This discussion is with Amber Jamilla Musser , a professor of English and Africana studies at the CUNY Graduate Center . She writes and researches at the intersections of race, sexuality, and aesthetics. She is the author of Sensational Flesh: Race, Power, and Masochism (NYU Press, 2014), Sensual Excess: Queer Femininity and Brown Jouissance (NYU Press, 2018), and Between Shadows and Noise: Sensation, Situatedness, and the Undisciplined (Duke University Press, 2024)....
Jun 10, 2025•55 min•Ep. 92
This discussion is with Philip Janzen, an Assistant Professor in the Department of History at the University of Florida. He studies the cultural and intellectual histories linking Africa and the Caribbean. He is the author of An Unformed Map: Geographies of Belonging between Africa and the Caribbean , published by Duke University Press in 2025. His research has also appeared in the American Historical Review , The Journal of African History , and the Journal of Social History ....
Jun 03, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 91
This episode includes discussions of suicide within the historical contexts of slavery, colonization, and empire. Please listen with care and be mindful of your well-being as you engage with this episode. If you or someone you know is in crisis or struggling, you are not alone. Support is available through the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988, or by texting TALK to 741741 to reach the Crisis Text Line. Thank you and please make sure to take care of yourself. This discussion is with Dr...
May 20, 2025•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 90
This discussion is with Dr. Therí A. Pickens received her undergraduate degree in Comparative Literature from Princeton University (P’05) and her PhD in Comparative Literature from UCLA (2010). She is a poet-scholar who focuses on Arab American Studies, Black Studies, Comparative Literature, and Disability Studies. In today’s conversation, we discuss her debut poetry collection What Had Happened Was , where she addresses topics ranging from Black life, popular culture, and history to individual ...
May 13, 2025•57 min•Ep. 89
This discussion is with Dr. Jessie Cox , an Assistant Professor of Music at Harvard University. Active as a composer, drummer, and scholar, his work thematizes questions at the intersection of black studies, music/sound studies, and critical theory. From Switzerland, with roots in Trinidad and Tobago, Dr. Cox thinks through questions of race, migration, national belonging, and our relation to the planet and the cosmos. His first monograph, the topic of this conversation, Sounds of Black Switzerl...
May 06, 2025•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 88
This discussion is with Dr. Devin Bryson and Dr. Molly Enz. Dr. Bryson is a professor of French and Francophone studies and Gender and Women's studies in the global studies program at Illinois College. He has published work in Research in African Literatures , the Journal of the African Literature Association , Black Camera , and African Studies Review . His research focuses on the cultural, cinematic, and literary practices and products from Francophone Africa, especially Senegal, and how those...
Apr 29, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 87
This discussion is with Dr. Jody Benjamin , a social and cultural historian of western Africa with expertise in the period between 1650 and 1850. He received his PhD in African and African American Studies at Harvard University in 2016. His research is informed by a methodological concern to center the diverse experiences and perspectives of Africans in ways that transcend the limitations of the colonial archive. His first book, the topic for this discussion, The Texture of Change: Dress, Self-F...
Apr 22, 2025•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 86
This discussion is with Dr. Sandhya Shukla is associate professor of English and American Studies at the University of Virginia, where she is also an affiliate faculty member of the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African American and African Studies. She is the author of India Abroad: Diasporic Cultures of Postwar America and England (Princeton University Press, 2003), and a co-editor of Imagining Our Americas: Toward a Transnational Frame (Duke University Press, 2007). Her work has appeared in...
Apr 15, 2025•55 min•Ep. 85
This discussion is with Dr. Laura Helton, a historian who writes about collections and how they shape our world. She is an Associate Professor of English and History at the University of Delaware, where she teaches African American literature, book history, archival studies, and public humanities. Her interest in the social history of archives arose from her earlier career as an archivist. She is a Scholar-Editor of “Remaking the World of Arturo Schomburg,” a collaborative digital project with F...
Apr 08, 2025•53 min•Ep. 84
This is John Drabinski and you’re listening to Conversations in Atlantic Theory, a podcast dedicated to books and ideas generated from and about the Atlantic world. In collaboration with the Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy, these conversations explore the cultural, political, and philosophical traditions of the Atlantic world, ranging from European critical theory to the black Atlantic to sites of indigenous resistance and self-articulation, as well as the complex geography of think...
