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Academic Life April 22, 2021

An Inside Look at the American Historical Association

An Interview with Laura Ansley

Laura Ansley

Hosted by Christina Gessler
Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts …

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History April 22, 2021

Lenin Lives!

Reimagining the Russian Revolution 1917-2017

Philip Cunliffe

Hosted by Michael Vann
While a number of books came out on the centenary of the Russian Revolution, few seriously considered how the 20th century would have unfolded differently if the violent forces of …
East Asian Studies April 22, 2021

Building a Religious Empire

Tibetan Buddhism, Bureaucracy, and the Rise of the Gelukpa

Brenton Sullivan

Hosted by Daigengna Duoer
How did Geluk Buddhism become the most widespread school of Tibetan Buddhism in Inner Asia and beyond? In Building a Religious Empire: Tibetan Buddhism, Bureaucracy, and the Rise of the Gelukpa (University …
African American Studies April 22, 2021

At the Threshold of Liberty

Women, Slavery, and Shifting Identities in Washington, D.C.

Tamika Y. Nunley

Hosted by Adam McNeil
The capital city of a nation founded on the premise of liberty, nineteenth-century Washington, D.C., was both an entrepot of urban slavery and the target of abolitionist ferment. The growing …
Middle Eastern Studies April 21, 2021

When We Were Arabs

A Jewish Family’s Forgotten History

Massoud Hayoun

Hosted by Nadirah Mansour
When We Were Arabs: A Jewish Family’s Forgotten History (New Press, 2019) is part-memoir, part-history of Jewish Arabs. We follow Massoud Hayoun as he documents his family’s history, their place …
Sex Work, Sexualities and Sex April 21, 2021

Why We Lost the Sex Wars

Sexual Freedom in the #MeToo Era

Lorna N. Bracewell

Hosted by Rachel Stuart
Since the historic #MeToo movement materialized in 2017, innumerable survivors of sexual assault and misconduct have broken their silence and called out their abusers publicly--from well-known celebrities to politicians and …
Gender and Sexuality April 21, 2021

Sadomasochism and the BDSM Community in the United States

Kinky People Unite

Stephen K. Stein

Hosted by Isabel Machado
Sadomasochism and the BDSM Community in the United States: Kinky People Unite (Routledge, 2021) chronicles the development of sadomasochistic sexuality and its communities in the United States from the post-war period …
History April 21, 2021

England in the Age of Austen

Jeremy Black

Hosted by Crawford Gribben
Jeremy Black's new book on England in the Age of Austen, just published by Indiana University Press (2021), will be a treat for anyone who loves Jane - and who does …
Secularism April 20, 2021

Speak of the Devil

How the Satanic Temple Is Changing the Way We Talk about Religion

Joseph P. Laycock

Hosted by Carrie Lynn Evans
In 2013, when the state of Oklahoma erected a statue of the Ten Commandments on the grounds of the state capitol, a group calling themselves The Satanic Temple applied to …
Finance April 20, 2021

Probable Justice

Rethinking the Politics of Risk

Rachel Z. Friedman

Hosted by Daniel Peris
The emergence of individual and commercial insurance in Early Modern Europe required an understanding of probability. In Probable Justice: Rethinking the Politics of Risk (U Chicago Press, 2020), Rachel Friedman highlights the …
Biography April 20, 2021

The Girl Who Dared to Defy

Jane Street and the Rebel Maids of Denver

Jane Little Botkin

Hosted by Mark Klobas
In 1916, hundreds of local female household workers attempted to establish a union in Denver. The organizer behind the effort was Jane Street, a remarkable 29-year-old woman who, as Jane …
Latin American Studies April 19, 2021

Fugitive Freedom

The Improbable Lives of Two Impostors in Late Colonial Mexico

William B. Taylor

Hosted by Daniela Gutierrez
Though poverty and vagrancy as social phenomena greatly preoccupied authorities of Colonial Mexico, the social and individual lives of vagabonds and strangers of Spanish American early modernity remain elusive to the historian. In his …
Music April 19, 2021

Chronicling Stankonia

The Rise of the Hip-Hop South

Regina N. Bradley

Hosted by Emily Ruth Allen
Chronicling Stankonia: The Rise of the Hip-Hop South (University of North Carolina Press, 2021) pulses with the beats of a new American South, probing the ways music, literature, and film have remixed …
African Studies April 19, 2021

National Liberation in Postcolonial Southern Africa

A Historical Ethnography of SWAPO's Exile Camps

Christian A. Williams

Hosted by Esperanza Brizuela-Garcia
In National Liberation in Postcolonial Southern Africa: A Historical Ethnography of SWAPO’s Exile Camps (Cambridge University Press, 2015), Christian Williams tells the stories of the many exiles that lived in camps established by the …
History April 19, 2021

A New Christian Identity

Christian Science Origins and Experience in American Culture

Amy B. Voorhees

Hosted by Lane Davis
In A New Christian Identity: Christian Science Origins and Experience in American Culture (University of North Carolina Press, 2021), Amy B. Voorhees contextualizes this American religious movement and argues that Christian Science …
Latino Studies April 16, 2021

Abstract Barrios

The Crises of Latinx Visibility in Cities

Johana Londoño

Hosted by Jonathan Cortez
The rapid gentrification of Black and brown neighborhoods in urban areas by predominantly upper-class white and other white-adjacent peoples is largely facilitated by urban redevelopment and revitalization projects. These projects …
Critical Theory April 16, 2021

Redlining Culture

A Data History of Racial Inequality and Postwar Fiction

Richard Jean So

Hosted by Dave O'Brien
What is the story of race in American fiction? In Redlining Culture: A Data History of Racial Inequality and Postwar Fiction (Columbia University Press, 2020), Richard Jean So, an assistant professor of …
Russian and Eurasian Studies April 16, 2021

Unity in Faith?

Edinoverie, Russian Orthodoxy, and Old Belief, 1800-1918

James White

Hosted by Aaron Weinacht
Dr. James White’s new book, Unity in Faith?: Edinoverie, Russian Orthodoxy, and Old Belief, 1800-1918 (Indiana University Press, 2020) discusses the Russian Orthodox/Old Believer schism. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries …
Architecture April 16, 2021

Gardens at the Frontier

New Methodological Perspectives on Garden History and Designed Landscapes

James Beattie

Hosted by Bryan Toepfer
Gardens at the Frontier: New Methodological Perspectives on Garden History and Designed Landscapes (Routledge, 2019) addresses broad issues of interest to architectural historians, environmental historians, garden writers, geographers, and other …
History April 16, 2021

The Golden Age of the American Essay

1945-1970

Phillip Lopate

Hosted by Zachary McCulley
The three decades that followed World War II were an exceptionally fertile period for American essays. The explosion of journals and magazines, the rise of public intellectuals, and breakthroughs in …