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Off the Page: A Columbia University Press Podcast

New Books Network

Interviews with Columbia University Press authors.

arts books

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42:56

Mrinalini Chakravorty, “In Stereotype: South Asia in...

Off the Page: A Columbia University Press Podcast ·

2015/08/02

In Stereotype: South Asia in the Global Literary Imaginary (Columbia University Press, 2014) is a masterful account of the importance of the stereotype in English language South Asian literature. Mrinalini Chakravorty explores such tropes as the crowd in Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children; slums in Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger; and death in Michael Ondaatje’s book Anil’s Ghost, amongst others. The focus on the stereotype’s enticing explanatory power casts fresh light on some of the most

69:34

Marion Holmes Katz, “Women in the Mosque: A History...

Off the Page: A Columbia University Press Podcast ·

2015/06/02

Recently, there have been various debates within the Muslim community over women’s mosque attendance. While contemporary questions of modern society structure current conversations, this question, ‘may a Muslim woman go to the mosque,’ is not a new one. In Women in the Mosque: A History of Legal Thought and Social Practice (Columbia University Press, 2014), Marion Holmes Katz, Professor of Islamic Studies at New York University, traces the juristic debates around women’s mosque attendance. Katz

53:17

Nicholas B. Dirks, “Autobiography of an Archive : A...

Off the Page: A Columbia University Press Podcast ·

2015/05/18

Nicholas B. Dirks‘ Autobiography of an Archive: A Scholar’s Passage to India (Columbia University Press, 2015) is a wonderful collection of essays, loosely arranged along the line’s of the author’s scholarly life. The chapters touch upon themes such as empire and the politics of knowledge, as well as the experience of archival research. Illuminating, lucid and always challenging, Autobiography of an Archive is a stimulating and pleasurable read.

53:20

Asaad al-Saleh, “Voices of the Arab Spring: Personal...

Off the Page: A Columbia University Press Podcast ·

2015/05/16

Asaad al-Saleh is assistant professor of Arabic, comparative literature, and cultural studies in the Department of Languages and Literature and the Middle East Center at the University of Utah. His research focuses on issues related to autobiography and displacement in Arabic literature and political culture in the Arab world. His Book Voices of the Arab Spring: Personal Stories from the Arab Revolutions (Columbia University Press, 2015) is narrated by dozens of activists and everyday individuals,

71:09

Jie Li, “Shanghai Homes: Palimpsests of Private Life”...

Off the Page: A Columbia University Press Podcast ·

2015/03/30

What’s not to love about Jie Li‘s new book? Shanghai Homes: Palimpsests of Private Life (Columbia University Press, 2015) explores the history and culture of Shanghai alleyway homes by focusing on two physical spaces, both built in the early twentieth century by Japanese and British companies, and both located in...

65:07

Wilt Idema, “The Resurrected Skeleton: From Zhuangzi...

Off the Page: A Columbia University Press Podcast ·

2015/03/04

Wilt Idema‘s new book traces a story and its transformations through hundreds of years of Chinese literature. The Resurrected Skeleton: From Zhuangzi to Lu Xun (Columbia University Press, 2014) collects and translates variations of the tale of Master Zhuang in his encounter with a skeleton who comes back to life...

65:04

Evan Thompson, “Waking, Dreaming, Being: Self and...

Off the Page: A Columbia University Press Podcast ·

2015/02/15

The quest for an explanation of consciousness is currently dominated by scientific efforts to find the neural correlates of conscious states, on the assumption that these states are dependent on the brain. A very different way of exploring consciousness is undertaken within various Indian religious traditions, in which subtle states of consciousness and transitions between such states can be revealed through meditation. In Waking, Dreaming, Being: Self and Consciousness in Neuroscience, Meditation,

64:09

Amrita Pande, “Wombs in Labor: Transnational...

Off the Page: A Columbia University Press Podcast ·

2014/11/04

Amrita Pande‘s Wombs in Labor: Transnational Commercial Surrogacy in India (Columbia University Press 2014) is a beautiful and rich ethnography of a surrogacy clinic. The book details the surrogacy process from start to finish, exploring the intersection of production and reproduction, complicating and deepening our understanding of this particular form of labour.

61:36

Mary-Jane Rubenstein, "Worlds Without End: The Many...

Off the Page: A Columbia University Press Podcast ·

2014/09/29

Where can the the boundaries of science, philosophy, and religion be drawn? Questioning the nature of the universe is an excellent place to rethink how these categories have been deployed across time. Mary-Jane Rubenstein, professor Religious Studies at Wesleyan University, offers a genealogy of multiple-world cosmologies that demonstrates these terms pliability and the debated relationship between 'Science' and 'Religion.' In Worlds Without End: The Many Lives of the Multiverse (Columbia University

54:16

Mari Ruti, “The Call of Character: Living a Life...

Off the Page: A Columbia University Press Podcast ·

2014/09/21

Exploring everything from the impact of her own psychoanalysis on her mode and mien to the effect of consumer culture on the psyche, the delightful Mari Ruti keeps the ball rolling. We pondered with her so many things that the interview feels like xmas morning! Traversing the advent of self-help books, Lacan, the Frankfurt School, the super ego, the repetition compulsion, hegemony, trauma, love and more, there is seemingly no topic germane to psychoanalysis and daily life that Ruti shies away

55:48

Nabil Matar, “Henry Stubbe and the Beginnings of...

