Faculty Spotlight: Lauren Wolfe, Paige Sweet, and Miranda Trimmier on Writing, Translation, and the Uses of Theory
In this episode of Faculty Spotlight, Lauren K. Wolfe, Paige Sweet, and Miranda Trimmier sit down to discuss BISR Practicum—the exciting new program they're spearheading this September (Lauren will be leading a Practicum on Literary Translation, Paige and Miranda on Creative-Critical Writing)—and what it means to combine theory and creative practice. The three talk about why literary work is not a solitary pursuit, and where, in the creative process, "theory" comes in. Also discussed: the task of the translator, and when, in the history of translation, its complexity began to be theorized; the reactionary ideal of the perfectly preservable past; the emergence and uses of autotheory; and how writers like Saidiya Hartman, Raquel Gutiérrez, Renee Gladman, and Nuar Alsadir (among others), model, in their works, the integration of theory and lived experience.
The Podcast for Social Research
From Plato to quantum physics, Walter Benjamin to experimental poetry, Frantz Fanon to the history of political radicalism, The Podcast for Social Research is a crucial part of our mission to forge new, organic paths for intellectual work in the twenty-first century: an ongoing, interdisciplinary series featuring members of the Institute, and occasional guests, conversing about a wide variety of intellectual issues, some perennial, some newly pressing. Each episode centers on a different topic and is accompanied by a bibliography of annotations and citations that encourages further curiosity and underscores the conversation’s place in a larger web of cultural conversations.
We enjoy producing the high quality and in-depth content that appears on the podcast, but it also takes time and resources. If you appreciate what you hear, consider supporting the podcast!
Podcast for Social Research, Episode 98: Sophie Lewis’s Femmephilia, Gender, Pleasure, and the Politics of Girly Things
In this episode, Sophie Lewis, Danya Glabau, and Paige Sweet hold a conversation in honor of Sophie’s new book, Femmephilia: Love Letters to Trans Mermaids, Queer Mothers, and Marilyn Monroe. Since at least the 1970s, a dominant strand of Western feminism has regarded femininity with suspicion, if not outright hostility. Given this “feminist machismo,” which is an […]
Podcast for Social Research, Episode 97: Slop Machine Anna Kornbluh and Kate Wagner on the Aesthetics of Contemporary Fascism
In this episode of the Podcast for Social Research Anna Kornbluh and Kate Wagner consider the aesthetics of contemporary American fascism in a conversation moderated by BISR’s Audrey Nicolaides. The fascism of the moment merges violent delight in destruction with nouveau riche vulgarity, middle class mediocrity, and internet meme culture. Despite incessant callbacks to the […]
Podcast for Social Research, Episode 96: Here Where We Live Is Our Country, An Evening with Molly Crabapple
The artist and writer Molly Crabapple joins journalist Spencer Ackerman and BISR’s Suzy Schneider in coversation about her new book, Here Where We Live Is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish Bund, which recreates the revolutionary world of the Bundists, and explores the interwoven histories of the Bund, the Russian Revolution, and the Holocaust. What […]
Podcast for Social Research, Episode 95: On Crisis and the Origins of Modern Iran
In this episode of the Podcast for Social Research, Suzanne Schneider and Soraya Batmanghelichi consider the current crisis in Iran, tracing its roots through the touchpoints of twentieth- and twenty-first-century Iranian history. Their conversation ranges over the origins of modern Iranian political and class structures from the eighteenth century to the present, European interventions in […]
Podcast for Social Research, Episode 94.5: B.F. Skinner Plays Himself — a Brief Film Guide
In this shortcast edition of the Podcast for Social Research, recorded live as part of BISR’s Occasional Evenings event series, BISR’s Isi Litke and Rebecca Ariel Porte talk with documentarian Ted Kennedy about his film, B.F. Skinner Plays Himself, composed of found footage from a never-released educational film about the famed radical behaviorist. The conversation covers […]
Podcast for Social Research, Episode 93: Political Humiliation, Collective Struggle: A Conversation with Roxanne Euben
Episode 94 of the Podcast for Social Research is a live recording of an event held at BISR Central to mark the publication of political theorist Roxanne Euben’s Driven to Their Knees: Humiliation in Contemporary Politics (Princeton University Press). The text examining visual, verbal, and embodied rhetorics of humiliation across a wide variety of Arabic […]
Podcast for Social Research, Episode 93: Nature’s Value — Alyssa Battistoni in Conversation with Nafis Hasan and Ajay Singh Chaudhary
Episode 93 of the Podcast for Social Research is a live recording of an event held at BISR Central to mark the publication of political theorist Alyssa Battistoni’s Free Gifts: Capitalism and the Politics of Nature (Princeton University Press). Battistoni joins BISR’s Ajay Singh Chaudhary and Nafis Hasan to discuss how capitalism, as a logic […]
(Pop) Cultural Marxism, Episode 19: Ghost of Yotei – A Specter is Haunting Ezo
In episode 19 of (Pop) Cultural Marxism, Isi and Ajay are joined by fellow BISR faculty Joseph Earl Thomas to discuss Ghost of Yotei, Sucker Punch Productions’ much-anticipated sequel to Ghost of Tsushima. To kick off the episode, Isi and Ajay chat about recent cultural news and highlights, from the Japanese government calling on OpenAI […]
Podcast for Social Research, Episode 92.5: Hangmen Also Die! — a Brief Film Guide
In this shortcast edition of the Podcast for Social Research, BISR’s Isi Litke and Jude Webre discuss Fritz Lang’s Hangmen Also Die! (1947). Loosely based on the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, and conceived by Lang and Bertolt Brecht mere weeks after his death, the film follows members of the Czech resistance as they attempt to […]