Looking for the perfect gift for a fellow book lover this year? Check out these fabulous new books by Ideas on Fire authors.
Want to see your book here next year? Get in touch to see how our team of developmental editors, copyeditors, indexers, and researchers can help you go from draft to published.
For the activist
When Monsters Speak: A Susan Stryker Reader
Susan Stryker and MacKenzie Wark
Duke University Press
A powerful collection of groundbreaking scholarship by feminist transgender theorist and historian Susan Stryker.
Postconflict Utopias: Everyday Survival in Chocó, Colombia
Tania Lizarazo
University of Illinois Press
A compelling exploration of Black women’s peace activism in the Colombian Black Pacific.
For the tech aficionado
Silicon Valley Imperialism: Techno Fantasies and Frictions in Postsocialist Times
Erin McElroy
Duke University Press
How the dispossession and gentrification logics of Silicon Valley have shaped post-Soviet Romania’s technocapitalism.
Experimental Times: Startup Capitalism and Feminist Futures in India
Hemangini Gupta
University of California Press
An engaging feminist ethnography of techno-futures and innovation in Bangalore and the role of precarity and experimentation in global cities.
Nonhuman Witnessing: War, Data, and Ecology after the End of the World
Michael Richardson
Duke University Press
A clever reimagining of the political and ethical power of witnessing in an era of climate change, drone warfare, and AI.
For the ethnographer
Unsettling Queer Anthropology: Foundations, Reorientations, and Departures
Margot Weiss
Duke University Press
A vibrant overview of the field of queer anthropology as well as how queer approaches to culture can transform anthropology.
Sin Padres, Ni Papeles: The Life and Labor of Unaccompanied Youth in the US
Stephanie L. Canizales
University of California Press
A groundbreaking account of how undocumented and unaccompanied migrant youth build new futures for themselves and their families.
Atmospheric Violence: Disaster and Repair in Kashmir
Omer Aijazi
University of Pennsylvania Press
A touching tribute to the everyday living and survival strategies created in atmospheres of empire and disaster.
Reconfiguring Racial Capitalism: South Africa in the Chinese Century
Mingwei Huang
Duke University Press
An astute ethnography of Chinese–South African economic relationships and South–South forms of racial capitalism.
For the media scholar
Black Networked Resistance: Strategic Rearticulations in the Digital Age
Raven Maragh-Lloyd
University of California Press
An insightful analysis of how Black technology users adapt and reshape resistance strategies and forge Black publics in the digital age.
In the Shadow of the Global North: Journalism in Postcolonial Africa
j. Siguru Wahutu
Cambridge University Press
A deft postcolonial take on African journalistic practices and news media in a changing media landscape.
Tactical Inclusion: Difference and Vulnerability in US Military Advertising
Jeremiah Favara
University of Illinois Press
A compelling read of the US military advertising and recruitment strategies targeting women and people of color.
For the environmentalist
Subjunctive Aesthetics: Mexican Cultural Production in the Era of Climate Change
Carolyn Fornoff
Vanderbilt University Press
A timely take on how Mexican artists, filmmakers, writers, and cultural producers are navigating climate change and extractivism.
Geographies of Us: Ecosomatic Essays and Practice Pages
Shannon Rose Riley and Sondra Fraleigh
Routledge
An innovative and interdisciplinary collection of essays and practice pages introducing the field of ecosomatics to a wide readership.
For the labor organizer
Indie Porn: Revolution, Regulation, and Resistance
Zahra Stardust
Duke University Press
A brilliant analysis of the production, representational, and labor politics of queer feminist indie porn.
Unsettled Labors: Migrant Caregivers in Palestine/Israel
Rachel H. Brown
Duke University Press
A fascinating read on the role of migrant laborers in Israel’s elder care industry in the context of occupation, globalization, and settler colonialism.
Domestic Workers in Indonesia: Feminist Activism and a Politics of Presence
Mary Austin
Liverpool University Press
An inspiring study of the feminist movement for domestic worker rights in Indonesia.
For the dancer
Performing the Greek Crisis: Navigating National Identity in the Age of Austerity
Natalie Zervou
University of Michigan Press
A multifaceted read of the impact of the Greek financial crisis on the Greek dance and performing arts worlds.
