Urban Studies

Urban Studies

episodes

Interviews with scholars of urban studies about their new books

Ross Perlin, "Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues" (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2024)

April 27, 2024

Language City

Ross Perlin
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Half of all 7,000-plus human languages may disappear over the next century and—because many have never been recorded—when they’re gone, it will be for…

Adam J. Criblez, "Kings of the Garden: The New York Knicks and Their City" (Three Hills, 2024)

April 26, 2024

Kings of the Garden

Adam J. Criblez
Hosted by Paul Knepper

In Kings of the Garden: The New York Knicks and Their City (Three Hills, 2024), Adam J. Criblez traces the fall and rise of the New York Knicks betwee…

Philip Mark Plotch and Jen Nelles, "Mobilizing the Metropolis: How the Port Authority Built New York" (U Michigan Press, 2023)

April 23, 2024

Mobilizing the Metropolis

Philip Mark Plotch and Jen Nelles
Hosted by Robert Snyder

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is everywhere in the New York metropolitan area. Founded in 1921, its portfolio includes airports, marin…

Julie Peakman, "Libertine London: Sex in the Eighteenth-Century Metropolis" (Reaktion, 2024)

April 22, 2024

Libertine London

Julie Peakman
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Libertine London: Sex in the Eighteenth-Century Metropolis (Reaktion, 2024) by Dr. Julie Peakman investigates the sex lives of women from 1680 to 1830…

Michael Liu, "Forever Struggle: Activism, Identity, and Survival in Boston's Chinatown, 1880-2018" (U Massachusetts Press, 2020)

April 22, 2024

Forever Struggle

Michael Liu
Hosted by Shu Wan

Chinatown has a long history in Boston. Though little documented, it represents the city's most sustained neighborhood effort to survive during eras o…

Philipp Demgenski, "Seeking a Future for the Past: Space, Power, and Heritage in a Chinese City" (U Michigan Press, 2024)

April 22, 2024

Seeking a Future for the Past

Philipp Demgenski
Hosted by Yadong Li

In Seeking a Future for the Past: Space, Power, and Heritage in a Chinese City (U Michigan Press, 2024), Philipp Demgenski examines the complexities a…

Susan Partovi, "Renegade M.D.: A Doctor's Stories from the Streets" (Bookbaby, 2024)

April 21, 2024

Renegade M.D.

Susan Partovi
Hosted by Deidre Tyler

Dr. Susan Partovi first experienced poverty medicine volunteering at a dump site in Tijuana during high school. There, she recognized the need for all…

Jeremy Black, "Paris: A Short History" (Thames & Hudson, 2024)

April 20, 2024

Paris

Jeremy Black
Hosted by Charles Coutinho

Once described as "that metropolis of dress and debauchery" by the Scottish poet David Mallet, Paris has always had a reputation for a peculiar joie d…

On Fiorello La Guardia and Why He Still Matters: A Discussion with Author Terry Golway

April 19, 2024

On Fiorello La Guardia and Why He Still Matters

Terry Golway
Hosted by Paul Starobin

Has any American mayor ever made a greater stamp on the public consciousness than the Little Flower, Fiorello La Guardia, mayor of New York City from …

Bruce O'Neill, "Underground: Dreams and Degradations in Bucharest" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2024)

April 17, 2024

Underground

Bruce O'Neill
Hosted by Roland Clark

Bruce O'Neill's Underground: Dreams and Degradations in Bucharest (U Pennsylvania Press, 2024) gets to the bottom of the twenty-first-century city, li…

Seth D. Kaplan, "Fragile Neighborhoods: Repairing American Society, One Zip Code at a Time" (Little, Brown Spark, 2023)

April 14, 2024

Fragile Neighborhoods

Seth D. Kaplan
Hosted by Renee Garfinkel

The neighborhoods we live in impact our lives in so many ways: they determine who we know, what resources and opportunities we have access to, the qua…

Grazia Ting Deng, "Chinese Espresso: Contested Race and Convivial Space in Contemporary Italy" (Princeton UP, 2024)

April 14, 2024

Chinese Espresso

Grazia Ting Deng
Hosted by Shu Wan

Why and how local coffee bars in Italy--those distinctively Italian social and cultural spaces--have been increasingly managed by Chinese baristas sin…

Cristiana Strava, "Precarious Modernities: Assembling State, Space and Society on the Urban Margins in Morocco" (Bloomsbury, 2021)

April 12, 2024

Precarious Modernities

Cristiana Strava
Hosted by Yadong Li

What does living “precariously” mean in Casablanca? In 2014 it meant being labeled tcharmil (seeming to endanger public order) and swept up by the po…

Loren D. Lybarger, "Palestinian Chicago: Identity in Exile" (U California Press, 2020)

April 3, 2024

Palestinian Chicago

Loren D. Lybarger
Hosted by Roberto Mazza

Chicago is home to one of the largest, most politically active Palestinian immigrant communities in the United States. For decades, secular nationalis…

Alexandrina Vanke, "The Urban Life of Workers in Post-Soviet Russia: Engaging in Everyday Struggle" (Manchester UP, 2024)

April 1, 2024

The Urban Life of Workers in Post-Soviet Russia

Alexandrina Vanke
Hosted by Anna Zhelnina

Despite the intense processes of deindustrialisation around the world, the working class continues to play an important role in post-industrial societ…

India’s Waste Problem: A Discussion with Pamela Das

March 29, 2024

India’s Waste Problem

Pamela Das

How is India tackling its persistent wage management problems? And, are new infrastructural solutions the way forward? In this episode, Kenneth Bo Nie…

Neil Gong, "Sons, Daughters, and Sidewalk Psychotics: Mental Illness and Homelessness in Los Angeles" (U Chicago Press, 2024)

March 27, 2024

Sons, Daughters, and Sidewalk Psychotics

Neil Gong
Hosted by Michael Johnston

Sociologist Neil M. Gong explains why mental health treatment in Los Angeles rarely succeeds, for the rich, the poor, and everyone in between. In…

Rana AlMutawa, "Everyday Life in the Spectacular City: Making Home in Dubai" (U California Press, 2024)

March 26, 2024

Everyday Life in the Spectacular City

Rana AlMutawa
Hosted by Michael Johnston

Everyday Life in the Spectacular City: Making Home in Dubai (U California Press, 2024) is a groundbreaking urban ethnography that reveals how middle-c…

Max Fraser, "Hillbilly Highway: The Transappalachian Migration and the Making of a White Working Class" (Princeton UP, 2023)

March 20, 2024

Hillbilly Highway

Max Fraser
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Over the first two-thirds of the twentieth century, as many as eight million whites left the economically depressed southern countryside and migrated …

Lisa Messeri, "In the Land of the Unreal: Virtual and Other Realities in Los Angeles" (Duke UP, 2024)

March 16, 2024

In the Land of the Unreal

Lisa Messeri
Hosted by Noopur Raval

In the mid-2010s, a passionate community of Los Angeles-based storytellers, media artists, and tech innovators formed around virtual reality (VR), bel…