New Books in Communications

Eithne Quinn, "A Piece of the Action: Race and Labor in Post–Civil Rights Hollywood" (Columbia UP, 2019)

16 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

What is the history of equal rights in Hollywood? In A Piece of the Action: Race and Labor in Post–Civil Rights Hollywood (Columbia UP, 2019), Ei...

Conspiracy Theories are More Dangerous Than Ever: A Discussion with Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum

16 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Conspiracy theories are as old as politics. But conspiracists today have introduced something new—conspiracy without theory. And the new conspiracis...

R. Muirhead and N. L. Rosenblum, "A Lot of People Are Saying: The New Conspiracism and the Assault on Democracy" (Princeton UP, 2019)

16 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Conspiracy theories are as old as politics. But conspiracists today have introduced something new—conspiracy without theory. And the new conspiracis...

Laura DeNardis, "The Internet in Everything: Freedom and Security in a World with No Off Switch" (Yale UP, 2020)

11 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Most people recognize that the internet is growing at an exponential rate. But few have thought as deeply as Laura DeNardis, a Professor and Interim D...

The Work and Value of University Presses

09 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

What do university presses do? And how do they contributed to public discourse? November 9 is the beginning of University Press Week, and today I had...

John Durham Peters, "Promiscuous Knowledge: Information, Image, and Other Truth Games in History" (U Chicago Press, 2020)

05 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Sergey Brin, a cofounder of Google, once compared the perfect search engine to “the mind of God.” As the modern face of promiscuous knowledge, how...

Scholarly Communication: Kit Nicholls on the Writing Center and the University

30 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Listen to this interview of Kit Nicholls, Director of Cooper Union Center for Writing. We talk about writing, thinking, the university, and what every...

Victor Pickard, "Democracy Without Journalism?: Confronting the Misinformation Society" (Oxford UP, 2020)

28 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

"Few freedoms in the United States are as cherished as freedom of the press." So begins Chapter One of Democracy Without Journalism?: Confronting the...

Lissette Lopez Szwydky, "Transmedia Adaptation in the Nineteenth Century" (Ohio State UP, 2020)

26 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode of New Books in Literary Studies we speak with Lissette Lopez Szwydky, author of the new book Transmedia Adaptation in the Nineteenth ...

William Germano, "Getting it Published: A Guide for Scholars and Anyone Else Serious about Serious Books" (U Chicago Press, 2016)

23 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

When I put down Getting it Published: A Guide for Scholars and Anyone Else Serious about Serious Books (University of Chicago Press, 2016), I looked ...

Francesca Sobande, "The Digital Lives of Black Women in Britain" (Palgrave, 2020)

21 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

What are the possibilities and what are the inequalities of the digital world? In The Digital Lives of Black Women in Britain (Palgrave, 2020), Franc...

Scholarly Communication: An Interview with Joerg Heber of PLOS

14 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Open Access is spelled with a capital O and a capital A at the Public Library of Science (or PLOS, for short), a nonprofit Open Access publisher. Amon...

Rory Sutherland, "Alchemy: the Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business, and Life" (William Morrow, 2019)

14 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

What are the limitations of relying on logic as an upfront filter in pursuing ideas? Find out as I talk to Rory Sutherland about his new books Alchemy...

Dylon Robbins, "Audible Geographies in Latin America: Sounds of Race and Place" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019)

14 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

What is the relationship between race, technology and sound? How can we access the ways that Latin Americans in the 19th and early 20th centuries thou...

Fernando Domínguez Rubio, "Still Life: Ecologies of the Modern Imagination at the Art Museum" (U Chicago Press, 2020)

14 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

How do you keep the cracks in Starry Night from spreading? How do you prevent artworks made of hugs or candies from disappearing? How do you render ...

Chris Heffer, "All Bullshit and Lies?: Insincerity, Irresponsibility, and the Judgment of Untruthfulness" (Oxford UP, 2020)

08 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The implied answer to the titular question of All Bullshit and Lies? (Oxford University Press 2020) is no, it’s not. In this book, subtitled Insince...

Ravinder Kaur, "Brand New Nation: Capitalist Dreams and Nationalist Designs in 21st-Century India" (Stanford UP, 2020)

06 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

It is 21st century commonsense that India is an “emerging” economy. But how did this common sense itself emerge? How did India’s global image sh...