Kinethic California: Dancing Funk and Disco Era Kinships
Naomi Macalalad Bragin
University of Michigan Press
A cultural history of the 1970s Black social dance in California that paved the way for the global hip hop of today.
Dancing the Politics of Pleasure at the New Orleans Second Line
Rachel Carrico
University of Illinois Press
A vibrant celebration of the Black New Orleans dance and music culture of the Second Line.
For the performer
Bottoms Up: Queer Mexicanness and Latinx Performance
Xiomara Verenice Cervantes-Gómez
NYU Press
A vibrant queer of color read of the imbrications of sexual and political power and ethics in the making of Mexican and Latinx identities.
The Only Way Out: The Racial and Sexual Performance of Escape
Katherine Brewer Ball
Duke University Press
A fascinating journey through the radical possibilities and worldmaking potential of Black and queer escape.
Disney Parks and the Construction of American Identity: Tourism, Performance, and Collaboration
Jennifer A. Kokai and Tom Robson
Rowman & Littlefield
A smart performance studies analysis of how Disney parks and their guests co-construct American identity in the 21st century.
For the gamer
Made in Asia/America: Why Video Games Were Never (Really) about Us
Christopher B. Patterson and Tara Fickle
Duke University Press
A creative demonstration of the role of video games and gaming cultures in race-making across Asia/America.
Intellivision: How a Videogame System Battled Atari and Almost Bankrupted Barbie®
Tom Boellstorff and Braxton Soderman
MIT Press
The fascinating untold history of an overlooked video game system and its role shaping the future of gaming.
For the musician
Queens of Afrobeat: Women, Play, and Fela Kuti’s Music Rebellion
Dotun Ayobade
Indiana University Press
A vibrant celebration of the women dancers, musicians, and activists who created the Afrobeat genre of music.
Drill Rap, Sex Work, and the Digital Underground: (Clout)Chasing on Chicago’s Southside
Jabari M. Evans
Rowman & Littlefield
An interdisciplinary ethnography of the social media performances and digital practices of drill rappers in Chicago.
Fraught Balance: The Embodied Politics of Dabke Dance Music in Syria
Shayna M. Silverstein
Wesleyan University Press
A cultural history of Syrian dabke dance music and its complex role in Syrian nationalism, civil war, and masculinity.
For the film buff
Black Screens, White Frames: Gilles Deleuze and the Filmmaking Machine
Tanya Shilina-Conte
Oxford University Press
A richly theoretical and Deleuzian read of how blank screens, darkness, and non-images function in cinema.
Indie Porn: Revolution, Regulation, and Resistance
Zahra Stardust
Duke University Press
A brilliant analysis of the production, representational, and labor politics of queer feminist indie porn.
For the science enthusiast
Real Food, Real Facts: Processed Food and the Politics of Knowledge
Charlotte Biltekoff
University of California Press
A fascinating read on how scientific authority shapes consumer critiques of processed food as well as industry responses.
Indigenous Science and Technology: Nahuas and the World around Them
Kelly S. McDonough
University of Arizona Press
A groundbreaking study of the scientific and technological prowess of Nahuas (Nahuatl speakers) and power of Indigenous science.
Deepwater Alchemy: Extractive Mediation and the Taming of the Seafloor
Lisa Yin Han
University of Minnesota Press
A captivating exploration of how oceanic media represents the sea bed and its role in mediating climate change and extractivism.
For the art and culture connoisseur
The Politics of Collecting: Race and the Aestheticization of Property
Eunsong Kim
Duke University Press
A staunch critique of the racial and sexual politics of US museum and art collecting.
Mujeres de Maiz en Movimiento: Spiritual Artivism, Healing Justice, and Feminist Praxis
Amber Rose González, Felicia “Fe” Montes, and Nadia Zepeda
University of Arizona Press
A fitting tribute to the world-changing work of Xicanx artivist collective Mujeres de Maiz.
Displacing Kinship: The Intimacies of Intergenerational Trauma in Vietnamese American Cultural Production
Linh Thủy Nguyễn
Temple University Press
A thoughtful analysis of how Vietnamese American cultural production reckons with intergenerational trauma.
