New Books in Sociology

Russell McCutcheon, "Manufacturing Religion: The Discourse on Sui Generis Religion and the Politics of Nostalgia, second edition" (Oxford UP, 2026)

04 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

First published in 1997, Manufacturing Religion was a controversial book because it critiqued a widely adopted style of scholarship that presumes th...

Siniša Malešević, "Nationalism as a Way of Life: The Rise and Transformation of Modern Subjectivities" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

04 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

While nationalism is a term that is often associated with instability, violence, extremism, terrorism, wars and even genocide, in fact most forms of n...

William I. Robinson, "Epochal Crisis: The Exhaustion of Global Capitalism" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

30 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Epochal Crisis: The Exhaustion of Global Capitalism (Cambridge UP, 2025) is the most recent book from Professor William Robinson, Distinguished Pr...

Vindhya Buthpitiya, "A Volatile Picture: War and the Political Work of Photography in Sri Lanka" (U Washington Press, 2026)

29 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A Volatile Picture: War and the Political Work of Photography in Sri Lanka (U Washington Press, 2026) by Dr. Vindhya Buthpitiya is a groundbreaking ...

Francisco Martínez, "The Future of Hiding: Secrecy, Infrastructure, and Ecological Memory in Estonia's Siberia" (Cornell UP, 2025)

28 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

How can lives and things that are rendered invisible be crucial to identity, politics, and the future? Drawing on experimental ethnographic research i...

Heather Shay, "Identity Building Among Role-Playing Gamers: Slaying Goblins in the Real World" (Bloomsbury, 2025)

27 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In Identity Building Among Role-Playing Gamers: Slaying Goblins in the Real World (Bloomsbury 2025), Heather Shay draws from 19 months of particip...

Ida Susser, "The Yellow Vests and the Battle for Democracy: Taking to the Streets of Paris in the 21st Century" (Routledge, 2026)

25 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Written under the shadow of growing authoritarianism in the United States and Europe, this book is an effort to understand resistance movements of the...

Mujun Zhou, "The Death and Life of Chinese Civil Society" (U Michigan Press, 2026)

24 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In a society undergoing rapid transformation, how do people engage in debates around a foreign concept and in doing so, pursue contested political fut...

Berardino Palumbo, "Where Saints Show Respect: Mafia, Modernity, and Rituals of Power" (Berghahn Books, 2026)

22 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Where Saints Show Respect: Mafia, Modernity, and Rituals of Power is an anthropological exploration of how authority is produced not only through vio...

Abigail Ocobock, "Marriage Material: How an Enduring Institution Is Changing Same-Sex Relationships" (U Chicago Press, 2024)

21 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

It is no secret that marriage rates in the United States are at an all-time low. Despite this significant decline, the institution of marriage endures...

Gwyneth Lonergan, "Borders, Citizenship, and Pregnancy: Migrant Women’s Experiences of Pregnancy and Maternity Care in the UK" (Bristol UP, 2025)

16 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Using the analytical framework of reproductive justice, Borders, Citizenship, and Pregnancy: Migrant Women’s Experiences of Pregnancy and Maternity...

Lia Kent, "The Unruly Dead: Spirits, Memory, and State Formation in Timor-Leste" (U Wisconsin Press, 2024)

16 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

“What might it mean to take the dead seriously as political actors?” asks Lia Kent in this exciting new contribution to critical human rights scho...

Larry M. Bartels and Katherine J. Cramer, "The Politics of Social Change: From the Sixties to the Present Through the Eyes of a Generation" (U Chicago Press, 2026)

15 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Few time periods have been as defined by waves of monumental social change as the United States during the 1960s. Even today, almost sixty years later...

Yingyi Ma, "Ambitious and Anxious: How Chinese College Students Succeed and Struggle in American Higher Education" (Columbia UP, 2020)

15 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In Ambitious and Anxious: How Chinese College Students Succeed and Struggle in American Higher Education (Columbia UP, 2020), sociologist Yingyi Ma ...

Beans Velocci, "Sex Isn't Real: The Invention of an Incoherent Binary" (Duke UP, 2026)

11 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In Sex Isn’t Real: The Invention of an Incoherent Binary (Duke UP, 2026), Beans Velocci traces the history of current high stakes attempts ...

Cedric de Leon, "Freedom Train: Black Politics and the Story of Interracial Labor Solidarity" (U California Press, 2025)

09 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Our guest today is Cedric de Leon, author of Freedom Train: Black Politics and the Story of Interracial Labor Solidarity (U California Press, ...