EQ Spotlight Special: Roundtable on the 2020 Presidential Race

02 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

What are we to make of the year’s first presidential debate? Listen in as John R. Hibbing, Jonathan Weiler and I discuss this question and others su...

Scholarly Communications: An Interview with Helen Pearson of 'Nature'

29 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Nature is the premier weekly journal of science, the journal where specialists go to read and publish primary research in their fields. But Nature is ...

Yves Citton, "Mediarchy" (Polity Press, 2019)

28 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

We think that we live in democracies: in fact, we live in mediarchies. Our political regimes are based less on nations or citizens than on audiences s...

Bethany Klein, "Selling Out: Culture, Commerce and Popular Music" (Bloomsbury, 2020)

21 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

How does the music industry work in the modern world? In Selling Out: Culture, Commerce and Popular Music (Bloomsbury, 2020), Bethany Klein, a Profess...

Teresa A. Goddu, "Selling Antislavery: Abolition and Mass Media in Antebellum America" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2020)

16 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Selling Antislavery: Abolition and Mass Media in Antebellum America (University of Pennsylvania Press) is a richly illustrated history of the American...

Jonathan Haber, "Critical Thinking" (The MIT Press, 2020)

15 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, I speak with fellow New Books in Education host, Jonathan Haber, about his book, Critical Thinking (The MIT Press, 2020). This b...

S. J. Potter, "Wireless Internationalism and Distant Listening: Britain, Propaganda, and the Invention of Global Radio, 1920-1939" (Oxford UP, 2020)

11 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In the aftermath of the First World War, many people sought to use the new mass medium of radio as a tool for world peace, believing that it could pro...

Nick Morgan, "Can You Hear Me? How to Connect with People in a Virtual World" (HBRP, 2018)

27 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

How is communicating virtually Is like eating Pringles forever? Find out as I talk to Nick Morgan about his new book Can You Hear Me? How to Connect w...

Dana Renga, "Watching Sympathetic Perpetrators on Italian Television: Gomorrah and Beyond" (Palgrave MacMillan, 20

26 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In Watching Sympathetic Perpetrators on Italian Television: Gomorrah and Beyond (Palgrave MacMillan, 2019), Dana Renga offers the first comprehensive ...

E. F. Bloomfield, "Communication Strategies for Engaging Climate Skeptics" (Routledge, 2019)

26 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Not all Christians are anti-science or climate change deniers; on the contrary, the intersection of climate change and Christianity ranges from denier...

Allison L. Rowland, "Zoetropes and the Politics of Humanhood" (Ohio State UP, 2020)

19 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The way that we talk about living beings can raise or lower their perceived value. On this episode of the New Books Network, Dr. Lee Pierce (s/t) inte...

Ting Zhang, "Circulating the Code: Print Media and Legal Knowledge in Qing China" (U Washington Press, 2020)

14 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

How could a peasant in Shandong in the Qing dynasty come to know enough about a specific law that he felt confident enough to kill his own wife and hi...

Kyle Barnett, "Record Cultures: The Transformation of the U.S. Recording Industry" (U Michigan Press, 2020)

13 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In Record Cultures: The Transformation of the U.S. Recording Industry (University of Michigan Press, 2020), Kyle Barnett tells the story of the smalle...

Art Markman, "Bring Your Brain to Work: Using Cognitive Science to Get a Job, Do It Well, and Advance Your Career" (HBR Press, 2019)

13 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

What does it take to both fit in and yet also prosper and grow as a person in the workplace? In today's interview, I discuss this question and others ...

Mack Hagood, "Hush: Media and Sonic Self-Control" (Duke UP, 2019)

12 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

How have we used twentieth- and twenty-first-century sound technologies to carve out sonic space out of the hustle and bustle of contemporary life? In...

M. Hennefeld and N. Sammond, "Abjection Incorporated: Mediating the Politics of Pleasure and Violence" (Duke UP, 2020)

07 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

From the films of Larry Clark to the feminist comedy of Amy Schumer to the fall of Louis C. K., comedic, graphic, and violent moments of abjection hav...

Tanya Kant, "Making it Personal: Algorithmic Personalization, Identity, and Everyday Life" (Oxford UP, 2020)

07 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

How are algorithms shaping our experience of the internet? In Making it Personal: Algorithmic Personalization, Identity, and Everyday Life (Oxford Uni...

