New Books in September by Ideas on Fire Authors

by Cathy Hannabach | Sep 1, 2026

Questions of belonging, knowledge, embodiment, and representation run through this month's new books from Ideas on Fire authors, though each arrives at those questions from a strikingly different direction.

Together they span legal history, medieval science, Caribbean cultural studies, and East Asian cinema, demonstrating the breadth of contemporary interdisciplinary scholarship.

Rather than accepting familiar stories about citizenship, scientific progress, sexuality, or violence, these authors return to foundational assumptions and ask how they came to shape the world we inhabit today.

The result is a collection of books that invites readers to see both the past and the present in new ways.

We're proud to have partnered with these scholars throughout the publishing process and are delighted to celebrate their new books.

Working on a book of your own? Our editorial team supports scholars from proposal through publication with developmental editing, copyediting, manuscript reviews, indexing, and publisher insight reports. Learn more here.

Cover of Naturalization, with reeds woven though the printed text of an immigration act

Naturalization: A Queer Genealogy of US Citizenship, Race, and Sexuality

Siobhan Somerville

Duke University Press

An illuminating genealogy exposing how US citizenship law reinforces settler colonialism through racialized and sexualized definitions of belonging.

Cover of Island Bodies, with collage-style illustrations featuring two people kissing and a person's body obscured by a dog-like animal head.

Island Bodies: Transgressive Sexualities in the Caribbean Imagination, 2nd ed.

Rosamond S. King

University Press of Florida

A multilingual analysis of Caribbean cultural production challenging sexual norms through queer desire, gender transgression, and diasporic creativity.

Cover of Necessary Inventions, with various old-world illustrations on a yellow background, including ones of scientists, philosophers, a journal and quill pin, and a globe.

Necessary Inventions: Roger Bacon, the Middle Ages, and the Making of Modern Science

E. R. Truitt

University of Pennsylvania Press

A fascinating history of the medieval thinking undergirding modern science and narratives of progress.

Cover of The Intimate Violence of South Korean and Japanese Cinema, with abstract multicolored swirls and swatches

The Intimate Violence of South Korean and Japanese Cinema

Se Young Kim

Routledge

A compelling analysis of intimate violence in South Korean and Japanese cinema from the 1990s to today.

Dr. Cathy Hannabach is the founder and CEO of Ideas on Fire where she helps interdisciplinary academics transform vibrant ideas into powerful books and public projects that can spark meaningful social change.

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