Melissa Butcher, "The Trouble with Freedom: Love, Hate and America’s Future" (Manchester UP, 2026)

07 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

As Melissa Butcher puts it in her book The Trouble with Freedom: Love, Hate and America’s Future (Manchester UP, 2026) when asked to rank the imp...

Ho-fung Hung, "The China Question: Eight Centuries of Fantasy and Fear" (Cambridge UP, 2026)

06 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

"The contempt and naive idealization of China are two sides of the same coin. The latter cannot be an antidote to the former." So argues Ho-Fung Hung...

Alex Diamond, "Governing the Excluded: Rural Livelihoods Beyond Coca in Colombia's Peace Laboratory" (U Chicago Press, 2026)

06 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The Colombian village of Briceño might, at first glimpse, look like many communities in the rural Global South. Many of the people living there rely ...

Kristina Jonutytė, "Between the Buddha and the New Tsar: Urban Religion and Minority Politics at the Asian Borderlands of Russia" (Cornell UP, 2026)

01 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Between the Buddha and the New Tsar: Urban Religion and Minority Politics at the Asian Borderlands of Russia (Cornell UP, 2026) by Dr. Kristina Jonut...

Caste and Tech with Murali Shanmugavelan and Sareeta Amrute

30 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

This episode features a conversation with Murali Shanmugavelan and Sareeta Amrute about how caste structures IT workspaces and communication infrastru...

Derek Krueger "Monastic Desires: Homoeroticism, Homophobia, and the Love of God in Medieval Constantinople" (Cambridge UP, 2026)

30 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Derek Krueger Monastic Desires: Homoeroticism, Homophobia, and Love of God in Medieval Constantinople (Cambridge UP, 2026) The Byzantine Abbot Syme...

Kristin Ciupa, "The Political Economy of Oil in Venezuela: Class Conflict, the State, and the World Market" (Brill, 2026)

29 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The Political Economy of Oil in Venezuela: Class Conflict, the State, and the World Market (Brill, 2026) is the latest book from Dr. Kristin Ciup...

Zheng Liu, "Cultural Mavericks: The Business and Politics of Independent Bookselling in China" (Columbia UP, 2026)

28 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In recent decades, self-proclaimed “independent bookstores” have arisen across China. In the West, such retailers represent an alternative to corp...

Thomas Hegghammer and Diego Gambetta eds., "Fight, Flight, Mimic: Identity Mimicry in Conflict" (Oxford UP, 2024)

28 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Time spent and words spent—what does each signal? Deceptive mimicry—the manipulation of individual or group identity—includes passing off as a ...

The Criminal Record Complex: Risk, Race, and the Struggle for Work in America

26 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Most employers in the United States routinely conduct criminal background checks on job applicants, weeding out those with criminal convictions—a...

Sarah Jaffe, "Work Won't Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone" (Bold Type Books, 2021)

25 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In Work Won’t Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone (Bold Type Books, 2021), Sarah Jaffe argues that...

Ken Chitwood, "Borícua Muslims: Everyday Cosmopolitanism Among Puerto Rican Converts to Islam" (U Texas Press, 2025)

23 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Ken Chitwood's Borícua Muslims: Everyday Cosmopolitanism among Puerto Rican Converts to Islam (University of Texas Press, 2025), uses rich ethnog...

Deirdre Flynn and Mary McGill eds., "Irish Digital Cultures: Identity, Contexts, Space" (Routledge, 2025)

22 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Irish Digital Cultures: Identity, Contexts, Space (Routledge, 2025) explores how questions of Ireland and Irishness are represented in online enviro...

Orsi Husz, "Bankminded: Banks As Intimate Agents of Everyday Life in Welfare State Sweden" (Palgrave MacMillan, 2025)

22 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In today’s world, it is almost impossible to go through the day without interacting with a bank—whether through a salary payment, a debit card, a ...

Gabrielle Oliveira, "Now We Are Here: Family Migration, Children’s Education, and Dreams for a Better Life" (Stanford UP, 2025)

20 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Who gets to live a life with dignity? Each day, families around the world make the difficult decision to leave their homes in search of safety, stabil...

 ⁠The Collective Cure: Upstream Solutions for Better Public Health⁠

19 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A powerful blend of deeply human stories and rigorous research, The Collective Cure: Upstream Solutions for Better Public Health (Beacon ...