Joshua Nall, "News from Mars: Mass Media and the Forging of a New Astronomy, 1860-1910" (U Pittsburgh Press, 2019)

06 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, we’re hearing an awful lot about the fraught relationship between science and media. In his book, News from M...

Cary Cooper, "The Apology Impulse: How the Business World Ruined Sorry and Why We Can’t Stop Saying It" (Kogan Press, 2020)

06 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

What are best-practices for alleviating stress in the workplace? Today I talked to Cary Cooper about his new book The Apology Impulse: How the Busines...

T. Paulus and A. Wise, "Looking for Insight, Transformation, and Learning in Online Talk " (Routledge, 2019)

30 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, I speak with Dr. Trena Paulus of Eastern Tennessee State University and Dr. Alyssa Wise of New York University on their new book, Loo...

Kevin J. Bryne, "Minstrel Traditions: Mediated Blackface in the Jazz Age" (Routledge, 2020)

29 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The Blackface minstrel show is typically thought of a form tied to the 19th century. While the style was indeed developed during the Antebellum period...

Benjamin T. Smith, "The Mexican Press and Civil Society, 1940-1976: Stories from the Newsroom, Stories from the Street" (UNC Press, 2018)

27 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Mexico today is one of the most dangerous places in the world to report the news, and Mexicans have taken to the street to defend freedom of expressio...

Brian F. Harrison, "A Change is Gonna Come: How to Have Effective Political Conversations in a Divided America" (Oxford UP, 2020)

16 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The United States takes pride in its democratic model and the idea that citizens deliberate in a process to form political opinions. However, in recen...

Lizzie O’Shea, "Future Histories" (Verso, 2019)

13 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

When we talk about technology we always talk about the future—which makes it hard to figure out how to get there. In Future Histories: What Ada Love...

Melissa K. Merry, "Warped Narratives: Distortion in the Framing of Gun Policy" (U Michigan Press, 2020)

10 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

If gun violence kills so many Americans, why don’t we see more effective solutions? How much does the way we frame an issue impact how we feel about...

Mia Fischer, "Terrorizing Gender: Transgender Visibility and the Surveillance Practices of the U.S. Security State" (U Nebraska Press, 2019)

08 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In Terrorizing Gender: Transgender Visibility and the Surveillance Practices of the U.S. Security State, Mia Fischer traces how media and state actors...

Greg Mitchell, "The Beginning or the End: How Hollywood—and America—Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" (The New Press, 2020)

07 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

dSoon after atomic bombs exploded over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, MGM set out to make a movie studio chief Louis B. Mayer called “the most impo...

Creshema R. Murray, "Leadership Through the Lens: Interrogating Production, Presentation, and Power" (Rowman and Littlefield, 2017)

06 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Television informs our perceptions and expectations of leaders and offers a guide to understanding how we, as organizational actors, should communicat...

Greg Burris, "The Palestinian Idea: Film, Media, and the Radical Imagination" (Temple UP, 2019)

03 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Is there a link between the colonization of Palestinian lands and the enclosing of Palestinian minds? The Palestinian Idea: Film, Media, and the Radic...

Ahmed El-Shamsy, "Rediscovering the Islamic Classics" (Princeton UP, 2020)

03 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Ahmed El-Shamsy’s Rediscovering the Islamic Classics: How Editors and Print Culture Transformed an Intellectual Tradition (Princeton University Pres...

Doron Galili, "Seeing by Electricity: The Emergence of Television, 1878-1939" (Duke UP, 2020)

02 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

With the burst of new technologies in the 1870s, many inventors and visionaries believed that the transmission of moving images was just around the co...

Justin Tosi and Brandon Warmke, "Grandstanding: The Use and Abuse of Moral Talk" (Oxford UP, 2020)

01 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

College courses in Ethics tend to focus on theories of the moral rightness or wrongness of actions. This emphasis sometimes obscures the fact that mo...

James M. Lundberg, "Horace Greeley: Print, Politics, and the Failure of American Nationhood" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2019)

30 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

During his nearly four decades as a newspaper editor and politician, Horace Greeley embraced a range of controversial causes. In his book Horace Greel...

D. Conley and J. Eckstein, "Cookery: Food Rhetorics and Social Production" (U Alabama Press, 2020)

30 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

On this episode of the New Books Network, Dr. Lee Pierce (s/t) interviews editors Donovan Conley and Justin Eckstein about their new book Cookery: Foo...

