New Books in Critical Theory

Latinos have long influenced everything from electoral politics to popular culture, yet many people instinctively regard them as recent immigrants rather than a longstanding racial group. In Inventing Latinos: A New Story of American Racism (The New Press, 2020), Laura Gómez, a leading expert on race, law, and society, illuminates the fascinating race-making, unmaking, and re-making of Latino identity that has spanned centuries, leaving a permanent imprint on how race operates in the United States today.Pulling back the lens as the country approaches an unprecedented demographic shift (Latinos will comprise a third of the American population in a matter of decades), Gómez also reveals the nefarious roles the United States has played in Latin America—from military interventions and economic exploitation to political interference—that, taken together, have destabilized national economies to send migrants northward over the course of more than a century. It’s no coincidence that the vast majority of Latinos migrate from the places most impacted by this nation’s dirty deeds, leading Gómez to a bold call for reparations. In this audacious effort to reframe the often-confused and misrepresented discourse over the Latinx generation, Gómez provides essential context for today’s most pressing political and public debates—representation, voice, interpretation, and power—giving all of us a brilliant framework to engage cultural controversies, elections, current events, and more.David-James Gonzales (DJ) is Assistant Professor of History at Brigham Young University. He is a historian of migration, urbanization, and social movements in the U.S., and specializes in Latina/o/x politics and social movements. Follow him on Twitter @djgonzoPhD. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/critical-theory

Award-winning sociologist Margaret A. Hagerman explores how children in Trump's America learn about race. Interviews reveal similar patterns in children's ideas about racism. Emotionally compelling stories of kids navigating political and racial divide. Children's racialized emotions like fear and solidarity are central. Discussion on impact of political movements on schools and children's racial identities.

Mark Stoll, an environmental historian, explores the historical impact of profit on the environment, from medieval Italy to the modern era of capitalism. He discusses the evolution of capitalism, the exploitation of resources, the role of slavery, and the rise of consumerism. Stoll highlights the environmental consequences of profit-driven policies and the urgent need for sustainable practices.

Jason Read discusses the intersection of Marx and Spinoza in relation to the politics of work, critiquing capitalism and societal perceptions of labor. Topics include workplace dynamics, labor politics, societal norms, and the impact of work relations on politics.

Michele Goodwin discusses the criminalization of motherhood in the US, highlighting shocking cases like women giving birth in prison toilets and facing coerced sterilization. She explores the historical context of oppression, racial disparities in legal treatment, and the impact on marginalized communities. The discussion extends to the over-policing of pregnancy behaviors, unjust detentions, and the need for explicit protections in reproductive rights

Psychoanalyst Jean Petrucelli and collaborators discuss challenging patriarchy through psychoanalytic perspectives, exploring boundary violations, black-feminist theories, and patriarchy within the trans community. They emphasize the need for dismantling patriarchy within psychoanalysis and society, addressing its impacts on diverse patient populations. The podcast delves into the collaboration process behind the book, highlighting the importance of intergenerational conversations and critiquing established norms in academia and therapy.

Alan H. McGowan discusses Franz Boas's impactful dual identity as a scientist and political activist, highlighting his work in cultural relativism and social justice. The podcast explores Boas's commitment to antiracism, cultural relativism, and social change, revealing the enduring relevance of his ideas in contemporary discussions on race and inequality. McGowan's insightful analysis makes this podcast a valuable resource for understanding the intersection of science and politics.

An interview with Prof. Salman Sayyid on one of the theoretical constructs that underpins Critical Muslim Studies: Post-Positivism. Interviewer: Hizer Mir. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/critical-theory

Amrita Ghosh's book Kashmir's Necropolis: Literary, Cultural, and Visual Texts (Lexington Books, 2023) is an interdisciplinary book that studies literary texts, film, photography, and art to understand the different forms of violence represented in the cultural productions from and on Kashmir. The author argues that selected texts present how the long conflict in the postcolonial nation-state transforms the Kashmiri body, the space, setting, the relationship between the subject and its natural world under different forms of violence. Each chapter showcases a form of representational and textual violence that emphasizes the shifts from biopolitical to necropolitical violence and also includes specific forms of violence such as epicolonialism, horrorism, and hauntings in Kashmir’s landscape. The book also delves into how the concepts of agency, resistance, and resilience in these different texts necessitate new poetics of looking at Kashmir. The conflicted space of Kashmir has always been located within the politics of representation and this book investigates a problem in taxonomy within postcolonial discourses to articulate unique forms of violence in such a conflicted space.Arnab Dutta Roy is Assistant Professor of World Literature and Postcolonial Theory at Florida Gulf Coast University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/critical-theory

It is widely acknowledged that the United States is in the grip of an enduring housing crisis. It is less frequently recognized that this crisis amounts to more than there being an insufficient supply of adequate shelter. It rather is tied to a range of other forms of social and economic vulnerability – and many of these forms of vulnerability impede a citizen’s capacity to function as a full member of society. What’s more, the familiar terms we deploy in discussing the housing crisis – gentrification, integration, segregation, and so on – stand in need of philosophical clarification.In Just Shelter: Gentrification, Integration, Race, and Reconstruction (Oxford UP, 2024), Ronald R. Sundstrom draws upon tools derived from moral philosophy, political theory, and urban studies to provide the beginning of a comprehensive analysis of justice in “social-spatial arrangements.” He proposes a liberal-egalitarian and reconstructive, yet pragmatic, approach to addressing the challenges posed by our country’s legacy of unjust housing policies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/critical-theory