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Geography
Geography September 22, 2023

Beyond Straw Men

Plastic Pollution and Networked Cultures of Care

Phaedra C. Pezzullo

Hosted by Stentor Danielson
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Addressing plastics can feel overwhelming. Guilt, shame, anger, hurt, fear, dismissiveness, and despair abound. Beyond Straw Men: Plastic Pollution and Networked Cultures of Care (U California Press, 2023) moves beyond …

Geography

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Interviews with geographers about their new books.

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Indian Ocean World September 16, 2023

A Book of Waves

Stefan Helmreich

Hosted by Ahmed Almaazmi
In A Book of Waves (Duke UP, 2023), Stefan Helmreich examines ocean waves as forms of media that carry ecological, geopolitical, and climatological news about our planet. Drawing on ethnographic …
Islamic Studies September 15, 2023

Bosnian Hajj Literature

Multiple Paths to the Holy

Dženita Karić

Hosted by Shobhana Xavier
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Dženita Karić's new book Bosnian Hajj Literature: Multiple Paths to the Holy (Edinburgh University Press, 2023) maps the diverse understandings of the hajj in relation to Islamic geography by Bosnian …
Peoples & Things September 11, 2023

Race and Electrical Infrastructure in the Jim Crow South

A Conversation with Conor Harrison

Conor Harrison

Hosted by Lee Vinsel
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Conor Harrison, Associate Professor of Geography and the School of Earth, Ocean, and Environment at the University of South Carolina, talks about his research into the racist development of electrical …
Geography September 10, 2023

Fighting to Breathe

Race, Toxicity, and the Rise of Youth Activism in Baltimore

Nicole Fabricant

Hosted by Stentor Danielson
Industrial toxic emissions on the South Baltimore Peninsula are among the highest in the nation. Because of the concentration of factories and other chemical industries in their neighborhoods, residents face …
Geography September 10, 2023

Invisible Lines

Boundaries and Belts That Define the World

Maxim Samson

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
Our world has innumerable boundaries, ranging from the obvious - like an ocean - to subtle differences in language or climate. Most of us cross invisible lines all the time …
Geography September 9, 2023

The Paradox of Svalbard

Climate Change and Globalisation in the Arctic

Zdenka Sokolickova

Hosted by Stentor Danielson
The town of Longyearbyen in the high Arctic is the world's northernmost settlement. Here, climate change is happening fast. It is clearly seen and sensed by the locals; with higher …
Public Policy September 1, 2023

The Injustice of Place

Uncovering the Legacy of Poverty in America

Kathryn J. Edin, H. Luke Shaefer, and Timothy J. Nelson

Hosted by Stephen Pimpare
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A sweeping and surprising new understanding of extreme poverty in America from the authors of the acclaimed $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America.  Three of the nation’s …
Indian Ocean World August 24, 2023

Seeking Bread and Fortune in Port Said

Labor Migration and the Making of the Suez Canal, 1859-1906

Lucia Carminati

Hosted by Ahmed Almaazmi
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Lucia Carminati's book Seeking Bread and Fortune in Port Said: Labor Migration and the Making of the Suez Canal, 1859-1906 (U California Press, 2023) probes migrant labor's role in shaping the …
Geography August 23, 2023

Corporate Capture of Development

Public-Private Partnerships, Women’s Human Rights, and Global Resistance

Corina Rodríguez Enríquez and Masaya Llavaneras Blanco

Hosted by Stentor Danielson
Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) have gained a renewed momentum in recent years, and have come to be viewed by governments and funders alike as a silver bullet for infrastructure development and …
South Asian Studies August 22, 2023

The Frontier in British India

Space, Science, and Power in the Nineteenth Century

Thomas Simpson

Hosted by Tiatemsu Longkumer
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In The Frontier in British India: Space, Science, and Power in the Nineteenth Century (Cambridge UP, 2021), Thomas Simpson provides an innovative account of how distinctive forms of colonial power and knowledge developed …
Nordic Asia Podcast August 11, 2023

Of Peninsulas and Archipelagos

The Landscape of Translation in Southeast Asia

Phrae Chittiphalangsri, Vicente L. Rafael, and Vicente L. Rafael

Hosted by Nordic Asia Podcast
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What does a map of Southeast Asia as a pegasus have to do with translation and Southeast Asia? How can we think of translation as anything other than a …
Latin American Studies August 6, 2023

Sewer of Progress

Corporations, Institutionalized Corruption, and the Struggle for the Santiago River

Cindy McCulligh

Hosted by Brad Wright
For almost two decades, the citizens of Western Mexico have called for a cleanup of the Santiago River, a water source so polluted it emanates an overwhelming acidic stench. Toxic …
World Affairs August 5, 2023

Emerging Global Cities

Origin, Structure, and Significance

Alejandro Portes and Ariel C. Armony

Hosted by Aleem Mahabir
Certain cities—most famously New York, London, and Tokyo—have been identified as “global cities,” whose function in the world economy transcends national borders. Without the same fanfare, formerly peripheral and secondary …
Geography July 31, 2023

Enclaves of Exception

Special Economic Zones and Extractive Practices in Nigeria

Omolade Adunbi

Hosted by Stentor Danielson
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How do we measure and truly grasp the sweeping social and environmental effects of an oil-based economy?  Focusing on the special economic zones resulting from China's trading partnership with Nigeria …
Food July 28, 2023

Appalachia on the Table

Representing Mountain Food and People

Erica Abrams Locklear

Hosted by Kelly Spivey
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When her mother passed along a cookbook made and assembled by her grandmother, Erica Abrams Locklear thought she knew what to expect. But rather than finding a homemade cookbook full …
African Studies July 19, 2023

In the Skin of the City

Spatial Transformation in Luanda

António Tomás

Hosted by Comfort Azubuko-Udah
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In his book, In the Skin of the City: Spatial Transformation in Luanda (Duke UP, 2022), António Tomás traces the history and transformation of Luanda, Angola, the nation’s capital as …
MIT Press Podcast July 13, 2023

Logistic Clusters

Delivering Value and Driving Growth

Yossi Sheffi

Hosted by MIT Press
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Why is Memphis home to hundreds of motor carrier terminals and distribution centers? Why does the tiny island-nation of Singapore handle a fifth of the world's maritime containers and half …
Japanese Studies July 11, 2023

Tōhoku Unbounded

Regional Identity and the Mobile Subject in Prewar Japan

Anne Giblin Gedacht

Hosted by Nathan Hopson
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Anne Giblin Gedacht’s Tōhoku Unbounded: Regional Identity and the Mobile Subject in Prewar Japan (Brill, 2022) centers cross-border mobility in its narrative of the history of Japan’s Tōhoku region in …
Geography July 8, 2023

Quinoa

Food Politics and Agrarian Life in the Andean Highlands

Linda J. Seligmann

Hosted by Stentor Danielson
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Quinoa's new status as a superfood has altered the economic fortunes of Quechua farmers in the Andean highlands. Linda J. Seligmann journeys to the Huanoquite region of Peru to track …