Alejandra Bronfman, "Isles of Noise: Sonic Media in the Caribbean" (UNC Press, 2016)

23 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The Caribbean has figuratively and literally been entangled in processes of global integration earlier than other parts of the Americas. In Isles of N...

Leticia Bode et al., "Words That Matter: How the News and Social Media Shaped the 2016 Presidential Campaign" (Brookings, 2020)

19 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Words That Matter: How the News and Social Media Shaped the 2016 Presidential Campaign (Brookings Institution Press, 2020) comes out of a broader col...

B. L. Johnson and M. M. Quinlan, "You’re Doing it Wrong! Mothering, Media and Medical Expertise" (Rutgers UP, 2019)

19 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

New mothers face a barrage of confounding decisions during the life-cycle of early motherhood which includes... Should they change their diet or minds...

Robert Samet, "Deadline: Populism and the Press in Venezuela" (U Chicago Press, 2019)

19 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, has been ranked as one of the most violent cities in the world. In Deadline: Populism and the Press in Venezuela (U...

Teresa Bergman, "The Commemoration of Women in the United States" (Routledge, 2019)

18 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

On this episode of the New Books Network, Lee Pierce (s/t) interviews Teresa Bergman of the University of the Pacific on The Commemoration of Women i...

R. Farrugia and K. D. Hay, "Women Rapping Revolution: Hip Hop and Community Building in Detroit" (U California Press, 2020)

17 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

On this episode of the New Books Network, Lee Pierce (s/t) interviews Rebekah Farrugia and Kellie D. Hay of Oakland University on their new book Women...

Elizabeth Horodowich, "The Venetian Discovery of America" (Cambridge UP, 2018)

16 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode Jana Byars speaks with Elizabeth Horodowich, Professor of History at New Mexico State University, about her new book, The Venetian Dis...

David R. Grimes, "The Irrational Ape: Why Flawed Logic Puts Us All at Risk, and How Critical Thinking Can Save the World" (Simon and Schuster, 2019)

11 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

What are some of the prevalent ways in which we lie to ourselves and limit our flexibility? Today I discussed this and other questions with David R. ...

Luke Winslow, "American Catastrophe: Fundamentalism, Climate Change, Gun Rights, and the Rhetoric of Donald J. Trump" (Ohio State UP, 2020)

10 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

On this episode of the New Books Network, Lee M Pierce (s/t) interviews Luke Winslow of Baylor University on the book Luke Winslow, American Catastrop...

Cristina Soriano, "Tides of Revolution: Information, Insurgencies, and the Crisis of Colonial Rule in Venezuela" (UNM Press, 2018)

10 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In Tides of Revolution: Information, Insurgencies, and the Crisis of Colonial Rule in Venezuela (University of New Mexico Press, 2018), Cristina Sori...

Kurt Braddock, "Weaponized Words" (Cambridge UP, 2020)

09 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Kurt Braddock's new book Weaponized Words: The Strategic Role of Persuasion in Violent Radicalization and Counter-Radicalization (Cambridge University...

Jon Wilkman, "Screening Reality: How Documentary Filmmakers Reimagined America" (Bloomsbury, 2020)

08 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Screening Reality: How Documentary Filmmakers Reimagined America (Bloomsbury, 2020) is a widescreen view of how American “truth” has been discover...

Donald A. Barclay, "Fake News, Propaganda, and Plain Old Lies" (Rowman and Littlefield, 2018)

05 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Are you overwhelmed at the amount, contradictions, and craziness of all the information coming at you in this age of social media and twenty-four-hour...

Scott Henderson, "Comics and Pop Culture: Adaptation from Panel to Frame" (U Texas Press, 2019)

05 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

It is hard to discuss the current film industry without acknowledging the impact of comic book adaptations, especially considering the blockbuster suc...

Sam Han, "(Inter)Facing Death: Life in Global Uncertainty" (Routledge, 2020)

04 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In modern times, death is understood to have undergone a transformation not unlike religion. Whereas in the past it was out in the open, it now reside...

Brian Greene, "Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe" (Random House, 2020)

02 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Brian Greene is a Professor of Mathematics and Physics at Columbia University in the City of New York, where he is the Director of the Institute for S...

Alexander L. Fattal, "Guerrilla Marketing: Counterinsurgency and Capitalism in Colombia" (U Chicago Press, 2018)

29 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Guerrilla Marketing: Counterinsurgency and Capitalism in Colombia (University of Chicago Press, 2019) investigates the Colombian government’s campai...