Apr 01, 2025•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 83
This is Fatima Seck and you’re listening to Conversations in Atlantic Theory, a podcast dedicated to books and ideas generated from and about the Atlantic world. In collaboration with the Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy, these conversations explore the cultural, political, and philosophical traditions of the Atlantic world, ranging from European critical theory to the black Atlantic to sites of indigenous resistance and self-articulation, as well as the complex geography of thinking...
Mar 11, 2025•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 82
This is John Drabinski and you’re listening to Conversations in Atlantic Theory, a podcast dedicated to books and ideas generated from and about the Atlantic world. In collaboration with the Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy, these conversations explore the cultural, political, and philosophical traditions of the Atlantic world, ranging from European critical theory to the black Atlantic to sites of indigenous resistance and self-articulation, as well as the complex geography of think...
Mar 04, 2025•1 hr•Ep. 81
This discussion is with Dr. Bryan Sinche , a Professor and Chair of English at the University of Hartford. He has written more than twenty essays and reviews which appear in journals such as American Literary History, African American Review, ESQ , Legacy , and Biography and in collections published by Basic Books, Cambridge University Press, and the University of Wisconsin Press. He is also the editor of two books: The Guide for Teachers accompanying the third edition of the Norton Anthology of...
Feb 25, 2025•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 80
This discussion is with Professor Jenny Shaw , an Associate Professor of History at the University of Alabama where she teaches classes in the histories of the Caribbean, the Atlantic World, Comparative Slavery & Emancipation, and Early Modern Black Britain. She is the author of Everyday Life in the Early English Caribbean: Irish, Africans, and the Construction of Difference (University of Georgia Press, 2013) and she has published in Past & Present , The William & Mary Quarterly , a...
Feb 18, 2025•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 78
This discussion is with Dr. Nana Osei-Kofi , (she/her) a Professor Emerita of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies in the School of Language, Culture, and Society at Oregon State University. Her research centers on two primary lines of inquiry focused on justice and the politics of difference. One line examines structural shifts in higher education to promote equity and access, emphasizing curriculum transformation, change leadership, faculty recruitment, retention, and development. The second l...
Feb 11, 2025•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 79
This discussion is with Dr. Étienne Achille and Dr. Oana Panaïté . Dr. Achille is an Associate Professor of French and Francophone Studies at Villanova University. His publications include the monograph Mythologies postcoloniales. Pour une décolonisation du quotidien (2018, co-authored with L. Moudileno;) and the volume Postcolonial Realms of Memory: Sites and Symbols in Modern France (2020, co-edited with C. Forsdick and L. Moudileno). Dr. Panaïté is a Ruth N. Halls Professor of French and Fran...
Sep 12, 2024•1 hr 40 min•Ep. 77
This discussion is with Dr. Julia Hauser , a cultural historian interested in the entanglements of Europe, the US and Asia, mainly India and the Middle East, during the nineteenth and twentieth century. She has worked on female mission in late Ottoman Beirut, the entangled history of vegetarianism between Europe, the US, and India, and the global history of the plague. Her publications include German Religious Women in Late Ottoman Beirut published by Leiden: Brill in 2015, and The Moral Contagi...
Aug 23, 2024•55 min•Ep. 76
This discussion is with Dr. Imani D. Owens , an associate professor of English at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. She studies and teaches African American and Caribbean literature, music, and performance. Her research has been supported by a Postdoctoral Fellowship in African American Studies at Princeton University, a Woodrow Wilson Career Enhancement Fellowship, and an NEH funded residency at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Her work has appeared in the Cambridge Journal o...
Aug 23, 2024•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 75
You’re listening to Conversations in Atlantic Theory, a podcast dedicated to books and ideas generated from and about the Atlantic world. In collaboration with the Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy, these conversations explore the cultural, political, and philosophical traditions of the Atlantic world, ranging from European critical theory to the black Atlantic to sites of indigenous resistance and self-articulation, as well as the complex geography of thinking between traditions, ins...
Jul 14, 2024•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 74
You’re listening to Conversations in Atlantic Theory, a podcast dedicated to books and ideas generated from and about the Atlantic world. In collaboration with the Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy, these conversations explore the cultural, political, and philosophical traditions of the Atlantic world, ranging from European critical theory to the black Atlantic to sites of indigenous resistance and self-articulation, as well as the complex geography of thinking between traditions, ins...
