Urban Studies

Urban Studies

episodes

Interviews with scholars of urban studies about their new books

Megan Steigerwald Ille, "Opera for Everyone: The Industry's Experiments with American Opera in the Digital Age" (U Michigan Press, 2024)

October 25, 2024

Opera for Everyone

Megan Steigerwald Ille
Hosted by Kristen Turner

Every year a relatively small number of canonic operas are produced around the world. Many companies shy away from new works, afraid of alienating a p…

Adam Greenfield, "Lifehouse: Taking Care of Ourselves in a World on Fire" (Verso, 2024)

October 22, 2024

Lifehouse

Adam Greenfield
Hosted by Nick Pozek

In Lifehouse: Taking Care of Ourselves in a World on Fire (Verso, 2024), Adam Greenfield presents a compelling vision for collective resilience in an …

René Boer, "Smooth City: Against Urban Perfection, Towards Collective Alternatives" (Valiz, 2023)

October 22, 2024

Smooth City

René Boer
Hosted by Timi Koyejo

In cities across the world, a new urban condition is spreading rapidly: an ever-increasing push toward efficiency, sanitization, surveillance and the …

Amanda Shoaf Vincent, "Constructing Gardens, Cultivating the City: Paris's New Parks, 1977-1995" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2023)

October 18, 2024

Constructing Gardens, Cultivating the City

Amanda Shoaf Vincent
Hosted by Sarah Miles

In the space of about two decades, five major parks were proposed, designed, and created in Paris. Some emerged from competitions between professional…

Meghana Joshi, "Children are Everywhere: Conspicuous Reproduction and Childlessness in Reunified Berlin" (Berghahn, 2024)

October 15, 2024

Children are Everywhere

Meghana Joshi
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Children are Everywhere: Conspicuous Reproduction and Childlessness in Reunified Berlin (Berghahn Books, 2024) by Dr. Meghana Joshi engages with how d…

Sharad Chari, "Apartheid Remains" (Duke UP, 2024)

October 13, 2024

Apartheid Remains

Sharad Chari
Hosted by Geoffrey Gordon

Over the course of the 20th century, the South African state attempted to construct a “White Man’s Country” on the African continent using the biopoli…

Wes Marshall, "Killed by a Traffic Engineer: Shattering the Delusion That Science Underlies Our Transportation System" (Island Press, 2024)

October 12, 2024

Killed by a Traffic Engineer

Wes Marshall
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In the US we are nearing four million road deaths since we began counting them in 1899. The numbers are getting worse in recent years, yet we continue…

Kanupriya Dhingra, "Old Delhi's Parallel Book Bazaar" (Cambridge UP, 2024)

October 11, 2024

Old Delhi's Parallel Book Bazaar

Kanupriya Dhingra

Old Delhi's Parallel Book Bazaar (Cambridge UP, 2024) looks at Old Delhi's Daryaganj Sunday Book Market, popularly known as Daryaganj Sunday Patri Kit…

The Ideology of Democratic Athens

October 8, 2024

The Ideology of Democratic Athens

Matteo Barbato

We are Clavis Aurea: a dynamic team constantly looking for ways to make the academic publishing industry grow and to promote groundbreaking academic p…

Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani, "The Cities We Need: Essential Stories of Everyday Places" (MIT Press, 2024)

October 2, 2024

The Cities We Need

Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani
Hosted by Caleb Zakarin

An expressive book of prose and photographs that reveals the powerful ways our everyday places support our shared belonging. Where would you take some…

Lynne B. Sagalyn, "Times Square Remade: The Dynamics of Urban Change" (MIT Press, 2023)

September 30, 2024

Times Square Remade

Lynne B. Sagalyn
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

What is it about Times Square that has inspired such attention for well over a century? And how is it that, despite its many changes of character, the…

Jonathan Maskit, "Bicycle" (Bloomsbury, 2023)

September 29, 2024

Bicycle

Jonathan Maskit
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

These days the bicycle often appears as an interloper in a world constructed for cars. An almost miraculous 19th-century contraption, the bicycle prom…

Max Hirsh and Till Mostowlansky, "Infrastructure and the Remaking of Asia" (U Hawaii Press, 2022)

September 24, 2024

Infrastructure and the Remaking of Asia

Max Hirsh and Till Mostowlansky
Hosted by Yadong Li

In the twenty-first century, infrastructure has undergone a seismic shift from West to East. Once concentrated in Europe and North America, global inf…

Amir Alexander, "Liberty's Grid: A Founding Father, a Mathematical Dreamland, and the Shaping of America" (U Chicago Press, 2024)

September 21, 2024

Liberty's Grid

Amir Alexander
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Seen from an airplane, much of the United States appears to be a gridded land of startling uniformity. Perpendicular streets and rectangular fields, a…

Beng Huat Chua, "Public Subsidy, Private Accumulation: The Political Economy of Singapore's Public Housing" (NUS Press, 2024)

September 19, 2024

Public Subsidy, Private Accumulation

Beng Huat Chua
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

The achievement of Singapore’s national public housing program is impressive by any standard. Within a year of its first election victory in 1959, the…

Azra Hromadžić, "Riverine Citizenship: A Bosnian City in Love with the River" (CEU Press, 2024)

September 18, 2024

Riverine Citizenship

Azra Hromadžić
Hosted by CEU Press

In this episode of the CEU Press Podcast, host Andrea Talabér sat down with Azra Hromadžić (Syracuse University) to talk about her new book with CEU P…

Raquel Velho on Disability, Infrastructure, and London's Public Transport System

September 9, 2024

Disability, Infrastructure, and London's Public Transport System

Raquel Velho
Hosted by Lee Vinsel

Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, talks to Raquel Velho, Associate Professor of Science and Technology Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a…

Yiu Fai Chow et al., "It’s My Party: Tat Ming Pair and the Postcolonial Politics of Popular Music in Hong Kong" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024)

September 7, 2024

It’s My Party

Yiu Fai Chow, Jeroen de Kloet, and Leonie Schmidt
Hosted by Qing Shen

It’s My Party: Tat Ming Pair and the Postcolonial Politics of Popular Music in Hong Kong (Palgrave Macmillan 2024) is unique in focusing on just one b…

Andy Clarno et al., "Imperial Policing: Weaponized Data in Carceral Chicago" (U Minnesota Press, 2024)

September 3, 2024

Imperial Policing

Andy Clarno, Janaé Bonsu-Love, Enrique Alvear Moreno, Lydia Dana, Michael de Anda Muñiz, Ila Ravichandran, Haley Volpintesta
Hosted by Timi Koyejo

Chicago is a city with extreme concentrations of racialized poverty and inequity, one that relies on an extensive network of repressive agencies to po…

Jonathan Shapiro Anjaria, "Mumbai on Two Wheels: Cycling, Urban Space, and Sustainable Mobility" (U Washington Press, 2024)

August 27, 2024

Mumbai on Two Wheels

Jonathan Shapiro Anjaria
Hosted by Sneha Annavarapu

Mumbai is not commonly seen as a bike-friendly city because of its dense traffic and the absence of bicycle lanes. Yet the city supports rapidly expan…