For the 19th-century history fan
Against Exclusion: Disrupting Anti-Chinese Violence in the Nineteenth Century
Audrey Wu Clark
Ohio State University Press
A thought-provoking reframing of Asian American resistance and model minority performance.
How the Earth Feels: Geological Fantasy in the Nineteenth Century US
Dana Luciano
Duke University Press
An insightful history of how the new science of geology shaped nineteenth-century affective culture, ideas about race, and settler colonialism.
For the 20th-century history fan
Menace to the Future: A Disability and Queer History of Carceral Eugenics
Jess Whatcott
Duke University Press
An illuminating history of the eugenicist logics at the heart of prisons and disability institutions.
Making Republicans Liberal: Social Struggle and the Politics of Compromise
Kristoffer Smemo
University of Pennsylvania Press
An illuminating reveal of how certain wings of the Republican Party responded to the social justice movements of the twentieth century.
A Prophet of the People: Isaiah Shembe and the Making of a South African Church
Lauren V. Jarvis
Michigan State University Press
A fascinating history of South African religious leader Isaiah Shembe and the founding of the Nazaretha Church.
For the liberatory teacher
dear elia: Letters from the Asian American Abyss
Mimi Khúc
Duke University Press
A groundbreaking manifesto for Asian American mental health and a wakeup call for the modern US university.
Open Admissions: The Poetics and Pedagogy of Toni Cade Bambara, June Jordan, Audre Lorde, and Adrienne Rich in the Era of Free College
Danica Savonick
Duke University Press
The untold story of the radical pedagogies of 4 canonical feminist scholars at the City University of New York.
On Blackness, Liveliness, and What It Means to Be Human: Toward Black Specificity in Higher Education
Wilson Kwamogi Okello
SUNY Press
An incisive call for reframing higher education practices and policy around Black specificity and Black humanity.
For the legal theorist
Trafficking Rhetoric: Race, Migration, and the Making of Modern-Day Slavery
Annie Hill
Ohio State University Press
A multifaceted critique of how UK anti-trafficking rhetoric mobilizes racially gendered logics to extend state violence.
Affective Bordering: Race, Deservingness and the Emotional Politics of Migration Control
Billy Holzberg
Manchester University Press
A cogent critique of the racial and affective politics of border policy and debates in Germany.
For the mobilities scholar
Constructed Movements: Extraction and Resistance in Mexican Migrant Communities
Ragini Shah
University of California Press
A sophisticated study of the racialized impact of migration from Mexico to the US and a stringent call for legal and reparative compensation.
New Destinations of Empire: Mobilities, Racial Geographies, and Citizenship in the Transpacific United States
Emily Mitchell-Eaton
University of Georgia Press
A perceptive analysis of how US empire shapes migration, racialization, and belonging for Marshallese migrants in Arkansas.
Transpacific Undisciplined
Lily Wong, Christopher B. Patterson, and Chien-ting Lin
University of Washington Press
A transnational, trans-genre, boundary-breaking exploration of interdisciplinary movements across the Pacific.
Precarious Privilege: Race and the Middle-Class Immigrant Experience
Irene Brown
Russell Sage Foundation
A cogent analysis of how racial and ethnic stereotypes shape the class strategies of Latinx workers.
For the bookworm
Scattered and Fugitive Things: How Black Collectors Created Archives and Remade History
Laura Helton
Columbia University Press
A powerful unearthing of the librarians, archivists, collectors, and bibliophiles documenting the history of African American life.
Persuasion after Rhetoric in the Eighteenth Century and Romanticism
Yasmin Solomonescu and Stefan H. Uhlig
Oxford University Press
An intriguing set of essays exploring the role of persuasion in the wake of rhetoric’s decline.
Literatures of the Hundred Years War
Daniel Davies and R. D. Perry
Manchester University Press
A thought-proviking history of the transnational effect of the Hundred Years’ War on diverse medieval literary traditions.
For the infrastructure explorer
Master Plans and Minor Acts: Repairing the City in Post-Genocide Rwanda
Shakirah Hudani
University of Chicago Press
A powerful look at the politics of urban planning and social repair in post-genocide Rwanda.
The Cybernetic Border: Drones, Technology, and Intrusion
Iván Chaar López
Duke University Press
A powerful interrogation of how border technologies are used to produce and police the racialized migrant “other.”
