New Books in Sociology

New Books Network

Episodes

Mentioned books

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May 13, 2026 • 55min

Amy D. McDowell, "Whispers in the Pews: Evangelical Uniformity in a Divided America" (NYU Press, 2026)

Amy D. McDowell, a sociologist who studies religion, race, gender, and sexuality, discusses how everyday small talk in evangelical churches produces an appearance of political and cultural sameness. She explores how welcoming practices, avoidance of politics, race and gender tensions, and quieted dissent combine to normalize conformity. The conversation focuses on how mundane interactions enable broader Christian nationalist dynamics.
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May 13, 2026 • 53min

Rina Bliss, "What's Real About Race: Untangling Science, Genetics, and Society" (W.W. Norton, 2025)

A conversation tracing the messy history of race as a genetic category and how scientists inconsistently use racial labels. They unpack sociogenomics, polygenic scores, and the Eurocentric limits of current datasets. The discussion flags biotech commercialization and the pressures that keep racialized ideas alive in research and medicine.
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May 12, 2026 • 52min

Chiara Libiseller, "Reconceptualizing War: The Rise and Fall of Fashionable Concepts in Strategic Studies" (Oxford UP, 2026)

Chiara Libiseller, Lecturer in strategic studies at King’s College London and author of Reconceptualizing War, examines how concepts in strategic studies rise like fashions and then fade. She traces revolution in military affairs, counterinsurgency, and hybrid warfare. Short, sharp takes explore why concepts become dominant, how practitioners propel and abandon them, and what that means for research and reflexivity.
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May 9, 2026 • 1h 3min

Zeina Al-Azmeh, "Syrian Intellectuals in Exile: The Dilemmas of Revolution and the Cost of Leaving" (Cambridge UP, 2026)

Zeina Al-Azmeh, a political sociologist at Cambridge who studies exile and intellectual life, joins to discuss Syrian intellectuals displaced after 2011. She contrasts Paris and Berlin contexts. Short takes cover methodological dilemmas of using participants' writing, divisions within the exile field, persecution capital, Orientalist pressures, the dual gaze, trauma work, and possibilities after Assad's fall.
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May 8, 2026 • 1h 2min

Steffen Mau et al., "The Trigger Points: Inequality and Political Polarization in Contemporary Society" (Policy Press, 2026)

Linus Westhäuser, senior researcher at the Max Planck Institute who studies inequality and political conflict, discusses Trigger Points. He explains how ordinary people often hold nuanced, middle-ground or undecided views. He maps four conflict arenas—migration, climate, diversity and economic justice—and introduces the idea that specific 'trigger points' ignite wider polarization tied to social inequality.
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May 7, 2026 • 1h 9min

Fighting for a Foothold: How Government and Markets Undermine Black Middle-Class Suburbia

Dr. Angela Simms, assistant professor of sociology and urban studies and author of Fighting for a Foothold, studies Black middle-class suburbia and metropolitan inequality. She discusses Prince George’s County’s fiscal struggles, how historical policies and market practices limit public goods, retail redlining and investment barriers, and policy ideas like regional coordination, revenue reforms, and reparative investments.
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May 4, 2026 • 47min

Russell McCutcheon, "Manufacturing Religion: The Discourse on Sui Generis Religion and the Politics of Nostalgia, second edition" (Oxford UP, 2026)

Russell McCutcheon, scholar of religion and critic of the sui generis idea, reflects on the 2026 second edition of his controversial book. He revisits how the discourse of religion shapes textbooks, institutions, and media. Short takes explore Eliade’s legacy, alternatives to treating religion as unique, and practical strategies for academic departments and teaching.
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May 4, 2026 • 1h 5min

Siniša Malešević, "Nationalism as a Way of Life: The Rise and Transformation of Modern Subjectivities" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

Siniša Malešević, comparative historical sociologist and author, discusses how nationalism shapes everyday life and modern subjectivity. He explores nationalism as ideology and practice, its embedding in institutions and diasporas, links with war and comradeship, and how globalization and contemporary politics transform and sustain national imaginaries.
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Apr 30, 2026 • 54min

William I. Robinson, "Epochal Crisis: The Exhaustion of Global Capitalism" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

William I. Robinson, Distinguished Professor of Sociology at UC Santa Barbara and author on global capitalism, outlines the multifaceted crisis exhausting capitalism today. He surveys 1970s structural shifts, transnational hegemony breakdown, ecological limits, state legitimacy dilemmas, overaccumulation and social reproduction strain. The conversation closes with discussion of global resistance and democratic socialist possibilities.
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Apr 29, 2026 • 43min

Vindhya Buthpitiya, "A Volatile Picture: War and the Political Work of Photography in Sri Lanka" (U Washington Press, 2026)

Vindhya Buthpitiya, an anthropologist who studies ethnonationalist conflict and visual/media cultures in Sri Lanka, discusses how photography shaped political life during and after the civil war. She explores studio and everyday images, ID photos turned into memorials and protest tools, the role of photographers as community memory-keepers, and photography’s shifting power across competing nationalisms.

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