New Books Network Podcast

Urban Studies December 2, 2023

Well-Intentioned Whiteness

Green Urban Development and Black Resistance in Kansas City

Chhaya Kolavalli

Hosted by Deidre Tyler

Chhaya Kolavalli's book Well-Intentioned Whiteness: Green Urban Development and Black Resistance in Kansas City (U Georgia Press, 2023) documents how whiteness can take up space in U.S. cities and policies through …

Science, Technology, and Society December 1, 2023

Transparency

The Material History of an Idea

Daniel Jütte

Hosted by Miranda Melcher

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Transparency is a mantra of our day. It is key to the Western understanding of a liberal society. We expect transparency from, for instance, political institutions, corporations, and the media …

Technology November 26, 2023

Lifelines of Our Society

A Global History of Infrastructure

Dirk Van Laak

Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Infrastructure is essential to defining how the public functions, yet there is little public knowledge regarding why and how it became today's strongest global force over government and individual lives …

Digital Humanities November 25, 2023

Voidopolis

Kat Mustatea

Hosted by Nathan Moore

Shortlisted for the 2023 Lumen Prize, Kat Mustatea's Voidopolis (MIT Press, 2023) is a hybrid digital artistic and literary project in the form of an augmented reality book, which retells Dante's …

Sociology November 20, 2023

Gentrification and Diversity

Rebranding Milan's Chinatown

Lidia Katia C. Manzo

Hosted by Anna Zhelnina

Lidia Katia C. Manzo's book Gentrification and Diversity: Rebranding Milan's Chinatown (Springer, 2023) examines lived experiences of making, inhabiting and appropriating space, in relation to the upscale commercial gentrification of the Milan …

The Future of . . . with Owen Bennett-Jones November 20, 2023

The Future of the Rural-Urban Divide

A Discussion with Nicholas F. Jacobs and Daniel M. Shea

Nicholas F. Jacobs and Daniel M. Shea

Hosted by Owen Bennett-Jones

The town/countryside split has always been a feature of democratic Western politics and has impacted party choice. The advent of rust belts may have added a layer of complexity and …

Mobilities and Methods November 19, 2023

Moving Words

Literature, Memory, and Migration in Berlin

Andrew Brandel

Hosted by Alize Arıcan

In the decades since the fall of the Berlin Wall, Berlin has re-emerged as a global city in large part thanks to its reputation as a literary city – a …

German Studies November 18, 2023

German Blood, Slavic Soil

How Nazi Königsberg Became Soviet Kaliningrad

Nicole Eaton

Hosted by Eric Grube

German Blood, Slavic Soil: How Nazi Königsberg Became Soviet Kaliningrad (Cornell UP, 2023) reveals how Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, twentieth-century Europe's two most violent revolutionary regimes, transformed a single …

Technology November 17, 2023

Danger Sound Klaxon!

The Horn That Changed History

Matthew F. Jordan

Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Danger Sound Klaxon!:The Horn That Changed History (University of Virginia Press, 2023) reveals the untold story of the Klaxon automobile horn, one of the first great electrical consumer technologies of …

Recall This Book November 16, 2023

Laurence Ralph Reckons With Police Violence (EF, JP)

Laurence Ralph

Hosted by Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz

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In the third episode of our Global Policing series, Elizabeth and John spoke back in 2020 with anthropologist Laurence Ralph about The Torture Letters: Reckoning with Police Violence (U Chicago Press …

Irish Studies November 11, 2023

Power, Politics and Territory in the ‘New Northern Ireland’

Girdwood Barracks and the Story of the Peace Process

Elizabeth DeYoung

Hosted by Aidan Beatty

In the wake of the Good Friday Agreement, the redevelopment of the former Girdwood Army Barracks in North Belfast was hailed as a ‘symbol of hope’ for Northern Ireland. It …

Sociology November 7, 2023

Waste and the City

The Crisis of Sanitation and the Right to Citylife

Colin McFarlane

Hosted by Michael Johnston

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In an age of pandemics the relationship between the health of the city and good sanitation has never been more important. Colin McFarlane, through Waste and the City: The Crisis of …

Geography November 6, 2023

Housing and Life Course Dynamics

Changing Lives, Places and Inequalities

Rory Coulter

Hosted by Aleem Mahabir

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Deepening inequalities and wider processes of demographic, economic, and social change are altering how people across the Global North move between homes and neighbourhoods over the lifespan. Housing and Life …

Popular Culture November 5, 2023

A Curious Mix of People

The Underground Scene of '90s Austin

Greg Beets and Richard Whymark

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan

Ask anyone outside of Austin what they know about the city and chances are the first thing they'll mention is the music. While the Armadillo Era has been well-chronicled, there …

Latin American Studies November 3, 2023

Keep the Bones Alive

Missing People and the Search for Life in Brazil

Graham Denyer Willis

Hosted by Ari Barbalat

Every year at least 20,000 people go missing in São Paulo, Brazil. Many will be found, sometimes in mundane mass graves, but thousands will not. Keep the Bones Alive: Missing …

Irish Studies October 31, 2023

Dublin

Mapping the City

Joseph Brady and Paul Ferguson

Hosted by Miranda Melcher

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Maps are essential tools in finding our way around, but they also tell stories and are great depositories of information. Until the twentieth century and the arrival of aerial images …

Urban Studies October 30, 2023

Master Plans and Encroachments

The Architecture of Informality in Islamabad

Faiza Moatasim

Hosted by Tayeba Batool

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Among urban designers and municipal officials, the term encroachment is defined as a deviation from the official master plan. But in cities today, such informal modifications to the urban fabric …

Sociology October 29, 2023

Urban Specters

The Everyday Harms of Racial Capitalism

Sarah Mayorga

Hosted by Richard Ocejo

Racial capitalism, invisible but threaded throughout the world, shapes our lives. Focusing on the experiences of white, Black, and Latinx residents of Cincinnati, Sarah Mayorga argues that residents' interpretations of their …

Policing, Incarceration, and Reform October 21, 2023

Police and the Empire City

Race and the Origins of Modern Policing in New York

Matthew Guariglia

Hosted by Jeffrey Lamson

During the years between the Civil War and World War II, police in New York City struggled with how to control a diverse metropolis. In Police and the Empire City …

Environmental Studies October 20, 2023

Over the Seawall

Tsunamis, Cyclones, Drought, and the Delusion of Controlling Nature

Stephen Robert Miller

Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In March 2011, people in a coastal Japanese city stood atop a seawall watching the approach of the tsunami that would kill them. They believed—naively—that the huge concrete barrier would …