New Books in Sociology
Episodes
Jean Yen-chun Lin, "A Spark in the Smokestacks: Environmental Organizing in Beijing Middle-Class Communities" (Columbia UP, 2023)
14 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Environmental organising in Beijing emerged in an unlikely place in the 2000s: new gated residential communities. After rapid population growth and ho...
Stephen Boucher et al., "The Routledge Handbook of Collective Intelligence for Democracy and Governance" (Routledge, 2023)
13 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Routledge Handbook of Collective Intelligence for Democracy and Governance (Routledge, 2023) explores the concepts, methodologies, and implicati...
Julian Go, "Policing Empires: Militarization, Race, and the Imperial Boomerang in Britain and the US" (Oxford UP, 2023)
12 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The police response to protests erupting on America's streets in recent years has made the militarization of policing painfully transparent. Yet, prop...
Regina Lee Blaszczyk and David Suisman, "Capitalism and the Senses" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2023)
11 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Regina Lee Blaszczyk and David Suisman's Capitalism and the Senses (U Pennsylvania Press, 2023) is the first edited volume to explore how the forces...
Jesse Dart, "Feeding the Hustle: Free Food & Care Inside the Tech Industry" (Lexington Books, 2022)
11 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Food is increasingly a subject of interest in social sciences: how we cook, consume, and share food is relevant to our social lives. In Feeding the H...
Sahana Ghosh, "A Thousand Tiny Cuts: Mobility and Security Across the Bangladesh-India Borderlands" (U California Press, 2023)
10 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Drawing on a decade of fieldwork in the borderlands of northern Bangladesh and eastern India, A Thousand Tiny Cuts: Mobility and Security Across the ...
Emily R. Aguiló-Pérez, "An American Icon in Puerto Rico: Barbie, Girlhood, and Colonialism at Play" (Berghahn Books, 2022)
08 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Since her debut in 1959, Barbie has transcended boundaries and transformed into a global symbol of femininity, capturing the imaginations of girls all...
Paul Fisher Davies, "Comics as Communication: A Functional Approach" (Palgrave MacMillan, 2019)
08 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Paul Fisher Davies' book Comics As Communication: A Functional Approach (Palgrave MacMillan, 2019) explores how comics function to make meanin...
Katharine M. Millar, "Support the Troops: Military Obligation, Gender, and the Making of Political Community" (Oxford UP, 2022)
08 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the past, it was assumed that men, as good citizens, would serve in the armed forces in wartime. In the present, however, liberal democratic states...
Genealogies of Modernity Episode 3: What Is Genealogy
07 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Genealogy, in Charles Darwin’s terms, is the study of “descent with modification.” Taken as an analogy for the study of history, genealogy can g...
Gregory J. Goalwin, "Borders of Belief: Religious Nationalism and the Formation of Identity in Ireland and Turkey" (Rutgers UP, 2022)
07 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Despite theories to the contrary, religious nationalism, and the use of religion to determine membership in the national community, has continued to p...
Dolly Kikon and Joel Rodrigues, "Food Journeys: Stories from the Heart" (Zubaan Books, 2023)
06 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Food Journeys: Stories from the Heart (Zubaan Books, 2023) is a powerful collection that draws on personal experiences, and the meaning of grief, ra...
James A. Chamberlain, "Undoing Work, Rethinking Community: A Critique of the Social Function of Work" (ILR Press, 2018)
06 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This revolutionary book presents a new conception of community and the struggle against capitalism. In Undoing Work, Rethinking Community: A Critique...
Amya Agarwal, "Contesting Masculinities and Women’s Agency in Kashmir" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022)
04 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What is the significance of gender and masculinities in understanding conflict? Through an ethnographic study conducted between 2013 and 2016, Amya Ag...
Anna M. Grzymała-Busse, "Sacred Foundations: The Religious and Medieval Roots of the European State" (Princeton UP, 2023)
03 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In Sacred Foundations: The Religious and Medieval Roots of the European State (Princeton University Press, 2023), political scientist Anna Grzymała...
Sara Byala, "Bottled: How Coca-Cola Became African" (Oxford UP, 2023)
03 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Travel to virtually any African country and you are likely to find a Coca-Cola, often a cold one at that. Bottled asks how this carbonated drink bec...
