New Books Network
Critical Theory
Literary Studies January 13, 2022

Places of Mind

A Life of Edward Said

Timothy Brennan

Hosted by Bryant Scott
Timothy Brennan is Professor of Comparative Literature, Cultural Studies, and English at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of several seminal books in literary studies, including Borrowed Light …

Critical Theory

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Interviews with scholars of critical theory about their new books.

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 …
Critical Theory January 11, 2022

Reimagining the Creative Industries

Youth Creative Work, Communities of Care

Miranda Campbell

Hosted by Dave O'Brien
How can we make creative industries fair and inclusive? In Reimagining the Creative Industries: Youth Creative Work, Communities of Care (Routledge, 2021), Miranda Campbell, an associate professor in the School …
Economic and Business History January 10, 2022

Nature′s Evil

A Cultural History of Natural Resources

Alexander Etkind

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
In Nature′s Evil: A Cultural History of Natural Resources (Polity Press, 2021), Alexander Etkind views the history of humankind through the prism of natural resources – how we acquire them, use …
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 …
Art January 6, 2022

The Play in the System

The Art of Parasitical Resistance

Anna Watkins Fisher

Hosted by Pierre d'Alancaisez
What does artistic resistance look like in the twenty-first century, when disruption and dissent have been co-opted and commodified in ways that reinforce dominant systems? In The Play in the …
Recall This Book January 6, 2022

Jennifer Egan with Ivan Kreilkamp

Fiction as Streaming, Genre as Portal (Novel Dialogue crossover, JP)

Jennifer Egan and Ivan Kreilkamp

Hosted by Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz
This week on Recall this Book, another delightful crossover episode from our sister podcast Novel Dialogue, which puts scholars and writers together to discuss the making of novels and what …
Literary Studies January 4, 2022

Strategic Occidentalism

On Mexican Fiction, the Neoliberal Book Market, and the Question of World Literature

Ignacio M. Sanchez Prado

Hosted by Bryant Scott
Ignacio M. Sánchez Prado is Professor of Spanish, Latin American Studies, and Film and Media Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. His areas of research include Latin American intellectual …
Latin American Studies January 4, 2022

Philosophy and Criticism in Latin America

From Mariátegui to Sloterdijk

Mabel Moraña

Hosted by Daniela Gutierrez Flores
Mabel Moraña's book Philosophy and Criticism in Latin America: From Mariátegui to Sloterdijk (Cambria Press, 2020) explores the complex relationships between the fields of philosophy and criticism, focusing on methodological, ideological …
Psychoanalysis December 27, 2021

The Culture-Breast in Psychoanalysis

Cultural Experiences and the Clinic

Noreen Giffney

Hosted by Philip Lance
The Culture-Breast in Psychoanalysis: Cultural Experiences and the Clinic (Routledge, 2021) introduces "the culture-breast," a new clinical concept, to explore the central importance played by cultural objects in the psychical …
Literary Studies December 27, 2021

World Literature Decentered

Beyond the 'West' Through Turkey, Mexico and Bengal

Ian Almond

Hosted by Bryant Scott
Ian Almond is Professor of World Literature at Georgetown University in Qatar, and author of six books, including Two Faiths, One Banner: When Muslims Marched with Christians across Europe’s Battlegrounds …
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 …
Politics & Polemics December 20, 2021

Intolerable

Writings from Michel Foucault and the Prisons Information Group (1970-1980)

Edited by Kevin Thompson and Perry Zurn

Hosted by Kirk Meighoo
Intolerable: Writings from Michel Foucault and the Prisons Information Group (1970-1980) (University of Minnesota Press, 2021), edited by Kevin Thompson and Perry Zurn, is a groundbreaking collection of writings by Michel Foucault …
Critical Theory December 17, 2021

De-Centering Queer Theory

Communist Sexuality in the Flow During and After the Cold War

Bogdan Popa

Hosted by Louisa Hann
Bogdan Popa’s De-Centering Queer Theory: Communist Sexuality in the Flow During and After the Cold War (Manchester University Press, 2021) seeks to reorient queer theory to a different conception of …
Novel Dialogue December 16, 2021

The Novel of Revolutionary Ideas

Viet Thanh Nguyen and Colleen Lye

Viet Thanh Nguyen and Colleen Lye

Hosted by Aarthi Vadde and John Plotz
Viet Thanh Nguyen, author of the Pulitzer Prize winning The Sympathizer and its sequel The Committed, joins esteemed scholar Colleen Lye of UC-Berkeley for a candid discussion about the Asian-American …
Critical Theory December 15, 2021

The Trouble with Passion

How Searching for Fulfillment at Work Fosters Inequality

Erin Cech

Hosted by Dave O'Brien
Should we love work? In The Trouble with Passion: How Searching for Fulfillment at Work Fosters Inequality (U California Press, 2021), Erin Cech, an Associate Professor of Sociology at the …
Environmental Studies December 10, 2021

Reclaiming Romanticism

Towards an Ecopoetics of Decolonisation

Kate Rigby

Hosted by Eyad Houssami
The earliest environmental criticism took its inspiration from the Romantic poets and their immersion in the natural world. Today the “romanticising” of nature has come to be viewed with suspicion …
Science, Technology, and Society December 9, 2021

Edges of Exposure

Toxicology and the Problem of Capacity in Postcolonial Senegal

Noémi Tousignant

Hosted by Laura Stark
What is “capacity”? In science research and health interventions, it typically refers to the relative availability of equipment, infrastructure, personnel, and skills needed to get a job done. Noémi Tousignant’s …
Islamic Studies December 3, 2021

Suspect Communities

Anti-Muslim Racism and the Domestic War on Terror

Nicole Nguyen

Hosted by Kristian Petersen
Suspect Communities: Anti-Muslim Racism and the Domestic War on Terror (University of Minnesota Press, 2019) is a powerful reassessment of the U.S. government’s “countering violent extremism” (CVE) program that has …
Philosophy January 10, 2022

Creolizing the Nation

Kris F. Sealey

Hosted by Sarah Tyson
Can the concept of the nation be a resource for liberatory political struggle? Are the dangers of nationalism simply too great? In Creolizing the Nation (Northwestern UP, 2020), Kris F …