Off the Page: A Columbia University Press Podcast ·

2014/09/18

In Henry Stubbe and the Beginnings of Islam: The Originall and Progress of Mahometanism (Columbia University Press, 2014), Nabil Matar masterfully edits an important piece of scholarship from seventeenth-century England by scholar and physician, Henry Stubbe (1632-76). Matar also gives a substantial introduction to his annotated edition of Stubbe’s text by situating the author in his historical context. Unlike other early modern writers on Islam, Stubbe’s ostensible goals were not to cast Islam in a

39:59

Peter Maguire and Mike Ritter, “Thai Stick” (Columbia...

Off the Page: A Columbia University Press Podcast ·

2014/03/29

Reading Peter Maguire and Mike Ritter‘s book Thai Stick: Surfers, Scammers and the Untold Story of the Marijuana Trade (Columbia Press, 2013) is the most fun I have had doing this podcast. Maguire makes a point during the interview that police officers preferred to arrest marijuana smugglers because they were so laid back and safe to handle. You get the same feeling reading his account of the members of the roaming hippy/surfer community who fund their lifestyle through ‘scams’, that is, smuggling

74:37

Andrea Bachner, “Beyond Sinology: Chinese Writing and...

Off the Page: A Columbia University Press Podcast ·

2014/03/23

Andrea Bachner‘s wonderfully interdisciplinary new book explores the many worlds and media through which the Chinese script has been imagined, represented, and transformed. Spanning literature, film, visual and performance art, design, and architecture, Beyond Sinology: Chinese Writing and the Scripts of Culture (Columbia University Press, 2014) uses the sinograph as a frame to...

52:19

Lawrence J. Friedman, “The Lives of Erich Fromm:...

Off the Page: A Columbia University Press Podcast ·

2014/01/02

Erich Fromm, one of the most widely known psychoanalysts of the previous century, was involved in the exploration of spirituality throughout his life. His landmark book The Art of Loving, which sold more than six million copies worldwide, is seen as a popular handbook on how to relate to others and how to overcome the narcissism ingrained in every human being. In his book The Lives of Erich Fromm: Love’s Prophet (Columbia University Press, 2013), Harvard professor Lawrence J. Friedman explores the

30:36

Philip Kretsedemas, “The Immigration Crucible:...

Off the Page: A Columbia University Press Podcast ·

2013/09/16

Philip Kretsedemas is the author of The Immigration Crucible: Transforming Race, Nation, and the Limits of the Law (Columbia UP 2012). He is associate professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. The book begins with a discussion of the conventional explanations, justifications, and advocacy for and against immigration. That background frames the current debate now occurring at the federal level on immigration reform. The book addresses that larger context but focuses a lot on

61:05

Michael Marder, “Plant-Thinking: A Philosophy of...

Off the Page: A Columbia University Press Podcast ·

2013/09/14

“If animals have suffered marginalization throughout the history of Western thought, then non-human, non-animal living beings, such as plants, have populated the margin of the margin”, a “zone of absolute obscurity” in which their mode of existence from a philosophical perspective is not even question-worthy. So writes Michael Marder, Ikerbasque Research Professor of Philosophy at the University of the Basque Country in the Basque autonomous region of Spain, in his new book, Plant-Thinking: A

62:38

Michael F. Armstrong, “They Wished they were Honest:...

Off the Page: A Columbia University Press Podcast ·

2013/06/19

Anyone who studies police corruption will be aware of the Knapp Commission that examined allegations of police corruption in New York City in the 1970s. Not only was this famous because of the movie Serpico, but also most of the terminology used in corruption studies of police came from the report of the commission. Michael F. Armstrong was the chief counsel to the commission and this book is a history of the formation and operation of the inquiry. Holding a major commission of inquiry is not

74:18

Fabio Lanza, “Behind the Gate: Inventing Students in...

Off the Page: A Columbia University Press Podcast ·

2013/05/30

The history of modern China is bound up with that of student politics. In Behind the Gate: Inventing Students in Beijing (Columbia University Press, 2010), Fabio Lanza offers a masterfully researched, elegantly written, and thoughtful consideration of the emergence of “students” as a category in twentieth-century China. Urging us to...

45:11

Kara Newman, “The Secret Financial Life of Food: From...

Off the Page: A Columbia University Press Podcast ·

2013/01/29

Chocolate fans out there may know all about the latest chocolate happenings, from Hershey’s “Air Delight,” a bar of aerated milk chocolate, to Cadbury’s new melt-resistant chocolate, which apparently remains solid even after three hours at 104 degrees. But unless you happen to be a chocoholic who follows the financial news, you may not have heard of “ChocFinger,” a British hedge fund manager named Anthony Ward. In 2010, Ward purchased 240,000 tons of chocolate–seven percent of the global

80:08

Abdulkader Tayob, “Religion in Modern Islamic...

Off the Page: A Columbia University Press Podcast ·

2011/10/05

Many people believe that the current Islamic resurgence is not necessarily a “return of religion,” but rather a continuation of tradition. According to this line of thought, therefore, Islam is essentially resistant to modernity and incompatible with contemporary secular societies. But is this really the case? Abdulkader Tayob, professor of Religion at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, examines this question in his new book Religion in Modern Islamic Discourse (Columbia University Press,

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Off the Page: A Columbia University Press Podcast

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