Jul 09, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 73
You’re listening to Conversations in Atlantic Theory, a podcast dedicated to books and ideas generated from and about the Atlantic world. In collaboration with the Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy, these conversations explore the cultural, political, and philosophical traditions of the Atlantic world, ranging from European critical theory to the black Atlantic to sites of indigenous resistance and self-articulation, as well as the complex geography of thinking between traditions, ins...
Mar 18, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 72
You’re listening to Conversations in Atlantic Theory, a podcast dedicated to books and ideas generated from and about the Atlantic world. In collaboration with the Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy, these conversations explore the cultural, political, and philosophical traditions of the Atlantic world, ranging from European critical theory to the black Atlantic to sites of indigenous resistance and self-articulation, as well as the complex geography of thinking between traditions, ins...
Mar 15, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 71
This discussion is with Dr. Mark W. Deets , an Assistant Professor of African and World History and the Director of the Center for American Studies and Research at The American University in Cairo. His research and teaching focus on 19 th and 20th century West African social and cultural history, especially in the Senegambian region. His first book, A Country of Defiance: Mapping the Casamance in Senegal , is published in 2023 with Ohio University Press. Dr.Deets has also published his work in T...
Nov 22, 2023•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 70
Today’s discussion is with Dr. Marlene Daut , she is a Professor of French and African American Studies at Yale University and author of the recently published book Awakening the Ashes: An Intellectual History of the Haitian Revolution . She is series editor of New World Studies at UVA Press, co-editor of Global Black History at Public Books , and has been a featured writer in various magazines and newspapers, including The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Nation, Harper’s Bazaar , Essence, a...
Nov 21, 2023•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 70
This discussion is with Dr. Eziaku Nwokocha , an Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Miami. She is a scholar of Africana religions with expertise in the ethnographic study of Vodou in Haiti and the Haitian diaspora. Her research is grounded in gender and sexuality studies, visual and material culture and Africana Studies. Previously, Dr. Nwokocha held a position as a Presidential Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Religion at Princeton U...
Nov 20, 2023•1 hr 40 min•Ep. 69
You’re listening to Conversations in Atlantic Theory, a podcast dedicated to books and ideas generated from and about the Atlantic world. In collaboration with the Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy, these conversations explore the cultural, political, and philosophical traditions of the Atlantic world, ranging from European critical theory to the black Atlantic to sites of indigenous resistance and self-articulation, as well as the complex geography of thinking between traditions, ins...
Nov 16, 2023•1 hr 25 min•Ep. 68
This discussion is with Dr. Isaac Joslin who holds a PhD from the University of Minnesota in Francophone Studies. Currently Assistant Professor of Francophone Studies and Global Futures Scholar at Arizona State University, he has travelled extensively for research in Francophone Africa in Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Cameroon, Togo, Burkina Faso, Rwanda, and Burundi. His research interests include Postcolonial Francophone African literatures and cinemas, aesthetics and theories of representation, the...
Jul 25, 2023•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 67
Today’s discussion is with Dr. Tina Post , an Assistant Professor of English and Theater and Performance at the University of Chicago. Her recent first monograph, Deadpan: The Aesthetics of Black Inexpression , is the first book in NYU Press’s new Minoritarian Aesthetics series. Her scholarly articles have appeared in Modern Drama, TDR: The Drama Review, International Review of African American Art (IRAAA), ASAP/Journal, and the edited collection Race and Performance after Repetition (Duke Unive...
Mar 03, 2023•55 min•Ep. 66
Today’s discussion is with Dr. Rima Vesely-Flad , she is the author of Racial Purity and Dangerous Bodies: Moral Pollution, Black Lives, and the Struggle for Justice (Fortress Press, 2017). She is the Visiting Professor of Buddhism and Black Studies at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, where she teaches classes on Buddhism and social justice. She formerly taught classes in philosophy and social theory, and directed the Peace and Justice Studies program, at Warren Wilson College. In ad...
Feb 25, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 65
Jasmine Nichole Cobb is Professor of African & African American Studies and of Art, Art History and Visual Studies at Duke University, as well as a co-director of the “From Slavery to Freedom” (FS2F) Franklin Humanities Lab. A scholar of black cultural production and visual representation, Cobb is the author of two monographs, Picture Freedom: Remaking Black Visuality in the Early Nineteenth Century (NYUP 2015) and New Growth: The Art and Texture of Black Hair (Duke UP 2022). She is the edit...
Feb 22, 2023•45 min•Ep. 63
