About Elizabeth Heineman

NBN Episodes hosted by Elizabeth:

Dan Healey, "Bolshevik Sexual Forensics: Diagnosing Disorder in the Clinic and Courtroom, 1917-1939" (Northern Illinois UP, 2009)

November 26, 2012

Bolshevik Sexual Forensics

Dan Healey

I have long been an admirer of Dan Healey's work. His research has opened the world of homosexual desire and the establishment of the gay community in…

Elizabeth Reis, "Bodies in Doubt: An American History of Intersex" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2009)

September 26, 2012

Bodies in Doubt

Elizabeth Reis

In August of 2009, the South African runner Caster Semenya won the 800 meter final in the world Championship leading by one minute. "Muscles bulging a…

Nwando Achebe, "The Female King of Colonial Nigeria: Ahebi Ugbabe" (Indiana UP, 2011)

June 29, 2012

The Female King of Colonial Nigeria

Nwando Achebe

When I saw Nwando Achebe's book The Female King of Colonial Nigeria: Ahebi Ugbabe (Indiana University Press, 2011), I thought: "Really? A female king?…

Trevor Getz and Liz Clarke, "Abina and the Important Men: A Graphic History" (Oxford UP, 2012)

June 8, 2012

Abina and the Important Men

Trevor Getz

Imagine this: a young African girl, barefoot but wearing a dress and head wrap, clenches her fists and looks you in the eye. Behind her a semi-circle …

Gail Hershatter, "The Gender of Memory: Rural Women and China's Collective Past" (U California Press, 2011)

May 23, 2012

The Gender of Memory

Gail Hershatter

When I teach my course on gender, sexuality, and human rights, my students invariably want to talk about China's one-child policy. They imagine living…

Anna Krylova, "Soviet Women in Combat: A History of Violence on the Eastern Front" (Cambridge UP, 2010)

April 27, 2012

Soviet Women in Combat

Anna Krylova

We're all familiar with the film cliche of the little band of soldiers who in ordinary life never would have had met, but who learn to appreciate each…

Mia Bay, "To Tell the Truth Freely: The Life of Ida B. Wells" (Hill and Wang, 2009)

February 24, 2012

To Tell the Truth Freely

Mia Bay

I can't remember when I first saw one of those horrible photographs of a lynching, with crowds of white people, kids included, laughing and pointing a…

Judith Halberstam, "The Queer Art of Failure" (Duke UP, 2011)

February 3, 2012

The Queer Art of Failure

Judith Halberstam

Tell me, who can resist a book called The Queer Art of Failure? Not me. Especially once I learned that its heroines are the likes of Ginger (of *Chick…

Niamh Reilly, "Women's Human Rights: Seeking Gender Justice in a Globalizing Age" (Polity, 2009)

December 20, 2011

Women's Human Rights

Niamh Reilly

Today, you can open your newspaper and find stories about mass rape in the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, death sentences for adulterous wom…

Ellen Lewin, "Gay Fatherhood: Narratives of Family and Citizenship in America" (U Chicago Press, 2009)

December 2, 2011

Gay Fatherhood

Ellen Lewin

When anthropologist Ellen Lewin gave a preliminary report on her research on gay fathers, a member of the audience asked how she could write about suc…

Annette Timm, "The Politics of Fertility in Twentieth-Century Berlin" (Cambridge UP, 2010)

November 15, 2011

The Politics of Fertility in Twentieth-Century Berlin

Annette Timm

Many of us know that Nazi regime tried to control Germans' fertility: some people should reproduce more, according to the National Socialists, and som…

Yasmin Saikia, "Women, War, and the Making of Bangladesh: Remembering 1971" (Duke UP, 2011)

October 17, 2011

Women, War, and the Making of Bangladesh

Yasmin Saikia

It's almost a cliche to say that war dehumanizes those who participate in it - the organizers of violence, those who commit violent acts, and the vict…

Mara Hvistendahl, "Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men" (PublicAffairs, 2011)

September 7, 2011

Unnatural Selection

Mara Hvistendahl

The students in my undergraduate class on gender, sexuality, and human rights are a pretty tough bunch. They know they're in for some unpleasant topic…