H. E. Sawyer, "I Am the Dark Tourist: Messenger of Remembrance" (Headpress, 2023)
03 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Dark tourism is the practice of visiting sites associated with death and disaster. Participation is increasing, yet much of the machinations behind da...
Chhaya Kolavalli, "Well-Intentioned Whiteness: Green Urban Development and Black Resistance in Kansas City" (U Georgia Press, 2023)
02 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Chhaya Kolavalli's book Well-Intentioned Whiteness: Green Urban Development and Black Resistance in Kansas City (U Georgia Press, 2023) documents ho...
Too Much Communication?
02 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Listen to Episode No.2 of All We Mean, a Special Focus of this podcast. All We Mean is an ongoing discussion and debate about how we mean and why. ...
Paola Cecchi-Dimeglio, "Diversity Dividend" (MIT Press, 2023)
01 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
From entry-level to the boardroom, what works to create large-scale change in organizations looking to accelerate their diversity, equity, and inclusi...
Astra Taylor, "The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart" (House of Anansi Press, 2023)
28 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
These days, everyone feels insecure. We are financially stressed and emotionally overwhelmed. The status quo isn’t working for anyone, even those wh...
Charlotte Al-Khalili, "Waiting for the Revolution to End: Syrian Displacement, Time and Subjectivity (UCL Press, 2023)
28 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Waiting for the Revolution to End: Syrian Displacement, Time and Subjectivity (UCL Press, 2023) by Dr. Charlotte Al-Khalili explores the Syrian revol...
Kevin F. Adler and Donald W. Burnes, "When We Walk By: Forgotten Humanity, Broken Systems, and the Role We Can Each Play in Ending Homelessness in America" (North Atlantic Books, 2023)
28 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Think about the last time that you saw or interacted with an unhoused person. What did you do? What did you say? Did you offer money or a smile, or di...
Sayan Dey, "Performing Memories and Weaving Archives: Creolized Cultures across the Indian Ocean" (Anthem Press, 2023)
27 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Usually, discourses on the planetary evolution and the movements of slaves remain restricted within the narratives and scholarships of the Trans-Atlan...
Ceri Houlbrook,"‘Ritual Litter' Redressed" (Cambridge UP, 2022)
27 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Ritual deposition is not an activity that many people in the Western world would consider themselves participants of. The enigmatic beliefs and magica...
Dan Senor and Saul Singer, "The Genius of Israel: The Surprising Resilience of a Divided Nation in a Turbulent World" (Simon and Schuster, 2023)
26 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How has a small nation of 9 million people, forced to fight for its existence and security since its founding and riven by ethnic, religious, and econ...
Saran Stewart et al., "Each One Teach One: Parental Involvement and Family Engagement in Jamaica's Education System" (U West Indies Press, 2022)
25 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Each One Teach One: Parental Involvement and Family Engagement in Jamaica’s Education System (University of the West Indies Press, 2022) is a colle...
Leontina Hormel, "Trailer Park America: Reimagining Working-Class Communities" (Rutgers UP, 2023)
24 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In rural northern Idaho in the winter of 2013-2014, Syringa Mobile Home Park’s water system was contaminated by sewage, resulting in residents’ wa...
Daniel Shea and Nicholas F. Jacobs, "The Rural Voter: The Politics of Place and the Disuniting of America" (Columbia UP, 2023)
24 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The widening gulf between rural and urban America is becoming the most serious political divide of our day. Support for Democrats, up and down the bal...
Sarah E. Stoller, "Inventing the Working Parent: Work, Gender, and Feminism in Neoliberal Britain" (MIT Press, 2023)
24 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Sarah E. Stoller, Inventing the Working Parent: Work, Gender, and Feminism in Neoliberal Britain (MIT Press, 2023) is the first historical examinati...
Robin Phylisia Chapdelaine et al., "When Will the Joy Come?: Black Women in the Ivory Tower" (U Massachusetts Press, 2023)
23 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How do Black women in higher education create, experience, and understand joy? What sustains them? While scholars have long documented sexism, racism,...
Boris Heersink, "National Party Organizations and Party Brands in American Politics" (Oxford UP, 2023)
23 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Political Scientist Boris Heersink’s new book guides the reader through over a century of politics and national parties in the United States. Heersi...
Jessi Streib, "The Accidental Equalizer: How Luck Determines Pay After College" (U Chicago Press, 2023)
23 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Are jobs fair? In The Accidental Equalizer: How Luck Determines Pay after College (U Chicago Press, 2023), Jessi Streib, an associate Professor of...
