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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 December 3, 2023

I Am the Dark Tourist

Messenger of Remembrance

H. E. Sawyer

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
Dark tourism is the practice of visiting sites associated with death and disaster. Participation is increasing, yet much of the machinations behind dark tourism remain shrouded in mystery, and intentionally …
Literature December 2, 2023

Life Between Seconds

Douglas Weissman

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In Life Between Seconds (Addison & Highsmith, 2022), Douglas Weissman explores found family and magic.  After his mother dies, Peter Berry collects memories in broken watches the way others collect …
Popular Culture November 5, 2023

A Curious Mix of People

The Underground Scene of '90s Austin

Greg Beets and Richard Whymark

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
Ask anyone outside of Austin what they know about the city and chances are the first thing they'll mention is the music. While the Armadillo Era has been well-chronicled, there …
Popular Culture October 27, 2023

I Want You Around

The Ramones and the Making of Rock 'n' Roll High School

Stephen B. Armstrong

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
Stephen Armstrong's new book I Want You Around: The Ramones and the Making of Rock-n-Roll High School (Backbeat Books, 2023), provides a detailed production history of this beloved film that draws upon extensive interviews …
Popular Culture October 12, 2023

Melt with Me

Coming of Age and Other '80s Perils

Paul Crenshaw

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
Listen:
In his new collection of essays, Melt with Me: Coming of Age and Other '80s Perils (Ohio State UP, 2023), Paul Crenshaw examines the intersection of 1980s pop culture, the Cold War …
Popular Culture October 6, 2023

Night Mother

A Personal and Cultural History of the Exorcist

Marlena Williams

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
Listen:
Never watch The Exorcist, Marlena Williams's mother told her, just as she'd been told by her own mother as a Catholic teen in rural Oregon when the horror classic premiered …
Popular Culture September 15, 2023

Old Town Road

Chris Molanphy

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
Listen:
In Old Town Road (Duke University Press, 2023), Chris Molanphy considers Lil Nas X’s debut single as pop artifact, chart phenomenon, and cultural watershed. “Old Town Road” was more than a …
Literature September 5, 2023

Hush Harbor

Anise Vance

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
Listen:
In his debut novel, Hush Harbor (Hannover Square Press, 2023), Anise Vance takes readers inside a race revolution as a resistance group takes America's racial reckoning into its own hands. After the murder of …
Popular Culture August 4, 2023

B-Side

A Flipsided History of Pop

Andy Cowan

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
Listen:
In his new book B-Sides: A Flipsided History of Pop (Headpress, 2023), Andy Cowan explores a century of music b-sides. Pop music would be a different beast without the B-Side. Music history is …
Popular Culture July 23, 2023

Grebo!

The Loud & Lousy Story of Gaye Bykers on Acid and Crazyhead

Rich Deakin

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In Grebo! The Loud & Lousy Story of Gaye Bikers on Acid and Crazyhead (Headpress, 2021) Rich Deakin explores West Midlands 1980s, home to heavy metal. Black Sabbath and Judas Priest are …
Popular Culture July 19, 2023

Witchcraft and Adolescence in American Popular Culture

Teen Witches

Miranda Corcoran

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
Listen:
Witchcraft and Adolescence in American Popular Culture: Teen Witches (University of Wales Press, 2022) by Miranda Corcoran is a study in teenage witches in twentieth-century American popular culture. The teenage witch emerged …
Popular Culture June 30, 2023

Punk Art History

Artworks from the European No Future Generation

Marie Arleth Skov

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
Listen:
In her book, Punk Art History: Artworks from the European No Future Generation (Intellect Books, 2023), Marie Arleth Skov examines the punk movement of the 1970s to early 1980s. Through …
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

Bang Bang Crash

A Memoir

Nic Brown

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In his memoir, Bang Bang Crash (Counterpoint, 2023), Nic Brown shares his experiences as a rock and roll drummer who abandons his successful music career to pursue his true passion and …