New Books Network

About Kelvin Ng

NBN Episodes hosted by Kelvin:

Indian Ocean World April 8, 2021

Empire of Convicts

Indian Penal Labor in Colonial Southeast Asia

Anand A. Yang

Hosted by Kelvin Ng
Empire of Convicts: Indian Penal Labor in Colonial Southeast Asia (University of California Press, 2021) (University of California Press, 2021) focuses on male and female Indians incarcerated in Southeast Asia …
Indian Ocean World April 5, 2021

Fleeting Agencies

A Social History of Indian Coolie Women in British Malaya

Arunima Datta

Hosted by Kelvin Ng
Fleeting Agencies: A Social History of Indian Coolie Women in British Malaya (Cambridge UP, 2021) disrupts the male-dominated narratives by focusing on gendered patterns of migration and showing how South …
Indian Ocean World April 2, 2021

Reimagining Indian Ocean Worlds

Smriti Srinivas, Bettina Ng'weno, and Neelima Jeychandran

Hosted by Kelvin Ng
Reimagining Indian Ocean Worlds (Routledge, 2020), coedited by Smriti Srinivas, Bettina Ng'weno, and Neelima Jeychandran, breaks new ground by bringing together multidisciplinary approaches to examine contemporary Indian Ocean worlds. It …
Indian Ocean World February 10, 2021

Miracles and Material Life

Rice, Ore, Traps and Guns in Islamic Malaya

Teren Sevea

Hosted by Kelvin Ng
In Miracles and Material Life: Rice, Ore, Traps and Guns in Islamic Malaya (Cambridge UP, 2020), Teren Sevea reveals the economic, environmental and religious significance of Islamic miracle workers (pawangs) in the …
Indian Ocean World December 28, 2020

World Literature for the Wretched of the Earth

Anticolonial Aesthetics, Postcolonial Politics

J. Daniel Elam

Hosted by Kelvin Ng
World Literature for the Wretched of the Earth: Anticolonial Aesthetics, Postcolonial Politics (Fordham University Press, 2020) recovers a genealogy of anticolonial thought that advocates collective inexpertise, unknowing, and unrecognizability. Early …
Indian Ocean World December 7, 2020

A World at Sea

Maritime Practices and Global History

Lauren Benton and Nathan Perl-Rosenthal

Hosted by Kelvin Ng
L. Benton and N. Perl-Rosenthal's A World at Sea: Maritime Practices and Global History (U Pennsylvania Press, 2020) consists of nine original essays that sharpen and expand our understanding of …
Indian Ocean World November 16, 2020

Fluid Jurisdictions

Colonial Law and Arabs in Southeast Asia

Nurfadzilah Yahaya

Hosted by Kelvin Ng
Fluid Jurisdictions: Colonial Law and Arabs in Southeast Asia (Cornell University Press, 2020) by Prof. Nurfadzilah Yahaya is a wide-ranging, geographically ambitious book that tells the story of the Arab …
Indian Ocean World November 12, 2020

Waves Across the South

A New History of Revolution and Empire

Sujit Sivasundaram

Hosted by Kelvin Ng
In Waves Across the South: A New History of Revolution and Empire (William Collins, 2020), Sujit Sivasundaram brings together far-flung archives across the world and the best new academic research …
Indian Ocean World November 9, 2020

Pearls, People, and Power

Pearling and Indian Ocean Worlds

Pedro Machado

Hosted by Kelvin Ng
Pearls, People, and Power: Pearling and Indian Ocean Worlds (Ohio University Press, 2020), co-edited by Pedro Machado, Joseph Christensen, Steve Mullins) is the first book to examine the trade, distribution …
Indian Ocean World October 15, 2020

For God or Empire

Sayyid Fadl and the Indian Ocean World

Wilson Chacko Jacob

Hosted by Kelvin Ng
Sayyid Fadl, a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, led a unique life—one that spanned much of the nineteenth century and connected India, Arabia, and the Ottoman Empire. For God or …
Indian Ocean World October 1, 2020

Transregional Trade and Traders

Situating Gujarat in the Indian Ocean from Early Times to 1900

E. A. Alpers and C. Goswami (eds.)

Hosted by Kelvin Ng
Blessed with numerous safe harbors, accessible ports, and a rich hinterland, Gujarat has been central to the history of Indian Ocean maritime exchange that involved not only goods, but also …