Sunmin Kim, "The Unruly Facts of Race: The Politics of Knowledge Production in the Early Twentieth-Century Immigration Debate" (U Chicago Press, 2026)

19 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

What happens when theories of racial hierarchies interact with reality? How are they contested, refuted and changed in light of that encounter? What r...

Joseph Weiss, "Irreconcilable: Indigeneity and the Violence of Colonial Erasure in Contemporary Canada" (UNC Press, 2026)

17 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Since the early 2000s, the Canadian government has attempted reconciliation with Indigenous Nations through varied efforts: treaty processes, gover...

Upper Caste Liberalism with Ravikant Kisana

16 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

This episode features a conversation with Ravikant Kisana, Dean of the School of Liberal Education and Languages at Galgotias University in India, abo...

What’s on Her Mind: The Mental Workload of Family Life

12 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Mothers and fathers use their time differently, with women spending roughly twice as many hours on family labor as men. But what about the gendered di...

Biko Koenig, "Worker Centered: Allyship & Action in the Contemporary Labor Movement" (Oxford UP, 2024)

11 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Worker Centered: Allyship & Action in the Contemporary Labor Movement (Oxford UP, 2024) is a close-to-the-ground, ethnographic narrative o...

Sari Hanafi, "Against Symbolic Liberalism: A Plea for Dialogical Sociology" (Liverpool UP, 2025)

11 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In an era of deepening polarization, Sari Hanafi examines how social scientists often reproduce the very injustices they seek to challenge, taking ent...

Tamara Kay, "Sesame Street Around the World: Culture, Politics, and Transnational Organizational Partnerships" (Oxford UP, 2025)

07 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Given the sometimes extraordinary politicization of culture, it is surprising that Sesame Street has gained acceptance and legitimacy in more than fif...

Eleanor Gordon et al., "Working-Class Courtship, Marriage, and Divorce in Scotland, 1855–1939" (Oxford UP, 2025)

06 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Working-Class Courtship, Marriage, and Divorce in Scotland, 1855–1939 (Oxford UP, 2025) by Professor Eleanor Gordon, Professor Katie Barclay, and D...

Michael James Roberts et al., "Roll and Flow: The Cultural Politics of Skateboarding and Surfing" (San Diego State UP, 2024)

05 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In Roll and Flow: The Cultural Politics of Skateboarding and Surfing (San Diego State UP, 2024),  Michael James Roberts, Kristin Lawler, and Dav...

Jennifer Randles, "Living Diaper to Diaper: The Hidden Crisis of Poverty and Motherhood" (U California Press, 2026)

05 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Many of us take diapers for granted. Yet diaper insecurity is a common, often hidden consequence of poverty in the US, where nearly half of American f...

Nicole E. Trujillo-Pagán, "Detroit Never Left: Black Space, White Borders, Latino Crossings" (NYU Press, 2025)

03 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Detroit seemed to experience an explosive rebirth following its bankruptcy, the largest in US municipal history. It was as if the slate had been wiped...

Miguel Sicart, "Playing Software: Homo Ludens in Computational Culture" (MIT Press, 2023)

02 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The play element at the heart of our interactions with computers—and how it drives the best and the worst manifestations of the information age. Whe...

Elliot Dolan-Evans, "Making War Safe for Capitalism: The World Bank, IMF, and the Conflict in Ukraine" (Bristol UP, 2025)

28 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Making War Safe for Capitalism: The World Bank, IMF, and the Conflict in Ukraine (Bristol UP, 2025) by Dr. Elliot Dolan-Evans examines the impact of ...

Alice Wiemers, "Village Work: Development and Rural Statecraft in Twentieth-Century Ghana" (Ohio UP, 2021)

28 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Most development histories focus on large-scale projects and multi-year plans. But how would we understand development differently if we chose a diffe...

The Shtetl: Myth and Reality with Samuel Kassow

27 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Even those who do not know much Yiddish have probably heard the word “shtetl,” but what does that word mean exactly? Can we just say that it was a...

A Light in the Tower: A New Reckoning with Mental Health in Higher Education

26 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A Light in the Tower argues that excellent education and radical support for mental health struggles can coexist, and provides detailed advice for ho...

Zalman Newfield, "Brooklyn Odyssey: My Journey Out of Hasidism" (Temple UP, 2026)

23 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Growing up in Crown Heights, Brooklyn as a member of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic Orthodox Jewish community, Zalman Newfield was raised in an atmosphe...

Michelle Jackson, "The Division of Rationalized Labor" (Harvard UP, 2025)

21 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

How have jobs changed in the last 150 years? In The Division of Rationalized Labor (Harvard UP, 2025) Michelle Jackson, an Associate Profess...

