New Books Network

PURANA Media is an annual, peer-reviewed, open access journal focused on modes of cultural production encompassed by the term purāṇa (a Sanskrit word designating things 'ancient’ or 'primordial'). Populated by deities, sages, and a host of other more-than-human agents, the purāṇic past has been disseminated through a wide range of media and forms of embodied knowledge. As an authoritative discourse, purāṇa has been integral to the shaping of history and cultural memory in early South and Southeast Asia. In the contemporary world this discourse continues to (re)create the past as a social, political, and affective force. The journal approaches purāṇa as a way of worldmaking that uses memories of a distant past to meaningfully anchor the relative present and envision a future possible. PURANA Media adopts a broad methodological and regional scope. The journal integrates scholarship on primary historical sources (textual, visual, and material) and their contexts, critical reflections on heritage-making and museum studies, as well as contributions in art, design, photography, and other media. Open Access: here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Borrowing from the traditional alphabet book genre for children, An Alphabet for Dreamers: How to See the World with Eyes Closed (MIT Press, 2025) by Dr. Sharon Sliwinski provides adult readers with a new grammar for dreams, or what neuroscientist Sidarta Ribeiro calls “oracles of the night.” In this book, Dr. Sliwinski restores dreaming to its proper place as an important worldmaking activity, one that offers a gateway to another way of seeing. Each of the short chapters engages a dream from the historical record—from both the recent and distant past—to show how these experiences can help make sense of profound social conflicts and transform our shared reality.Thinking alongside the dreams of powerful exemplars—from Harriet Tubman to contemporary Indigenous activist Abigail Echo-Hawk—readers come to understand how dream life is a crucial resource for generating new worlds and new ways of being. The book brings together urgent concerns from the domains of critical theory, visual culture, and mental health to show how dreaming serves as a vital source of knowledge and a critical mode of thinking.As with traditional alphabet books, illustrations provide an integral voice. Each chapter of the book is accompanied by an original watercolor painting by Melinda Josie that visually underscores the way dreams serve as a unique medium for processing our lived experience. Together, the images and text form a delicate dialogue, drawing attention to the details of the central scenes, extending the book’s special mode of thinking in painted form.By working alongside dreamers from the past and present, An Alphabet for Dreamers begins a new and much-needed conversation about the social and political importance of dream life. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Among the most common challenges on college campuses today is figuring out how to navigate our politically charged culture and engage productively with opposing viewpoints. In Try to Love the Questions: From Debate to Dialogue in Classrooms and Life (Princeton UP, 2024), Lara Schwartz introduces the fundamental principles of free expression, academic freedom, and academic dialogue, showing how open expression is the engine of social progress, scholarship, and inclusion. She sheds light on the rules and norms that govern campus discourse—such as the First Amendment, campus expression policies, and academic standards—and encourages students to adopt a mindset of inquiry that embraces uncertainty and a love of questions. Empowering students, scholars, and instructors to listen generously, explore questions with integrity, and communicate to be understood, Try to Love the Questions includes writing exercises and discussion questions in every chapter, making it an indispensable resource for anyone interested in practicing good-faith dialogue. Content note: The “test” Dr. Gessler references is a quiz on contraception, and the prevention and transmission of several different diseases; the prizes offered were candy bars. Our guest is: Professor Lara Schwartz, who focuses on dialogue across difference, freedom of speech and dissent, inclusive pedagogy, dispute resolution, and depolarization. Drawing on her experience as a legislative lawyer, lobbyist, and communications strategist in leading civil rights organizations, Professor Schwartz understands how to lay the groundwork for important, tough conversations across difference. She is the author of Try to Love the Questions. Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is a full-time writing coach, grad student coach, and developmental editor. She is the producer and show host of the Academic Life podcast. Playlist for listeners: The Good-Enough Life The Entrepreneurial Scholar What Do You Want Out of Life My What-if Year Gay on God's Campus Black and Queer On Campus Moments of Impact You Have More Influence Than You Think The Last Human Job The Ai Mirror Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You help support the show by downloading, teaching with, and recommending episodes. Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 300+ Academic Life episodes? Find them all here. And thank you for listening! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

It is often assumed that only sovereign states can join the United Nations. But this was not always the case. At the founding of the United Nations, a loophole drafted by British statesmen in its predecessor organisation, the League of Nations, was carried forward, allowing colonies to accede as member-states. Colonies such as India, Ireland, Egypt, and many more were afforded a tokenistic representation at the League in Geneva during the interwar years, decades before their independence. Thomas Gidney’s An International Anomaly unites three geographically distinct case studies to demonstrate the evolution of Britain's policy from a range of different viewpoints, exploring how this policy came into being, and why it was only exploited by the British Empire. He argues that this membership shaped colonial norms around sovereignty and international recognition in the interwar period and to the present day. Thomas Gidney is a postdoctoral researcher in international history and politics at the Geneva Graduate Institute. Lucas Tse is an Examination Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

For our Pandemic-era Books in Dark Times series, RTB spoke in 2020 with Carlo Rotella of Boston College. Rotella is the author of such gems as Good With Their Hands: Boxers, Bluesmen, and Other Characters from the Rust Belt and most recently has come out with What Can I Get out of This? along with some sparkling related pieces about AI in the classroom. Carlo is always worth listening to, in dark days... and darker ones, too. He starts by praising sagas, makes a case for stories of disagreeableness and plugs a remarkable book about preaching, deception, and the urge to belong. Tacitus, Germania Njal’s Saga Egil’s Saga Prose Edda Poetic Edda Haldor Laxness, Iceland’s Bell Mitch Weiss, Broken Faith Lawrence Wright, Going Clear (2013) P. G. Wodehouse My Man Jeeves (indeed, 1919) The Wizard of Id Robert E. Howard, Conan (first appearance 1932) Read transcript here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network