MIT Press, 2023) by Dr. Mary Flanagan & Dr. Mikael Jakobsson is a striking analysis of popular board …
The Future of . . . with Owen Bennett-Jones March 13, 2023

The Future of Nonviolence

A Conversation with Julie M. Norman

Julie M. Norman

Hosted by Owen Bennett-Jones
Ever since Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, non-violent resistance has held a special place in the public imagination. What can be better after all than forcing political change without …
Politics & Polemics March 12, 2023

The Covid Consensus

The Global Assault on Democracy and the Poor—A Critique from the Left

Toby Green and Thomas Fazi

Hosted by Pierre d'Alancaisez
During the first months of the pandemic, governments worldwide agreed that ‘following the science’ with hard lockdowns and vaccine mandates was the best way to preserve life. But evidence is …
Music March 12, 2023

Dave Brubeck and the Performance of Whiteness

Kelsey Klotz

Hosted by Nathan Smith
How can we—jazz fans, musicians, writers, and historians—understand the legacy and impact of a musician like Dave Brubeck? It is undeniable that Brubeck leveraged his fame as a jazz musician …
Scholarly Communication March 12, 2023

The Gentrification of the Internet

How to Reclaim Our Digital Freedom

Jessa Lingel

Hosted by Jen Hoyer
The internet has become a battleground. Although it was unlikely to live up to the hype and hopes of the 1990s, only the most skeptical cynics could have predicted the …
Academic Life March 9, 2023

Can we Engage in Public Scholarship with Feminist and Accessible Communication?

A Discussion with Alex D. Ketchum

Alex D. Ketchum

Hosted by Christina Gessler
Today’s book is: Engage in Public Scholarship: A Guidebook on Feminist and Accessible Communication, by Dr. Alex D. Ketchum. Public scholarship—sharing research with audiences outside of academic settings—has become increasingly …
Why We Argue March 9, 2023

Seeing Truth in the Lab

A Conversation with Professor Max Liboiron on Taking Control and Leveraging Science for Justice

Max Liboiron

Hosted by Alexis Boylan
Max Liboiron founder of Environmental Action Research (CLEAR), a feminist, anti-colonial laboratory talks about making better science and how they aren’t interested in dismantling the masters house (because who cares …
Public Policy March 5, 2023

The Rise of a New Left

How Young Radicals Are Shaping the Future of American Politics

Raina Lipsitz

Hosted by Stephen Pimpare
The mushrooming rolls of the Democratic Socialists of America, Marxist explainers in Teen Vogue, and the outsized impact of the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, all herald …
Critical Theory March 5, 2023

The Racial Code

Tales of Resistance and Survival

Nicola Rollock

Hosted by Dave O'Brien
Why do racial inequalities persist? In The Racial Code: Tales of Resistance and Survival (Penguin, 2023), Nicola Rollock, a Professor of Social Policy & Race at King’s College London, examines the often …