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About Rebekah Buchanan

Rebekah Buchanan is a Professor of English and Director of English Education at Western Illinois University. Her research focuses on feminism, activism, and literacy practices in youth culture, specifically through zines and music. She has written extensively on popular culture in the classroom, youth’s out of school literacy practices, music-based pedagogy, and punk, including her book "Writing a Riot: Riot Grrrl Zines and Feminist Rhetorics" (Peter Lang, 2018). She's a diehard Cubs fan and misses The Winchester Brothers.

Rebekah Buchanan is a Professor of English and Director of English Education at Western Illinois University. Her research focuses on feminism, activism, and literacy practices in youth culture, specifically through zines and music.

Rebekah's website

NBN Episodes hosted by Rebekah:

Popular Culture May 25, 2023

Rude Girls

Women in 2 Tone and One Step Beyond

Heather Augustyn

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In her latest book, Rude Girls: Women in 2 Tone and One Step Beyond (Sally Brown Publishing, 2023), Heather Augustyn explores the ska revival in the UK during the lates 1970s and 1980s …
Literature May 13, 2023

Sidle Creek

Jolene McIlwain

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In her debut short story collection, Sidle Creek (Melville House, 2023), Jolene McIlwain skillfully interrogates the myths and stereotypes of the mining, mill, and farming towns where she grew up. With stories …
Popular Culture May 12, 2023

Gathering of the Tribe

A Companion to Occult Music on Vinyl

Mark Goodall

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In his new series, Gathering of the Tribe (Headpress, 2022) Mark Goodall explores the mysterious power of sound and tone. Each book in the series is devoted to reviewing records …
Popular Culture April 25, 2023

Who Cares Anyway

Post-Punk San Francisco and the End of the Analog Age

Will York

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In Who Cares Anyway: Post-Punk San Francisco and the End of the Analog Age (Headpress, 2023), Will York draws on over 100 interviews with musicians, artists, and scene participants as well as …
Popular Culture April 8, 2023

Blank Canvas

Art School Creativity and the Development of Punk, Post Punk and New Wave Music

Simon Strange

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In Blank Canvas: Art School Creativity From Punk to New Wave (Intellect Publishing, 2022), Simon Strange explores the relationship between art and music within education in the United Kingdom. Strange examines the …
Literature March 26, 2023

A Tempest at Sea

Sherry Thomas

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
Sherry Thomas' latest book in her Lady Sherlock Series, A Tempest at Sea (Berkley, 2023), finds Charlotte Holmes in a dangerous investigation at set in the seventh book in this bestselling …
Popular Culture March 20, 2023

Play Like a Man

My Life in Poster Children

Rose Marshack

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In Play Like a Man: My Life in Poster Children (University of Illinois Press, 2023), Poster Children bassist Rose Marshack details her life in the 80s and 90s as part of a …
Popular Culture March 10, 2023

The Wife of Bath

A Biography

Marion Turner

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
Ever since her triumphant debut in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, the Wife of Bath, arguably the first ordinary and recognisably real woman in English literature, has obsessed readers--from Shakespeare to James …
Popular Culture March 7, 2023

Fearless Women

Feminist Patriots from Abigail Adams to Beyoncé

Elizabeth Cobbs

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In her latest book, Fearless Women: Feminist Patriots from Abigail Adams to Beyoncé (Harvard University Press, 2023), New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Cobbs shows us that the quest for women’s rights is deeply entwined with …
Popular Culture February 26, 2023

Hit Girls

Women of Punk in the USA, 1975-1983

Jen B. Larson

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In Hit Girls: Women of Punk in the USA, 1975-1983 (Feral House, 2023), Jen B. Larson takes readers throughout the United States on a punk history lesson. Dividing the country into regions, Larson …
Popular Culture February 22, 2023

A Lovely Girl

The Tragedy of Olga Duncan and the Trial of California's Most Notorious Killer

Deborah Holt Larkin

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In A Lovely Girl: The Tragedy of Olga Duncan and the Trial of California's Most Notorious Killer (Pegasus Crime, 2022), Deborah Larkin tells the incredible story of a 1958 murder …
Popular Culture February 14, 2023

