New Books Network

Toby Green, historian of seventeenth-century West Africa and author of A Fistful of Shells, recounts the life and trial of Crispina Peres, a powerful Cacheu trader accused by the Portuguese Inquisition. Short scenes evoke Cacheu’s streets, trade networks, healing rituals, female-led economies, and how a single trial reflected global shifts in empire and the slave trade.

David Albertson, a scholar of medieval and early modern theology and mathematics and author of The Geometry of Christian Contemplation, explores a counter-tradition that sees God in the measurable world. He traces geometric language in thinkers from Dionysius to medieval icon debates. He contrasts inward mysticism with exterior, sacramental attention to points, lines, and shapes and connects these ideas to modern measurement and technology.

Helen Sullivan, a public policy scholar and dean, reflects on pedagogy, emotion, and rigor in interpretive methods. Colette Einfeld, a postdoc and former PhD student, shares reflective perspectives on methodology and supervision. They discuss why they co-edited the book, diverse meanings of interpretivism, messiness and reflexivity in research, inclusive training, and how AI and emotions shape interpretive practice.

Alaina M. Morgan, an academic historian exploring Black and Muslim diasporas, discusses her book Atlantic Crescent. She traces overlapping Black, Afro‑Caribbean, and South Asian Muslim encounters using newspapers and archives. Topics include Muhammad Speaks, transnational figures like Abdul Basim Naeem, Bermuda’s diasporic politics, grassroots drug‑response programs, and how shared anti‑imperial struggles shaped imagined geographies.

Melissa Adler, Associate Professor at Western University and author of Peculiar Satisfaction, studies libraries, archives, and classification. She traces how Jefferson’s library and archival practices shaped classification, racialized knowledge, and museum objectification. The conversation highlights preservation as power, the persistence of exclusion in information systems, and the stakes for democracy and public institutions.

Jonathan Gleason, writer, instructor, and medical interpreter, discusses his debut essay collection Field Guide to Falling Ill. He traces personal crises, archival research, and drug histories. Conversations explore medical interpreting, HIV medication stories, opioid landscapes, and how a field-guide frame reveals the history and human costs of American healthcare.

Duy Lap Nguyen, Associate Professor in World Cultures and Literatures at the University of Houston, reinterprets Walter Benjamin as a coherent thinker. He traces Benjamin’s historical materialism, contrasts it with Kantian progress, and explores critiques of capitalist timelessness. The conversation touches on phantasmagoria, honoring the anonymous, and the relevance of Benjamin’s ideas for today’s politics and technology.

Misty L. Heggeness, an economist and co-director of the Kansas Population Center, uses pop stars like Taylor Swift to show how women reshape the economy. She discusses women reinventing careers, fans and social media as economic power, hidden unpaid care work, and practical reforms and networks that help women thrive. The conversation blends data, culture, and clear policy ideas.

Karin Wulf, historian of early America who studies women, families, and politics. She explores how eighteenth-century genealogy shaped law, slavery, religion, commerce, and mourning. Short stories about Quaker recordkeeping, transatlantic family business ties, and how lineage continued to matter after the Revolution.

Tara Lohan, environmental journalist and author focused on water and biodiversity. She discusses why storytelling connects readers to rivers. She explores dam removal methods, sediment management, and tradeoffs between wetlands and free-flowing rivers. She highlights tribal leadership, legal frameworks, and the social benefits of restoring waterways.