Jessica Martin, "Feminisms and Domesticity in Times of Crisis: The Rise of the Austerity Celebrity" (Bloomsbury, 2025)

21 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Is the home still a site for feminist resistance? In Feminisms and Domesticity in Times of Crisis: The Rise of the Austerity Celebrity Jessica Marti...

The American Mirage: How Reality TV Upholds the Myth of Meritocracy

19 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In an age of growing wealth disparities, politicians on both sides of the aisle are sounding the alarm about the fading American Dream. Yet despite al...

Agustín Santella and Adrián Piva, "Marxism, Social Movements and Collective Action" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023)

16 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Marxists have an obvious interest in understanding social movements. Less obvious, even with the voluminous theoretical archives at hand, is how to pu...

Alexis Lerner, "Post-Soviet Graffiti: Free Speech in Authoritarian States" (U Toronto Press, 2025)

16 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Post-Soviet Graffiti: Free Speech in Authoritarian States (University of Toronto Press, 2025) is an empirically grounded ethnographic study of how gr...

Sourit Bhattacharya, "Postcolonialism Now: Literature, Reading, Decolonising" (Orient BlackSwan, 2024)

13 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Postcolonialism Now: Literature, Reading, Decolonising (Orient BlackSwan, 2024) by Sourit Bhattacharya introduces a new method of decolonial read...

Peer Schouten, "Roadblock Politics: The Origins of Violence in Central Africa" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

08 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Peer Schouten, of the Danish Institute for International Studies, has written a breathtaking book. Roadblock Politics: The Origins of Violence in Cen...

Linda Connolly and Tina O’Toole, "Documenting Irish Feminisms: The Second Wave" (Arlen House, 2022)

08 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Linda Connolly is a professor of sociology at Maynooth University, with research focusing on gender, Irish society, family studies, migration, and Iri...

Olivier Esteves, "France, You Love It but Leave It: The Silent Flight of French Muslims" (Polity, 2025)

06 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Their names are Mohamed, Samira, sometimes Matthieu or Sophie. They were born and bred in France and are highly qualified, but they have decided to go...

Educated Out: How Rural Students Navigate Elite Colleges—And What It Costs Them

05 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Rural students are unlikely to pursue degrees from private, selective schools. Why? And what happens to the handful of rural students who do attend el...

Nina Bandelj, "Overinvested: The Emotional Economy of Modern Parenting" (Princeton UP, 2026)

05 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Parents are exhausted. When did raising children become such all-consuming, never-ending, incredibly expensive, and emotionally absorbing effort? In t...

P. C. Saidalavi, "Seeking Allah's Hierarchy: Caste, Labor, and Islam in India" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2025)

04 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Why Muslims in South India observe hierarchical intra-communal relationships despite the egalitarianism of their religionIn Seeking Allah’s Hierarc...

David McCrone, "Changing Scotland: Society, Politics and Identity" (Edinburgh UP, 2025)

03 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Scotland is a nation that has undergone significant changes over the last 50 years or so. This is, of course, true of much of the Western world but, a...

Jason Roberts, "We Stay the Same: Subsistence, Logging, and Enduring Hopes for Development in Papua New Guinea" (U Arizona Press, 2024)

02 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

An ethnography of indigenous lives amidst subsistence labor, large-scale logging, and unrealized schemes, We Stay the Same: Subsistence, Logging, and...

The Caste Question with Suraj Yengde and Anupama Rao

01 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

TCP’s inaugural episode features Suraj Yengde and Anupama Rao, two scholars whose academic work and activism have helped to set the parameters of th...

Maurice Rafael Magaña, "Cartographies of Youth Resistance: Hip-Hop, Punk, and Urban Autonomy in Mexico" (U California Press, 2020)

01 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In Cartographies of Youth Resistance: Hip-Hop, Punk, and Urban Autonomy in Mexico (U California Press, 2020), based on a decade of ethnographic fiel...

Michael Stambolis-Ruhstorfer, "By the Power Vested in Me: How Experts Shape Same-Sex Marriage Debates" (Columbia UP, 2025)

30 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In both the United States and France, each side of the legal battle over same-sex marriage and parenthood relied heavily on experts. Despite the simil...

163* The Drama of Celebrity with Sharon Marcus (JP)

29 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

As Oscar Season rolls around, Recall This Book looks back to John's 2019 discussion with Columbia University professor Sharon Marcus about The Drama ...