The Future of the Rural-Urban Divide: A Discussion with Nicholas F. Jacobs and Daniel M. Shea
20 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The town/countryside split has always been a feature of democratic Western politics and has impacted party choice. The advent of rust belts may have a...
Lidia Katia C. Manzo, "Gentrification and Diversity: Rebranding Milan's Chinatown" (Springer, 2023)
20 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Lidia Katia C. Manzo's book Gentrification and Diversity: Rebranding Milan's Chinatown (Springer, 2023) examines lived experiences of making, inhab...
Andrew Brandel, "Moving Words: Literature, Memory, and Migration in Berlin" (U Toronto Press, 2023)
19 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the decades since the fall of the Berlin Wall, Berlin has re-emerged as a global city in large part thanks to its reputation as a literary city –...
Jason Puskar, "The Switch: An Off and On History of Digital Humans" (U Minnesota Press, 2023)
18 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
From the telegraph to the touchscreen, how the development of binary switching transformed everyday life and changed the shape of human agency. The Sw...
Konstantinos Retsikas, "A Synthesis of Time: Zakat, Islamic Micro-finance and the Question of the Future in 21st-Century Indonesia" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020)
17 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In A Synthesis of Time: Zakat, Islamic Micro-finance and the Question of the Future in 21st-Century Indonesia (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), Konstanti...
Terah J. Stewart, "Sex Work on Campus" (Routledge, 2022)
17 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Terah J. Stewart's book Sex Work on Campus (Routledge, 2022) examines the experiences of college students engaged in sex work and sparks dialogue ab...
Laurence Ralph Reckons With Police Violence (EF, JP)
16 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the third episode of our Global Policing series, Elizabeth and John spoke back in 2020 with anthropologist Laurence Ralph about The Torture Let...
Huping Ling, "Chinese Americans in the Heartland: Migration, Work, and Community" (Rutgers UP, 2022)
16 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This episode features a conversation with Dr. Huping Ling on her two latest books, Chinese Americans in the Heartland: Migration, Work, and Community...
Stefan Tanaka, "History without Chronology" (Lever Press, 2019)
15 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this interview, we talk with Stefan Tanaka, professor emeritus of UCSD and a specialist in modern Japanese history. He is author of two books on ...
Briana L. Wong, "Cambodian Evangelicalism: Cosmological Hope and Diasporic Resilience" (Pennsylvania State UP, 2023)
15 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Cambodian Civil War and genocide of the late 1960s and ’70s left the country and its diaspora with long-lasting trauma that continues to reverbe...
Pavitra Sundar, "Listening with a Feminist Ear: Soundwork in Bombay Cinema" (U Michigan Press, 2023)
15 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Pavitra Sundar's book Listening with a Feminist Ear: Soundwork in Bombay Cinema (U Michigan Press, 2023) is a study of the cultural politics and pos...
Martin Jay, "Immanent Critiques: The Frankfurt School under Pressure" (Verso, 2023)
15 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Frankfurt School’s own legacy is best preserved by exercising an immanent critique of its premises and the conclusions to which they often led. ...
Emily H. C. Chua, "The Currency of Truth: Newsmaking and the Late-Socialist Imaginaries of China's Digital Era" (U Michigan Press, 2023)
13 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
China’s news sector is a place where newsmakers, advertising executives, company bosses, and Party officials engage one another in contingent and ev...
Alison Halsall, "Growing Up Graphic: The Comics of Children in Crisis" (Ohio State UP, 2023)
12 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Halsall’s Growing Up Graphic: The Comics of Children in Crisis (Ohio State UP, 2023) has four primary objectives. One, it explores this visu...
Stephanie K. Kim, "Constructing Student Mobility: How Universities Recruit Students and Shape Pathways between Berkeley and Seoul" (MIT Press, 2023)
12 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Constructing Student Mobility: How Universities Recruit Students and Shape Pathways between Berkeley and Seoul (MIT Press, 2023) challenges the popul...
Cecilia Márquez, "Making the Latino South: A History of Racial Formation" (UNC Press, 2023)
12 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The presence of Latinx people in the American South has long confounded the region's persistent racial binaries. In Making the Latino South: A Histor...