Elinor Carmi, "Media Distortions: Understanding the Power Behind Spam, Noise, and Other Deviant Media" (Peter Lang, 2020)

28 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

What is spam? In Media Distortions: Understanding the Power Behind Spam, Noise, and Other Deviant Media, Dr Elinor Carmi, a postdoctoral research asso...

Diana Senechal, "Mind over Memes: Passive Listening, Toxic Talk, and Other Modern Language Follies" (Rowman and Littlefield, 2018)

25 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In Mind over Memes: Passive Listening, Toxic Talk, and Other Modern Language Follies (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018), Diana Senechal examines words, co...

Cailin O’Connor, "The Misinformation Age: How False Beliefs Spread" (Yale UP, 2018)

20 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Why should we care about having true beliefs? And why do demonstrably false beliefs persist and spread despite bad, even fatal, consequences for the p...

Paul Matzko, "The Radio Right" (Oxford UP, 2020)

20 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Today’s right wing media has a long history that is largely unknown to its current listeners. In The Radio Right: How a Band of Broadcasters Took on...

Forrest Stuart, "Ballad of the Bullet: Gangs, Drill Music, and the Power of Online Infamy" (Princeton UP, 2020)

13 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

How do young men use drill music and social media to gain power? In his new book, Ballad of the Bullet: Gangs, Drill Music, and the Power of Online In...

E. Michele Ramsey, "Major Decisions: College, Career, and the Case for the Humanities" (U Penn Press, 2019)

13 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

On this episode of the New Books Network, Lee Pierce (she/they) interviews E. Michele Ramsey of PennState Berks on Major Decisions: College, Career, a...

John R. Gallagher, "Update Culture and the Afterlife of Writing" (Utah State UP, 2020)

11 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

On this episode, Lee Pierce (she/they interviews John R. Gallagher of University of Illinois about Update Culture and the Afterlife of Digital Writing...

J. Packer and E. Stoneman, "A Feeling of Wrongness: Pessimistic Rhetoric on the Fringes of Popular Culture" (Penn State UP, 2019)

06 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

On this episode, Lee Pierce (she/they) interviews Joe Packer of Central Michigan University about A Feeling of Wrongness: Pessimistic Rhetoric on the ...

M. R. Michelson and B. F. Harrison, "Transforming Prejudice: Identity, Fear, and Transgender Rights" (Oxford UP, 2020)

04 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Since the mid-1990s, there has been a seismic shift in attitudes toward gay and lesbian people, with a majority of Americans now supporting same-sex m...

Andre Brock, "Distributed Blackness: African American Cybercultures" (NYU Press, 2020)

01 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Technology has been instrumental in allowing audiences to encounter expressions of culture to which they may have no direct connection. The popular co...

Adam J. MacLeod, "The Age of Selfies: Reasoning About Rights When the Stakes Are Personal" (Rowland and Littlefield, 2020)

30 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Incivility in our public discourse is limiting our ability to get things done as a nation and preventing us from expressing ourselves in workplaces an...

Leslie M. Harris, "Slavery and the University: Histories and Legacies" (U Georgia Press, 2019)

28 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Slavery and the University: Histories and Legacies (University of Georgia Press, 2019), edited by Leslie M. Harris, James T. Campbell, and Alfred L. B...

Abraham Newman and Henry Farrell, "Of Privacy and Power: The Transatlantic Struggle over Freedom and Security" (Princeton UP, 2019)

27 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

We live in an interconnected world. People, goods, and services leap across borders like never before. Terrorist organizations, like al-Qaida, and dig...

Christopher D. Bader, "Fear Itself: The Causes and Consequences of Fear in America" (NYU Press, 2020)

22 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

From moral panics about immigration and gun control to anxiety about terrorism and natural disasters, Americans live in a culture of fear. While fear ...

Thor Magnusson, "Sonic Writing: Technologies of Material, Symbolic, and Signal Inscriptions" (Bloomsbury Academic, 2019)

15 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In Sonic Writing: Technologies of Material, Symbolic, and Signal Inscriptions (Bloomsbury Academic, 2019), Thor Magnusson—musician, Professor of Fut...

Amy Koerber, “From Hysteria to Hormones: A Rhetorical History" (Penn State UP, 2018)

07 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

On this episode of New Books in Language, Dr. Lee Pierce (she/they) interviews Dr. Amy Koerber (she/hers), Professor at Texas Tech University, on the ...