The American Way

A True Story of Nazi Escape, Superman, and Marilyn Monroe

Helene Stapinski and Bonnie Siegler

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In The American Way: A True Story of Nazi Escape, Superman, and Marilyn Monroe (Simon & Schuster, 2023) Helene Stapinski and Bonnie Siegler tell how the publisher of DC Comics comes …
Popular Culture February 14, 2023

The American Way

A True Story of Nazi Escape, Superman, and Marilyn Monroe

Helene Stapinski and Bonnie Siegler

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In The American Way: A True Story of Nazi Escape, Superman, and Marilyn Monroe (Simon & Schuster, 2023) Helene Stapinski and Bonnie Siegler tell how the publisher of DC Comics comes …
Sports January 25, 2023

Break Point

Two Minnesota Athletes and the Road to Title IX

Sheri Brenden

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In Break Point: Two Minnesota Athletes and the Road to Title IX (University of Minnesota Press, 2022), Sheri Brenden examines how two teenage girls in Minnesota jump-started a revolution in high school …
Popular Culture January 24, 2023

Finding Jackie

The Second Act of America's First Lady

Oline Eaton

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In her new book, Finding Jackie: A Life Reinvented (Diversion Books, 2023), scholar and writer Oline Eaton examines the story of an era's biggest "star of life," Jaqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, as …
Popular Culture January 18, 2023

Fish, Milk, Tamarind

A Book of Egyptian Arabic Food Expressions

Dalal Abo El Seoud

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In Fish, Milk, Tamarind: A Book of Egyptian Arabic Food Expressions (American University in Cairo Press, 2022), Dalal Abo El Seoud presents 100 commonly used Egyptian food expressions. Can you guess what Egyptians mean …
Popular Culture January 2, 2023

Gee Vaucher

Beyond Punk, Feminism and the Avant-Garde

Rebecca Binns

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
Rebecca Binn's Gee Vaucher: Beyond Punk, Feminism and the Avante Garde (Manchester University Press, 2022) is the first book-length work dedicated to the life and career of Vaucher. As one of the people who …
Popular Culture December 11, 2022

The Best New True Crime Stories: Unsolved Crimes and Mysteries

Mitzi Szereto

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
Crimes are meant to be solved. But what happens when they’re not? For the individuals involved—from the victims and their families to police investigators—this is the most frustrating part of …
Popular Culture December 4, 2022

Wandering Games

Melissa Kagen

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In Wandering Games (MIT Press, 2022), Melissa Kagen analyzes wandering within different game worlds, viewed through the lenses of work, colonialism, gender, and death. Wandering in games can be a theme, a …
Biography November 28, 2022

Missing

Cornelia Spelman

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In her new memoir, Missing (Jackleg Press, 2022), children's book author Cornelia Maude Spelman explores her family history and her mother's life. Spelman was encouraged by her friend, the late, legendary New Yorker editor …
Popular Culture November 23, 2022

Lawrence Tierney

Hollywood's Real-Life Tough Guy

Burt Kearns

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In his latest book, Lawrence Tierney: Hollywood's Real-Life Tough Guy (The University of Kentucky Press, 2022) Burt Kearns explores the life of actor Lawrence Tierney (1919-2002) whose natural swagger and gruff disposition …
Popular Culture November 22, 2022

Fandom, the Next Generation

Bridget Kies and Megan Connor

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In Fandom, the Next Generation (University of Iowa Press, 2022), Bridget Kies and Megan Connor have edited the first collection  to offer a close study of fan generations, which are defined …
Popular Culture November 17, 2022

U2's the Joshua Tree

Planting Roots in Mythic America

Bradley Morgan

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In U2's The Joshua Tree: Planting Roots in Mythic America (Backbeat, 2021) Bradley Morgan examines U2's iconic album and their critique of America as a symbol of hope. Through analysis of each …
Popular Culture November 14, 2022

Aquaman and the War Against Oceans

Comics Activism and Allegory in the Anthropocene

Ryan Poll

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In Aquaman and the War against Oceans (University of Nebraska Press, 2022), Ryan Poll explores ways the New 52 reimagining of Aquaman--a massive overhaul and rebranding of all DC Comics--transformed the …