Laleh Khalili, "Corporeal Life of Seafaring" (MACK, 2023)
11 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The body of the seafarer is a fulcrum upon which global systems of power, longstanding maritime traditions, and gendered and racialised pressures all ...
Huwy-min Lucia Liu, "Governing Death, Making Persons: The New Chinese Way of Death" (Cornell UP, 2023)
10 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Governing Death, Making Persons: The New Chinese Way of Death (Cornell UP, 2023) tells the story of how economic reforms and changes in the manageme...
Curtis Smith, "Homelessness and Housing Advocacy: The Role of Red-Tape Warriors" (Routledge, 2022)
09 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Through compelling ethnography, Homelessness and Housing Advocacy: The Role of Red-Tape Warriors (Routledge, 2022) reveals the creative and ambitio...
Chad Randl and D. Medina Lasansky, "Playing Place: Board Games, Popular Culture, Space" (MIT Press, 2023)
09 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
An essay collection exploring the board game's relationship to the built environment, revealing the unexpected ways that play reflects perceptions of ...
What Reality TV Says About Us
08 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Reality TV shapes and reflects how we see ourselves, and what we regard as normal. Professor Danielle J. Lindemann watched thousands of hours of reali...
Kathleen Mcphillips and Naomi Goldenberg, "The End of Religion: Feminist Reappraisals of the State" (Routledge, 2020)
08 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Feminist theory has enhanced and expanded the agency, influence, status and contributions of women throughout the globe. However, feminist critical an...
Colin McFarlane, "Waste and the City: The Crisis of Sanitation and the Right to Citylife" (Verso, 2023)
07 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In an age of pandemics the relationship between the health of the city and good sanitation has never been more important. Colin McFarlane, through W...
This Will Change Your Perspective on James Bond
07 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Bond movies have influenced portrayals of masculinity and femininity for decades, but the Daniel Craig-era saw a revolution in depictions of sex, ...
Vicki Howard, ed., "A Cultural History of Shopping in the Modern Age" (Bloomsbury, 2022)
07 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, I talk to Vicki Howard and Sarah Elvins, both contributors to Volume 6 of the anthology A Cultural History of Shopping. Jon Stobart...
Dannagal Goldthwaite Young, "Wrong: How Media, Politics, and Identity Drive Our Appetite for Misinformation" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2023)
06 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Over the past 40 years, lawmakers in America's two major political parties have taken increasingly extreme positions on ideological issues. Voters fro...
Michael Kaler, "Get Shown the Light: Improvisation and Transcendence in the Music of the Grateful Dead" (Duke UP, 2023)
06 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Of all the musical developments of rock in the 1960s, one in particular fundamentally changed the music’s structure and listening experience: the in...
Rory Coulter, "Housing and Life Course Dynamics: Changing Lives, Places and Inequalities" (Policy Press, 2023)
06 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Deepening inequalities and wider processes of demographic, economic, and social change are altering how people across the Global North move between ho...
Coastlines, Climate, and Comics: In Conversation with Dr. V. Chitra
05 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How can we use comics to present ethnographic research in new and unique ways? In this episode, we talk with Dr V Chitra about the fieldwork and comic...
Jan Selling, "Romani Liberation: A Northern Perspective on Emancipatory Struggles and Progress" (Central European UP, 2022)
05 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Well-known for his work in Critical Romani Studies, Jan Selling talks with Lavinia Stan about his latest book. Centered on Scandinavia, Romani Liber...
Gitte Marianne Hansen and Fabio Gygi, "The Work of Gender: Service, Performance and Fantasy in Contemporary Japan" (NIAS, 2022)
04 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Work of Gender: Service, Performance and Fantasy in Contemporary Japan (NIAS Press, 2022) is an edited volume of ethnographic research organized ...
James K. Beggan, "How Our Love of Dogs Creates Social Conflict" (Lexington Books, 2022)
03 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For the last twenty-thousand years, dogs and people have shared a unique bond in the animal kingdom. In How Our Love of Dogs Creates Social Conflict ...
Graham Denyer Willis, "Keep the Bones Alive: Missing People and the Search for Life in Brazil" (U California Press, 2022)
03 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Every year at least 20,000 people go missing in São Paulo, Brazil. Many will be found, sometimes in mundane mass graves, but thousands will not. Kee...
Anthony Hodgson, "Ready for Anything: Designing Resilience for a Transforming World" (Triarchy Press, 2011)
03 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Recently I had a chance to sit down for a long overdue chat with Anthony (Tony) Hodgson. When we last spoke it happened to be for my very first episod...
