UMass Press Podcast

UMass Press Podcast

episodes

Interviews with authors of University of Massachusetts Press books.

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…

Matthew Dennis, "American Relics and the Politics of Public Memory" (U Massachusetts Press, 2023)

December 10, 2023

American Relics and the Politics of Public Memory

Matthew Dennis
Hosted by Hallel Yadin

The gold epaulettes that George Washington wore into battle. A Union soldier's bloody shirt in the wake of the Civil War. A crushed wristwatch after t…

Jonathan D. Fitzgerald, "How the News Feels: The Empathic Power of Literary Journalists" (U Massachusetts Press, 2023)

December 4, 2023

How the News Feels

Jonathan D. Fitzgerald
Hosted by James Kates

In How the News Feels: The Empathic Power of Literary Journalists (University of Massachusetts Press, 2023), Jonathan D. Fitzgerald examines a mode of…

Robin Phylisia Chapdelaine et al., "When Will the Joy Come?: Black Women in the Ivory Tower" (U Massachusetts Press, 2023)

November 23, 2023

When Will the Joy Come?

Robin Phylisia Chapdelaine, Abena Ampofoa Asare, and Michelle Dionne Thompson
Hosted by Deidre Tyler

How do Black women in higher education create, experience, and understand joy? What sustains them? While scholars have long documented sexism, racism,…

Scott Kamen, "From Union Halls to the Suburbs: Americans for Democratic Action and the Transformation of Postwar Liberalism" (U Massachusetts Press, 2023)

October 25, 2023

From Union Halls to the Suburbs

Scott Kamen
Hosted by Tom Cryer
Listen:

For decades, Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) was perhaps the most influential multi-issue organization in American liberalism. The first book-le…

Sirpa Salenius, "An Abolitionist Abroad: Sarah Parker Remond in Cosmopolitan Europe" (U Massachusetts Press, 2016)

September 27, 2023

An Abolitionist Abroad

Sirpa Salenius
Hosted by Katrina Anderson
Listen:

Sarah Parker Remond (1826–1894) left the free black community of Salem, Massachusetts, where she was born, to become one of the first women to travel …

Alaina Kaus, "Fighting Over There: U.S. War Making and Contemporary Refugee Literature" (U Massachusetts Press, 2023)

May 25, 2023

Fighting Over There

Alaina Kaus
Hosted by Deidre Tyler

U.S. foreign policy has long been built on a dichotomy of an irreplaceable "here" and an expendable "there." In his 2003 announcement of the military …

S. L. Wisenberg, "The Wandering Womb: Essays in Search of Home" (U Massachusetts Press, 2023)

April 4, 2023

The Wandering Womb

S. L. Wisenberg
Hosted by G. P. Gottlieb

Today I talked to S. L. Wisenberg about her book The Wandering Womb: Essays in Search of Home (U Massachusetts Press, 2023). As a child, S. L. Wisenb…

Gerald F. Goodwin, "Race in the Crucible of War: African American Servicemen and the War in Vietnam" (U Massachusetts Press, 2023)

February 19, 2023

Race in the Crucible of War

Gerald F. Goodwin

When African American servicemen went to fight in the Vietnam War, discrimination and prejudice followed them. Even in a faraway country, their milita…

Jack Ahern, "Design with Nature on Cape Cod and the Islands" (U Massachusetts Press, 2022)

February 8, 2023

Design with Nature on Cape Cod and the Islands

Jack Ahern
Hosted by Bryan Toepfer

Cape Cod and the islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket are special places known for their distinctive flora, including pine-oak forests, sandplai…

Gregory Pfitzer, "'Fame Is Not Just for the Fellas': Female Renown and the Childhood of Famous Americans Series" (U Massachusetts Press, 2022)

January 24, 2023

"Fame Is Not Just for the Fellas"

Gregory M. Pfitzer

In “Fame is Not Just for the Fellas”: Female Renown and the Childhood of Famous Americans Series (University of Massachusetts Press, 2022), Gregory Pf…

Alena Pirok, "The Spirit of Colonial Williamsburg: Ghosts and Interpreting the Recreated Past" (U Massachusetts Press, 2022)

October 12, 2022

The Spirit of Colonial Williamsburg

Alena Pirok
Hosted by Nathan Moore

On any given night, hundreds of guests walk the darkened streets of Colonial Williamsburg looking for ghosts. Since the early 2000s, both the museum a…

John M. Kinder and Jason A. Higgins, "Service Denied: Marginalized Veterans in Modern American History" (U Massachusetts Press, 2022)

August 31, 2022

Service Denied

John M. Kinder and Jason A. Higgins
Hosted by Nathan Moore

Wartime military service is held up as a marker of civic duty and patriotism, yet the rewards of veteran status have never been equally distributed. C…

E. James West, "Our Kind of Historian: The Work and Activism of Lerone Bennett Jr." (U Massachusetts Press, 2022)

August 30, 2022

Our Kind of Historian

E. James West

Journalist, activist, popular historian, and public intellectual, Lerone Bennett Jr. left an indelible mark on twentieth-century American history and …

Ann Marie Borys, "American Unitarian Churches: Architecture of a Democratic Religion" (U Massachusetts Press, 2021)

July 22, 2022

American Unitarian Churches

Ann Marie Borys
Hosted by Bryan Toepfer

The Unitarian religious tradition was a product of the same eighteenth-century democratic ideals that fueled the American Revolution and informed the …

Pavla Simková, "Urban Archipelago: An Environmental History of the Boston Harbor Islands" (U Massachusetts Press, 2021)

June 6, 2022

Urban Archipelago

Pavla Simková
Hosted by Aliide Naylor

The Boston Harbor Islands have been called Boston's "hidden shores." While some are ragged rocks teeming with coastal wildlife, such as oystercatchers…

Chiara Camarda et al., "The Venice Ghetto: A Memory Space That Travels" (U Massachusetts Press, 2022)

May 27, 2022

The Venice Ghetto

Chiara Camarda, Amanda K. Sharick, and Katharine G. Trostel
Hosted by Amber Nickell

The Venice Ghetto was founded in 1516 by the Venetian government as a segregated area of the city in which Jews were compelled to live. The world's fi…

Andrew Hunt, "We Begin Bombing in Five Minutes: Late Cold War Culture in the Age of Reagan" (U Massachusetts Press, 2022)

May 27, 2022

We Begin Bombing in Five Minutes

Andrew Hunt

Ronald Reagan’s hagiography has created an entire mythology around the 40th president of the US; anticommunism and the fight against the ‘Evil Empire’…

Clarissa Ceglio, "A Cultural Arsenal for Democracy: The World War II Work of U.S. Museums" (U Massachusetts Press, 2022)

February 18, 2022

A Cultural Arsenal for Democracy: The World War II Work of U.S. Museums

Clarissa Ceglio
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In A Cultural Arsenal for Democracy: The World War II Work of US Museums (University of Massachusetts Press, 2022), Dr. Ceglio argues that attempts du…

Heather L. Dichter, "Bidding for the 1968 Olympic Games: International Sport's Cold War Battle with NATO" (U Massachusetts Press, 2021)

February 11, 2022

Bidding for the 1968 Olympic Games

Heather L. Dichter
Hosted by Keith Rathbone

Today we are joined by Heather Dichter, Associate Professor of Sports History and Sports Management at the International Centre for Sports History and…