New Books Network

About Rachel Hopkin

Rachel Hopkin PhD is a UK born, US based folklorist and radio producer and is currently a PhD candidate at the Ohio State University.

NBN Episodes hosted by Rachel:

Folklore August 25, 2020

Body and Tradition in Nineteenth-Century France

Félix Arnaudin and the Moorlands of Gascony, 1870-1914

William G. Pooley

Hosted by Rachel Hopkin
The moorlands of Gascony are often considered one of the most dramatic examples of top-down rural modernization in nineteenth-century Europe. From an area of open moors, they were transformed in one generation into the largest man-made forest in Europe. Body and Tradition in Nineteenth-Century France: Félix Arnaudin and the Moorlands of Gascony, 1870-1914 (Oxford University Press) explores how these changes were experienced and negotiated by the people who lived there …
Folklore May 26, 2020

Rhythms of Revolt

European Traditions and Memories of Social Conflict in Oral Culture

Éva Guillorel

Hosted by Rachel Hopkin
The culture of insurgents in early modern Europe was primarily an oral one; memories of social conflicts in the communities affected were passed on through oral forms such as songs …
Folklore May 25, 2020

The Poetry of Everyday Life

Storytelling and the Art of Awareness

Steve Zeitlin

Hosted by Rachel Hopkin
This is a book of encounters. Part memoir, part essay, and partly a guide to maximizing your capacity for fulfillment and expression, The Poetry of Everyday Life: Storytelling and the …
Folklore July 30, 2019

Implied Nowhere

Absence in Folklore Studies

Shelley Ingram, Willow G. Mullins, and Todd Richardson

Hosted by Rachel Hopkin
In Implied Nowhere: Absence in Folklore Studies (University Press of Mississippi, 2019) authors Shelley Ingram, Willow G. Mullins, and Todd Richardson talk about things folklorists don't usually talk about. They …
Folklore July 2, 2019

The Folkloresque

Reframing Folklore in a Popular Culture World

Michael Dylan Foster and Jeffrey A. Tolbert

Hosted by Rachel Hopkin
This volume introduces a new concept to explore the dynamic relationship between folklore and popular culture: the "folkloresque." With "folkloresque," Foster and Tolbert name the product created when popular culture …
Folklore May 7, 2019

Black Lives Matter and Music

Protest, Intervention, Reflection

Fernando Orejuela and Stephanie Shonekan, eds.

Hosted by Rachel Hopkin
Music has always been integral to the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States, with songs such as Kendrick Lamar’s "Alright," J. Cole’s "Be Free," D’Angelo and the Vanguard's …
Folklore April 17, 2019

The Secret Life of a Black Aspie

A Memoir

Anand Prahlad

Hosted by Rachel Hopkin
Anand Prahlad was born on a former plantation in Virginia in 1954. This memoir, vividly internal, powerfully lyric, and brilliantly impressionistic, is his story. For the first four years of …
Art March 4, 2019

Cræft

An Inquiry into the Origins and True Meaning of Traditional Crafts

Alexander Langlands

Hosted by Rachel Hopkin
Alexander Langlands is a British archaeologist, historian, writer, and broadcaster. His most recent book, Cræft: An Inquiry into the Origins and True Meaning of Traditional Crafts, was published by Norton …
Folklore January 31, 2019

Tradition, Urban Identity, and the Baltimore 'Hon'

The Folk in the City

David J. Puglia

Hosted by Rachel Hopkin
Folklorist David J. Puglia is an assistant professor at the City University of New York and in his latest book - Tradition, Urban Identity, and the Baltimore “Hon": The Folk …
Folklore December 14, 2018

Right to the Juke Joint

A Personal History of American Music

Patrick B. Mullen

Hosted by Rachel Hopkin
On its back cover, Patrick B. Mullen’s Right to the Juke Joint: A Personal History of American Music (University of Illinois Press, 2018) is aptly described as “part scholar's musings …
Folklore November 14, 2018

Czech Bluegrass

Notes from the Heart of Europe

Lee Bidgood

Hosted by Rachel Hopkin
Although bluegrass music is typically associated with the bluegrass state of Kentucky and Appalachia, the genre is actually played in many pockets all around the world. In Czech Bluegrass: Notes …
Folklore November 9, 2018

Consuming Katrina

Public Disaster and Personal Narrative

Kate Parker Horigan

Hosted by Rachel Hopkin
Kate Parker Horigan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Folk Studies and Anthropology at Western Kentucky University, and a co-editor of the Journal of American Folklore. In Consuming …