Nancy Lindisfarne and Jonathan Neale, "Why Men?: A Human History of Violence and Inequality" (Hurst, 2023)
03 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How did humans, a species that evolved to be cooperative and egalitarian, develop societies of enforced inequality? Why did our ancestors create patri...
Alexandra Hudson, "The Soul of Civility: Timeless Principles to Heal Society and Ourselves" (St. Martin's Press, 2023)
02 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Alexandra Hudson, daughter of the "Manners Lady," was raised to respect others. But as she grew up, Hudson discovered a difference between politeness-...
Akiko Takeyama, "Involuntary Consent: The Illusion of Choice in Japan’s Adult Video Industry" (Stanford UP, 2023)
02 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In a world dominated by the notion of autonomy, free choice, and consent, Akiko Takeyama takes us on a thought-provoking journey into the heart of Jap...
Gerard McCarthy, "Outsourcing the Polity: Non-State Welfare, Inequality, and Resistance in Myanmar" (Cornell UP, 2023)
01 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In late 2015 Daw Aung San Suu Kyi led Myanmar’s National League for Democracy to a smashing general election victory. In one of her first public app...
Daniele Lorenzini, "The Force of Truth: Critique, Genealogy, and Truth-Telling in Michel Foucault" (U Chicago Press, 2023)
01 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A groundbreaking examination of Michel Foucault’s history of truth. Many blame Michel Foucault for our post-truth and conspiracy-laden society. In t...
Michael Serazio, "The Authenticity Industries: Keeping It Real in Media, Culture, and Politics" (Stanford UP, 2023)
31 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In recent decades, authenticity has become an American obsession. It animates thirty years' worth of reality TV programming and fuels the explosive vi...
On Wars: A Discussion with Michael Mann
31 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
“Irrationality rules” in war, Michael Mann writes in his magisterial 2023 book, On Wars (Yale UP, 2023), a history that begins with the Roman R...
Dara Z. Strolovitch, "When Bad Things Happen to Privileged People: Race, Gender, and What Makes a Crisis in America" (U Chicago Press, 2023)
31 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A deep and thought-provoking examination of crisis politics and their implications for power and marginalization in the United States. From the clim...
Faiza Moatasim, "Master Plans and Encroachments: The Architecture of Informality in Islamabad" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2023)
30 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Among urban designers and municipal officials, the term encroachment is defined as a deviation from the official master plan. But in cities today, suc...
Claire Jean Kim, "Asian Americans in an Anti-Black World" (Cambridge UP, 2023)
30 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Where do Asian Americans fit into the U.S. racial order? How do we understand anti-Asian racism in relation to structural anti-Blackness? Are Asian Am...
Sarah Mayorga, "Urban Specters: The Everyday Harms of Racial Capitalism" (UNC Press, 2023)
29 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Racial capitalism, invisible but threaded throughout the world, shapes our lives. Focusing on the experiences of white, Black, and Latinx residents ...
Lesley Nicole Braun, "Congo's Dancers: Women and Work in Kinshasa" (U Wisconsin Press, 2023)
29 Oct 2023
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...
Simone Varriale, "Coloniality and Meritocracy in Unequal EU Migrations: Intersecting Inequalities in Post-2008 Italian Migration" (Bristol UP, 2023)
29 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How do migrants make sense of migration? In Coloniality and Meritocracy in unequal EU migrations: Intersecting Inequalities in Post-2008 Italian Migr...
Utsa Mukherjee, "Race, Class, Parenting and Children's Leisure: Children's Leisurescapes and Parenting Cultures in Middle-Class British Indian Families" (Policy Press, 2022)
29 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Children's leisure lives are changing, with increasing dominance of organised activities and screen-based leisure. These shifts have reconfigured pare...
Arjun Shankar, "Brown Saviors and Their Others: Race, Caste, Labor, and the Global Politics of Help in India" (Duke UP, 2023)
28 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In Brown Saviors and Their Others: Race, Caste, Labor, and the Global Politics of Help in India (Duke UP, 2023), Arjun Shankar draws from his ethnog...
Margaret K. Nelson, "Keeping Family Secrets: Shame and Silence in Memoirs from the 1950s" (NYU Press, 2022)
24 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
All families have secrets but the facts requiring secrecy change with time. Nowadays A lesbian partnership, a “bastard” son, an aunt who is a pros...