Paul Nahin, "Hot Molecules, Cold Electrons" (Princeton UP, 2020)

03 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Hot Molecules, Cold Electrons: From the Mathematics of Heat to the Development of the Trans-Atlantic Telegraph Cable (Princeton University Press, 2020...

Arthur Asseraf, "Electric News in Colonial Algeria" (Oxford UP, 2019)

03 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Arthur Asseraf’s Electric News in Colonial Algeria (Oxford University Press, 2019) examines the workings of the “news ecosystem” in Algeria from...

Matt Cook, "Sleight of Mind: 75 Ingenious Paradoxes in Mathematics, Physics, and Philosophy" (MIT Press, 2020)

30 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Paradox is a sophisticated kind of magic trick. A magician's purpose is to create the appearance of impossibility, to pull a rabbit from an empty hat....

Neil Selwyn, "What is Digital Sociology?" (Polity, 2019)

27 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The rise of digital technology is transforming the world in which we live. Our digitalized societies demand new ways of thinking about the social, and...

Margaret E. Roberts, "Censored: Distraction and Diversion Inside China’s Great Firewall" (Princeton UP, 2020)

27 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

We often think of censorship as governments removing material or harshly punishing people who spread or access information. But Margaret E. Roberts’...

Joseph Reagle, "Hacking Life: Systematized Living and its Discontents" (MIT Press, 2019)

26 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Life hackers track and analyze the food they eat, the hours they sleep, the money they spend, and how they're feeling on any given day. They share tip...

Tweeting the Word of God: Evangelism from a "Digital Pulpit"

25 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Technological advancement through the 20th century has allowed religious leaders to broaden their reach, first through print, then televangelism, and ...

Kristen Hoerl, "Bad Sixties: Hollywood Memories of the Counterculture, Antiwar, and Black Power Movements" (UP of Mississippi, 2018)

24 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

On this episode of the New Books Network, Dr. Lee Pierce (she/they)--Asst. Prof. of Rhetoric and Communication at the State University of New York at ...

Joshua Foa Dienstag, "Cinema Pessimism: A Political Theory of Representation and Reciprocity" (Oxford UP, 2019)

23 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Joshua Foa Dienstag, Professor of Political Science and Law at UCLA, considers, in his new book, the interaction between our experiences in watching f...

Áine O'Healy, "Migrant Anxieties: Italian Cinema in a Transnational Frame" (Indiana UP, 2019)

20 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In her recently published Migrant Anxieties: Italian Cinema in a Transnational Frame (Indiana University Press, 2019), Áine O'Healy explores how film...

Ruth Palmer, "Becoming the News: How Ordinary People Respond to the Media Spotlight" (Columbia UP, 2017)

18 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In her book, Becoming the News: How Ordinary People Respond to the Media Spotlight (Columbia University Press, 2017), Ruth Palmer argues that understa...

Dennis Baron, "What's Your Pronoun?: Beyond He and She" (Liveright, 2020)

17 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Today Dennis Baron talks about his new book What's Your Pronoun?: Beyond He & She (Liveright, 2020). Baron is professor emeritus in English at the Uni...

Lewis Raven Wallace, “The View from Somewhere: Undoing the Myth of Journalistic Objectivity” (U Chicago Press, 2019)

17 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

From the New York Times to NPR, many major news organizations have strict policies about how reporters can conduct themselves in relation to the stori...

Travis Bell et al., "CTE, Media, and the NFL: Framing a Public Health Crisis as a Football Epidemic" (Lexington, 2019)

16 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Today we are joined by Travis Bell, Janelle Applequist, and Christian Dotson-Pierson to discuss their new book CTE, Media, and the NFL: Framing a Publ...

Andrew Milner, "Again, Dangerous Visions: Essays in Cultural Materialism​" (Brill/Haymarket, 2018)

11 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Again, Dangerous Visions: Essays in Cultural Materialism (Brill/Haymarket, 2018) brings together twenty-six essays charting the development of Andrew ...

M. Maloney, S. Roberts, and T. Graham, "Gender, Masculinity and Video Gaming: Analysing Reddit’s r/gaming Community" (Palgrave, 2019)

09 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

What can online social spaces like Reddit’s r/gaming reveal about gender attitudes, masculinized spaces, and turning points in gamer communities? In...