New Books Network

Melissa Butcher, a professor and program director who conducted extensive fieldwork across the US, explores how competing meanings of freedom polarize Americans. She discusses rural/urban divides, the El Paso border crossings, conservative youth organizing, COVID-related medical freedom, and local efforts that bridge deep disagreements.

Mark Blacknell, Zen practitioner, former Marine, and author of Just Stare at the Damn Wall!, brings a blunt, down-to-earth take on meditation. He talks about simple, body-centered practice, community work with prisoners and seniors, and why forgetting enlightenment can be useful. Expect frank talk on safety, practicality, and how repetition reshapes fear and stability.

Katharina Gensch, a doctoral candidate studying language learning among older adults, explores why seniors in Berlin take English classes. She discusses motivations like travel and culture. She examines how English’s ubiquity shapes belonging, sparks irritation, or is rejected as ageist. She highlights learning as a way for older adults to stay socially engaged and retain agency.

Leslie Barnes, Associate Professor of French Studies at ANU who studies Cambodian and Vietnamese literature and film. She discusses how fiction and film stage ambivalence around sex work under imperialism. Topics include colonial and rescue narratives, Rithy Panh’s documentary strategies, debates over terminology, sex tourism, cross-border marriage, and archival oral histories.

David Arditi, associate professor of sociology at UT Arlington and author of Music Technology Panic Narratives Beyond Piracy, explores how the music industry has reacted to new formats. He traces moral panics from cassette taping to Napster to TikTok. He highlights how formats shape listening practices, industry profits, and shifting song forms. The conversation maps recurring rhetoric and industry strategies around technological change.

David M. Perry, medieval historian turned university staffer and freelance writer, offers practical how-tos for scholars wanting to write for the public. He breaks down four core rules for public writing and shows how to craft strong pitches and short, goal-driven essays. He also covers pay and negotiation, using social media to build audience, and the best entry points like opinion pieces and reviews.

Peter Richardson, historian and author of Brand New Beat, traces Rolling Stone’s wild early years from 1967 San Francisco roots. He covers the magazine’s founding, its embrace of Bay Area counterculture, gonzo journalism and campaign reporting, the 1977 move to New York, shifts into celebrity and film coverage, and surprising early reporting on women and gay culture.

Dr. Andrew Park, historian of international relations and author of a book on Sarah Wambaugh, explores the rise and fall of plebiscites in the interwar world. He discusses archival sleuthing, Wambaugh’s rulebook for voting under international supervision, contested cases like Upper Silesia and the Saar, and how democratic tools became entangled with violence and appeasement.

Michaela Hulstyn, Associate Director at Stanford who studies phenomenology and French/Francophone literature. She talks about altered states that unsettle selfhood. Discussion covers global French perspectives, loss versus transcendence of the self, narrative choices for portraying unselfing, ethical stakes around empathy, and multilingual and traumatic transformations.

Dana Mele, YA author of The Beast You Let In, writes tense queer coming-of-age horror. She discusses twins and dual identity, rural isolation shaping queer danger, spiritualism and Ouija research, crafting Veronica’s voice through diary poems, multiple POVs and portraying neurodivergence authentically.