Ghost in the Criminal Justice Machine

29 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Despite reform efforts that have grown in scope and intensity over the last two decades, the machine of American mass incarceration continues to flour...

Kimberley Johnson, "Dark Concrete: Black Power Urbanism and the American Metropolis" (Cornell UP, 2025)

25 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Dark Concrete: Black Power Urbanism and the American Metropolis (Cornell UP, 2025) by Dr. Kimberley Johnson is about how the Black Power movement res...

Lauren D. Sawyer, "Growing Up Pure: White Girls, Queer Teens, and the Racial Foundations of Purity Culture" (NYU Press, 2025)

22 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Gaining mass popularity in the mid-1990s with the True Love Waits rally on the Washington Mall, purity culture began as an urge from evangelical conse...

Robert Dorschel, "The Social Codes of Tech Workers: Class Identity in Digital Capitalism" (MIT Press, 2025)

20 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Who are the people staffing the digital economy? In The Social Codes of Tech Workers: Class Identity in Digital Capitalism (MIT Press, 2025) Rob...

Emily Hund, "The Influencer Industry: The Quest for Authenticity on Social Media" (Princeton UP, 2023)

19 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Before there were Instagram likes, Twitter hashtags, or TikTok trends, there were bloggers who seemed to have the passion and authenticity that tradit...

Ryan Donovan, "Broadway Bodies: A Critical History of Conformity" (Oxford UP, 2023)

18 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Broadway has body issues. What is a Broadway Body? Broadway has long preserved the ideology of the "Broadway Body": the hyper-fit, exceptionally able,...

Di Wu et. al, eds., "China As Context: Anthropology, Post-globalisation and the Neglect of China" (Manchester UP, 2025)

16 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A provocative collaborative project, China as Context challenges the marginalization of Chinese-grounded ideas in academia, arguing that neglecting ...

Emily Walton, "Homesick: Race and Exclusion in Rural New England" (Stanford UP, 2025)

16 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A racial demographic transition has come to rural northern New England. White population losses sit alongside racial and ethnic minority population...

Leah Lowthorp, "Deep Cosmopolitanism: Kutiyattam, Dynamic Tradition, and Globalizing Heritage in Kerala, India" (Indiana UP, 2025)

14 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Deep Cosmopolitanism: Kutiyattam, Dynamic Tradition, and Globalizing Heritage in Kerala, India explores the extraordinary past and present of Kutiyat...

Ofer Sharone, "The Stigma Trap: College-Educated, Experienced, and Long-Term Unemployed" (Oxford UP, 2024)

12 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

An eye-opening look at how all American workers, even the highly educated and experienced, are vulnerable to the stigma of unemployment. After receivi...

Julia H. Meszaros, "Economies of Gender: Masculinity, "Mail Order Brides," and Women’s Labor" (Rutgers UP, 2025)

12 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Economies of Gender: Masculinity, "Mail Order Brides," and Women's Labor (Rutgers University Press, 2025) by Dr. Julia Meszaros offers a provocative ...

Anita Gonzalez, "Shipping Out: Race, Performance, and Labor at Sea" (U Michigan Press, 2025)

10 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Shipping Out: Race, Performance, and Labor at Sea (University of Michigan Press, 2025) by Dr. Anita Gonzalez provides a rare perspective on performan...

Sarah Kunz, "Expatriate: Following a Migration Category" (Manchester UP, 2023)

09 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Who are expatriates? How do they differ from other migrants? And why should we care about such distinctions? Expatriate: Following a Migration Catego...

Lesley Nicole Braun, "Congo's Dancers: Women and Work in Kinshasa" (U Wisconsin Press, 2023)

05 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Today I spoke with Lesley Nicole Braun to talk about her new book on Congo's dancers. Dance music plays a central role in the cultural, social, relig...

Julia Elyachar, "On the Semicivilized: Coloniality, Finance, and Embodied Sovereignty in Cairo" (Duke UP, 2025)

04 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

On the Semicivilized: Coloniality, Finance, and Embodied Sovereignty in Cairo (Duke University Press, 2025) by Julia Elyachar is a sweeping analysis...

Arseli Dokumaci, "Activist Affordances: How Disabled People Improvise More Habitable Worlds" (Duke UP, 2023)

04 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

For people who are living with disability, including various forms of chronic diseases and chronic pain, daily tasks like lifting a glass of water or ...

