New Books Network

About Mireille Djenno

NBN Episodes hosted by Mireille:

African Studies October 5, 2018

Julius Nyerere

Paul Bjerk

Hosted by Mireille Djenno
Paul Bjerk’s compact biography Julius Nyerere, published as part of the Ohio Short Histories of Africa series follows closely on the heels of his monograph on the same subject - …
African American Studies August 17, 2018

Optimism at All Costs

Black Attitudes, Activism, and Advancement in Obama's America

Lessie B. Branch

Hosted by Mireille Djenno
Optimism at All Costs: Black Attitudes, Activism, and Advancement in Obama's America (University of Massachusetts Press, 2018) takes as its point of departure and central preoccupation the notion of “paradoxical …
African Studies April 27, 2018

Atlantic Bonds

A Nineteenth Century Odyssey from America to Africa

Lisa A. Lindsay

Hosted by Mireille Djenno
The title of Lisa A. Lindsay’s book Atlantic Bonds: A Nineteenth-Century Odyssey from America to Africa (University of North Carolina Press, 2017), invokes enduring family ties, as well as the …
African American Studies June 20, 2017

Afro-Atlantic Flight

Speculative Returns and the Black Fantastic

Michelle D. Commander

Hosted by Mireille Djenno
In Afro-Atlantic Flight: Speculative Returns and the Black Fantastic (Duke University Press, 2017), Michelle D. Commander examines the (im)possibility of literal and figurative returns to Africa of African-descended peoples throughout …
African Studies April 13, 2017

Inside Rwanda's Gacaca Courts

Seeking Justice After Genocide

Bert Ingelaere

Hosted by Mireille Djenno
Rwanda's homegrown gacaca law has been widely hailed as a successful indigenous solution to the unprecedented problem of the country's 1994 genocide. In his book Inside Rwanda's Gacaca Courts: Seeking …
African Studies February 6, 2017

Practical Challenges in Customary Law Translation

The Case of Rwanda's Gacaca Law

Telesphore Ngarambe

Hosted by Mireille Djenno
The unprecedented crime of the 1994 Rwandan genocide demanded an unconventional legal response. After failed attempts by the international legal system to efficiently handle legal cases stemming from the genocide …
African Studies December 2, 2016

Healthcare Policy in Africa

Institutions and Politics from Colonialism to the Present

Jean-Germain Gros

Hosted by Mireille Djenno
In Healthcare Policy In Africa: Institutions and Politics from Colonialism to the Present (Rowman and Littlefield, 2016), Jean-Germain Gros argues that healthcare policy should be the black box rather than …
African American Studies June 15, 2016

Racial Reconstruction

Black Inclusion, Chinese Exclusion, and the Fictions of Citizenship

Edlie Wong

Hosted by Mireille Djenno
The dialectical configuration of black inclusion/Chinese exclusion is at the center of Edlie Wong's book Racial Reconstruction: Black Inclusion, Chinese Exclusion, and the Fictions of Citizenship (New York University Press …
African Studies December 18, 2015

Building a Peaceful Nation

Julius Nyerere and the Establishment of Sovereignty in Tanzania, 1960-1964

Paul Bjerk

Hosted by Mireille Djenno
Let's begin with what Paul Bjerk's new book isn't: "a biography or evaluation of Julius Nyerere." Instead, according to a letter that Bjerk sent me in advance of our interview …
African Studies November 20, 2015

Education as Politics

Colonial Schooling and Political Debate in Senegal, 1850s-1914

Kelly M. Duke Bryant

Hosted by Mireille Djenno
Education as Politics: Colonial Schooling and Political Debate in Senegal, 1850s-1914 (University of Wisconsin Press, 2015) questions and complicates the two dominant narratives of African colonial education, namely that colonial …
African Studies October 20, 2015

Listening to Ourselves

A Multilingual Anthology of African Philosophy

Chike Jeffers

Hosted by Mireille Djenno
Ngugi wa Thiong'o, who famously made the decision in the 1970s to henceforth only produce his creative work in his native Gikuyu, rather than in English, authors the foreword to …
African American Studies September 23, 2015

Word Warrior

Richard Durham, Radio, and Freedom

Sonja D. Williams

Hosted by Mireille Djenno
Sonja D. Williams' book Word Warrior: Richard Durham, Radio, and Freedom (University of Illinois Press, 2015) connects its subject to some of the most important events and social movements of …
African American Studies March 17, 2015

Black Faces, White Spaces

Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors

Carolyn Finney

Hosted by Mireille Djenno
Geographer Carolyn Finney wrote Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors (University of North Carolina Press, 2014), out of a frustration with the …
African American Studies February 13, 2015

1919, The Year of Racial Violence

How African Americans Fought Back

David Krugler

Hosted by Mireille Djenno
In 1919, The Year of Racial Violence: How African Americans Fought Back (Cambridge University Press, 2014), David Krugler chronicles the origins and development of ten major race riots that took …
African American Studies October 28, 2014

Crafting Lives

African American Artisans in New Bern, North Carolina, 1770-1900

Catherine W. Bishir

Hosted by Mireille Djenno
Seeking to fill the gap in scholarship focused on African American artisans in the American South, Catherine W. Bishir uses the very specific location of New Bern, North Carolina to …
African American Studies October 9, 2014

The Age Of Garvey

How A Jamaican Activist Created A Mass Movement And Changed Global Black Politics

Adam Ewing

Hosted by Mireille Djenno
Adam Ewing acknowledges the enduring, if reductive, image of Garveyism - "the parades and shipping lines and colonization schemes" - in its early, Harlem-based incarnation, but focuses The Age Of …
African American Studies September 24, 2014

To March for Others

The Black Freedom Struggle and the United Farm Workers

Lauren Araiza

Hosted by Mireille Djenno
Co-founded in 1962 by César Chávez and Dolores Huerta, the National Farm Workers Association would eventually become the United Farm Workers (UFW), the landmark labor union dedicated to achieving better …