New Books Network

Alex Diamond, a sociologist and long-term ethnographer of rural Colombia, explores life in Briceño. He traces how collapsing legal markets pushed farmers into coca, the tradeoffs of coca substitution, and how dams and mining reshape livelihoods. He also examines tangled authority—state programs, guerrilla power, and local politics—and why roads, jobs, and public projects become central to peace and survival.

Senthorun Raj, an academic human rights lawyer at Manchester Metropolitan University, studies race, gender, sexuality and LGBTIQ+ rights. He explores how emotions like disgust, fear, love and joy shape law and reform. Conversations cover Stonewall, conversion therapy, inclusive sex education, and the idea of an emotional grammar that weaves feelings into legal change.

Stephen Grosz, a practicing psychoanalyst and bestselling author, brings forty years of clinical experience to bear. He explores why love feels so difficult. Short, vivid stories reveal resistance to change, the work of seeing ourselves clearly, the pressures on partnerships, and how mortality and gratitude shape our capacity to love.

Stephen Onyango Ouma, scholar of African philosophy and decolonial thought, discusses pathways to African sovereignty. He explores economic independence, epistemic freedom, Pan-African cooperation, youth activism, digital opportunities and risks, and the central role of African women. The conversation blends critique with imaginative visions for structural change and homegrown solutions.

Marta Lorimer, a Lecturer in Politics at Cardiff University and expert on far-right politics and European integration. She recounts discovering neo-fascist Europeanism and traces how far-right groups reframed Europe as identity, liberty, threat, and national interest. Conversation covers Italian and French trajectories, strategic opportunism, EU transformations, and links to contemporary politics like remilitarization.

Leland Brown, pastor and adjunct professor who studies first- and second-century Christianity, presents his book on early Christian visions for pastoral leadership. He highlights claims about the virtues leaders must show. He describes leaders’ teaching, oversight, caregiving, and charity. He traces continuity with New Testament traditions and the mix of unity and diversity across early communities.

Hilary Matfess, assistant professor studying gender and post-conflict politics, explores how wartime gains for women often erode after rebellions transition to parties. She discusses case studies from Ethiopia, Namibia, El Salvador, and Nepal. Topics include party- and individual-level choices to continue or moderate wartime roles, the fate of women’s wings, and implications for DDR and postwar policy.

Jennifer Wong, a Hong Kong–born poet living in the UK, discusses her new collection Light Year. The conversation traces sea imagery, silence and memory. It touches on diaspora, motherhood, identity, microaggressions and the craft of compression and cinematic imagery. Light and translation recur as spaces between people.

Andrew Lister, political philosopher and author of Justice and Reciprocity, explores reciprocity in Rawlsian thought. He explains reciprocity as a limiting condition on duties and its tie to relational equality. Short segments cover reciprocity’s forms, implications for UBI and incentives, duties to future generations, and global justice.

Anne Blackwill, a literature professor who has taught around the world and written on the life of Jesus, joins to discuss her working book God With Us. They explore John’s portrayal of Jesus and the Trinity. Conversations cover the incarnation, Gethsemane’s anguish, the meaning of the cross, resurrection hope, and how worship and community shape living with God’s presence.