Judd B. Kessler, "Lucky by Design: The Hidden Economics of Getting More of What You Want" (Little, Brown Spark, 2025)

03 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

What's the secret to scoring a reservation at a hot new restaurant? When should you enter a lottery to increase your odds of winning? Why did your nei...

Matt Dawson, "The Political Durkheim: Sociology, Socialism, Legacies" (Routledge, 2023)

02 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Matt Dawson's The Political Durkheim: Sociology, Socialism, Legacies (Routledge, 2023) presents Durkheim as an important political sociologist, ins...

Henry Grabar, "Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World" (Penguin, 2023)

01 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Parking, quite literally, has a death grip on America: each year a handful of Americans are tragically killed by their fellow citizens over parking sp...

Henrike Kohpeiß, "Bourgeois Coldness" (Divided Publishing, 2025)

27 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Bourgeois Coldness (Divided Publishing, 2025) refers to an affective strategy that offers an explanation for how self-preservation works. Bour...

Suvi Rautio, "The Invention of Tradition in China: Story of a Village and a Nation Remade" (Springer Nature, 2024)

25 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Today, anthropologist Professor Anru Lee is joining NBN as a guest host to interview me, Suvi Rautio, on my new book, The Invention of Tradition in ...

Emanuel Deutschmann, "Mapping the Transnational World: How We Move and Communicate Across Borders, and Why It Matters" (Princeton UP, 2022)

23 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Increasingly, people travel and communicate across borders. Yet, we still know little about the overall structure of this transnational world. Is it r...

Karma F. Frierson, "Local Color: Reckoning with Blackness in the Port City of Veracruz" (U California Press, 2025)

23 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Caribbean port city of Veracruz is many things. It is where the Spanish first settled and last left the colony that would go on to become Mexico. ...

Christian Smith, "Why Religion Went Obsolete: The Demise of Traditional Faith in America" (Oxford UP, 2025)

22 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Is traditional American religion doomed?Traditional religion in the United States has suffered huge losses in recent decades. The number of America...

Tourism and a Kyoto in Flux: A Conversation with Dr. Chiara Rita Napolitano

22 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In today’s episode Julia Olsson continues her talk with Dr. Chiara Rita Napolitano from last episode, and they discuss the issue of overtourism and ...

Caitlin Schroering, "Global Solidarities Against Water Grabbing: Without Water, We Have Nothing" (Manchester UP, 2024)

21 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Conflicts over water are human-caused events with socio-political and economic causes. From Brazil's Movimento dos Atingidos por Barragens (MAB) to en...

Nathan McGovern, "Seeing Through Religion: An Introduction to the Study of Religion and Religions" (Routledge, 2025)

20 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Seeing Through Religion is a cutting-edge textbook that gives students the tools to learn this valuable subject theoretically, McGovern argues that r...

Leila Hudson, "Lines of Flight, Assemblages of Home: Syrian Women Displaced" (Syracuse UP, 2025)

19 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

While humanitarian organizations and media outlets often reduce Syrian refugees to statistics or brief anecdotes, the real story of displacement unfol...

Sharon Sliwinski, "An Alphabet for Dreamers: How to See the World with Eyes Closed" (MIT Press, 2025)

18 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Borrowing from the traditional alphabet book genre for children, An Alphabet for Dreamers: How to See the World with Eyes Closed (MIT Press, 2025) b...

Ulinka Rublack, "Dürer's Coats: Renaissance Men and Material Cultures of Social Recognition" (CEU Press, 2025)

15 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Jana Byars meets one of her academic heroes when Ulinka Rublack joins her to talk about Dürer's Coats: Renaissance Men and Material Cultures of Soci...

James Sears, "Queering Rehoboth Beach: Beyond the Boardwalk" (Temple UP, 2024)

09 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

“Create A More Positive Rehoboth” was a decades-long goal for progress and inclusiveness in a charming beach town in southern Delaware. Rehoboth, ...

Andrea Flores, "The Succeeders: How Immigrant Youth Are Transforming What It Means to Belong in America" (UC Press, 2021)

08 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Dr. Andrea Flores’ most recent book, The Succeeders: How Immigrant Youth Are Transforming What It Means to Belong in America (University of Califo...

Sylvia D. Hoffert, "Wagging Tongues and Tittle Tattle: Gossip, Rumor, and Reputation in a Small Southern Town" (U Georgia Press, 2025)

08 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In Wagging Tongues and Tittle Tattle: Gossip, Rumor, and Reputation in a Small Southern Town (University of Georgia Press, 2025), Dr. Sylvia Hoffert...