Jeremy Nobel, "Project UnLonely: Healing Our Crisis of Disconnection" (Avery Publishing Group, 2023)
24 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Even before the Covid pandemic began in 2020, chronic loneliness was a private experience of profound anguish that had become a public health crisis....
Özge Yaka, "Fighting for the River: Gender, Body, and Agency in Environmental Struggles" (U California Press, 2023)
23 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Fighting for the River: Gender, Body, and Agency in Environmental Struggles (U California Press, 2023) portrays women's intimate, embodied relationsh...
Melissa Weininger, "Beyond the Land: Diaspora Israeli Culture in the Twenty-First Century" (Wayne State UP, 2023)
21 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In her book, Beyond the Land: Diaspora Israeli Culture in the Twenty-First Century (Wayne State University Press, 2023), Melissa Weininger theorizes...
The Radical Imagination in Reactionary Times
21 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Professors Alex Khasnabish and Max Haiven are authors of a book called The Radical Imagination: Social Movement Research in the Age of Austerity (Bl...
Katherine Mason, "The Reproduction of Inequality: How Class Shapes the Pregnant Body and Infant Health" (NYU Press, 2023)
20 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Can you run a marathon, drink coffee, eat fish, or fly on a plane while pregnant? Such questions are just the tip of the iceberg for how most pregnant...
Maitrayee Deka, "Traders and Tinkers: Bazaars in the Global Economy" (Stanford UP, 2023)
20 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Michael O. Johnston sits down with Maitrayee Deka, Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Essex to discuss her new book Traders and Tinke...
Sébastien Tutenges, "Intoxication: An Ethnography of Effervescent Revelry" (Rutgers UP, 2022)
19 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For two decades, Sébastien Tutenges has conducted research in bars, nightclubs, festivals, drug dens, nightlife resorts, and underground dance part...
From the Indian Goddess to Icelandic Spirits
19 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A candid conversation with Corinne Dempsey on her wide-ranging, fascinating research in religion, from the Indian Goddess in New York and Icelandic ...
Katherine Jensen, "The Color of Asylum: The Racial Politics of Safe Haven in Brazil" (U Chicago Press, 2023)
18 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 2013, as Syrians desperate to escape a brutal war fled the country, Brazil took the remarkable step of instituting an open-door policy for all Syri...
Philipp Stelzel, "The Faculty Lounge: A Cocktail Guide for Academics" (Indiana UP, 2023)
18 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The life of a scholar is stressful. The best way to muddle through is with a stiff drink. Balancing teaching, research, and service more than merits a...
Michael A. Robinson, "Dangerous Instrument: Political Polarization and US Civil-Military Relations" (Oxford UP, 2022)
17 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
As increasingly contentious politics in the United States raise concerns over the "politicization" of traditionally non-partisan institutions, many ha...
Colin Dickey, "Under the Eye of Power: How Fear of Secret Societies Shapes American Democracy" (Viking, 2023)
17 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The United States was born in paranoia. From the American Revolution (thought by some to be a conspiracy organized by the French) to the Salem witch t...
AI, Post-Truth, and Cultural Transformation
16 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of International Horizons, RBI director John Torpey talks with economists Luciana Lazzaretti and Stefania Oliva of the University of F...
E. Summerson Carr, "Working the Difference: Science, Spirit, and the Spread of Motivational Interviewing" (U Chicago Press, 2023)
14 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Motivational interviewing (MI) is a professional practice, a behavioral therapy, and a self-professed conversation style that encourages clients to ta...
Margaret Hillenbrand, "On the Edge: Feeling Precarious in China" (Columbia UP, 2023)
14 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Margaret Hillenbrand’s On the Edge: Feeling Precarious in China (Columbia UP, 2023) examines the negative cultural forms that have emerged in resp...
Working Children: The Luxury and Complexity of Childhood in Lombok, Indonesia
13 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The International Labour Organization estimates that in Southeast Asia there are 30 million children engaged in paid work, 17 million in engaged in un...
Jeffrey S. Debies-Carl, "If You Should Go at Midnight: Legends and Legend Tripping in America" (UP of Mississippi, 2023)
13 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Across today’s America, countless people will embark on an adventure. They will prowl among overgrown headstones in forgotten graveyards, stalk thro...