PSU Press Presents is a monthly virtual event series featuring authors of new and recent books in conversation with each other. Topics will reflect the wide range of subjects published by the Press, including history, rhetoric, literature, animal studies, graphic studies, nature, medieval studies, and much more.
Attendance for all PSU Press Presents events is free, but please register in advance to receive the event link. Events will take place on Zoom and will be concurrently broadcast to Facebook Live.
More monthly events will be added often, so please check back! To be notified via email, sign up here.
Upcoming events:
PSU Press Presents is on hiatus through the end of June 2023.
Past Events
History of the Book
Friday, December 9th @ 1pm ET
Guests:
- Jeffrey M. Makala, author of Publishing Plates: Stereotyping and Electrotyping in Nineteenth-Century US Print Culture
- Melvyn New and Anthony W. Lee, editors of Notes on Footnotes: Annotating Eighteenth-Century Literature
- James L. W. West III, series editor
Moderated by Patrick Alexander, PSU Press Director
Religion Around
Friday, November 4th @ 1pm ET
Guests:
- Brian Britt, author of Religion Around Walter Benjamin
- Joshua Eckhardt, author of Religion Around John Donne
- Stephanie Paulsell, author of Religion Around Virginia Woolf
- Chad E. Seales, author of Religion Around Bono: Evangelical Enchantment and Neoliberal Capitalism
Moderated by Tracy Fessenden, Religion Around series editor & author of Religion Around Billie Holiday
Dimyonot: Jews and the Cultural Imagination
Thursday, October 6th @ 4pm ET
Guests:
- Beverly Bailis, coeditor (with David Stern) of American Hebraist: Essays on Agnon and Modern Jewish Literature by Alan Mintz
- J. H. Chajes, author of The Kabbalistic Tree / הקבלי האילן
- Yael Halevi-Wise, author of The Retrospective Imagination of A. B. Yehoshua
- Lior B. Sternfeld and Parvaneh Vahidmanesh, coauthors (with Hassan Sarbakhshian) of Jews of Iran: A Photographic Chronicle
Moderated by Samantha Baskind, Dimyonot Series Editor & author of The Warsaw Ghetto in American Art and Culture
Politics, Power, and Philosophy
Friday, September 9th @ 1pm ET
Guests:
- Stuart J. Murray, author of The Living from the Dead: Disaffirming Biopolitics
- Ted H. Miller, author of Friendly Sovereignty: Historical Perspectives on Carl Schmitt’s Neglected Exception
- Amy Allen and Eduardo Mendieta, editors of Power, Neoliberalism, and the Reinvention of Politics: The Critical Theory of Wendy Brown / Penn State Series in Critical Theory
Moderated by John Christman, Director of the Penn State Humanities Institute & Professor of Philosophy, Political Science and Women's Studies
Germans Beyond Europe
Wednesday, August 3rd @ 4pm ET
Guests:
- Adam A. Blackler, author of An Imperial Homeland: Forging German Identity in Southwest Africa
- Kristin Dickinson, author of DisOrientations: German-Turkish Cultural Contact in Translation, 1811–1946
- Todd Kontje, author of Georg Forster: German Cosmopolitan
- Patricia Anne Simpson, author of The Play World: Toys, Texts, and the Transatlantic German Childhood
Moderated by Maddie Caso, PSU Press Editorial Assistant
Comics, Clinics, and Public Health
Friday, June 3rd @ 1pm
Guests:
- Abby Hershler, Lesley Hughes, Patricia Nguyen, and Shelley Wall, authors of Looking at Trauma: A Tool Kit for Clinicians
- Meredith Li-Vollmer, author of Graphic Public Health: A Comics Anthology and Road Map
- Kimberly R. Myers, Molly L. Osborne, Charlotte A. Wu, and Zoe Schein, authors & illustrator of Clinical Ethics: A Graphic Medicine Casebook
Moderated by Brian Callender, Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Chicago and Graphic Medicine series editor
Religious Movements & Communities
Thursday, May 5th at 4pm
Guests:
- David Bundy, Geordan Hammond, and David Sang-Ehil Han, editors of Holiness and Pentecostal Movements: Intertwined Pasts, Presents, and Futures
- Janet Moore Lindman, author of A Vivifying Spirit: Quaker Practice and Reform in Antebellum America
- Paul Peucker, author of Herrnhut: The Formation of a Moravian Community, 1722–1732
- Robert Zacharias, author of Reading Mennonite Writing: A Study in Minor Transnationalism
Moderated by Kathryn Yahner, PSU Press Acquisitions Editor
Communication in the Disinformation Age
Friday, April 8th @ 4pm
Guests:
- Ashley Rose Mehlenbacher, author of On Expertise: Cultivating Character, Goodwill, and Practical Wisdom
- Seong Jae Min, author of Rethinking the New Technology of Journalism: How Slowing Down Will Save the News
- Billie Murray, author of Combating Hate: A Framework for Direct Action
Moderated by Mary E. Stuckey, Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Communication at Penn State University
Watch the presentation on our YouTube channel.
Art and Radicalism
Friday, March 18th @ 4pm
Guests:
- Mark Antliff, author of Sculptors Against the State: Anarchism and the Anglo-European Avant-Garde
- Elliott H. King & Abigail Susik, editors of Radical Dreams: Surrealism, Counterculture, Resistance
- Katie L. Price & Michael R. Taylor, editors of ‘Pataphysics Unrolled
Moderated by Jonathan Eburne, Refiguring Modernism series editor
Watch the presentation on our YouTube channel.
Latin American Originals
Wednesday, February 16th @ 2pm
Guests:
- Peter Hess, author of Violent First Contact in Venezuela: Nikolaus Federmann’s Indian History
- Kris Lane, author of Pandemic in Potosí: Fear, Loathing, and Public Piety in a Colonial Mining Metropolis
- Andrea Martínez Baracs, author of An Irish Rebel in New Spain: The Tumultuous Life and Tragic Death of William Lamport
Moderated by Matthew Restall, Latin American Originals series editor
Watch the presentation on our YouTube channel.
World Christianity
Friday, December 3rd @ 4pm ET
Guests:
- Aminta Arrington, author of Songs of the Lisu Hills: Practicing Christianity in Southwest China
- Krista E. Hughes, Dhawn B. Martin, and Elaine Padilla, editors of Ecological Solidarities: Mobilizing Faith and Justice for an Entangled World
- Edward Jarvis, author of The Anglican Church in Burma: From Colonial Past to Global Future
- Arun W. Jones, editor of Christian Interculture: Texts and Voices from Colonial and Postcolonial Worlds
Moderated by Kathryn Yahner, PSU Press Acquisitions Editor
New Books in Archaeology from Eisenbrauns
Wednesday, November 3rd @ 1pm ET
- Seymour (Sy) Gitin, author of The Road Taken: An Archaeologist’s Journey to the Land of the Bible
- Martin Heide and Joris Peters, authors of Camels in the Biblical World
- Larry G. Herr, Douglas R. Clark, and Lawrence T. Geraty, authors of The 2004 Season at Tall al ‘Umayri and Subsequent Studies (Madaba Plains Project)
Moderated by Dr. Jen Singletary, Eisenbrauns Acquisitions Editor
Disrupting Rhetorics of Privilege in Race, Sexuality, and Education
Friday, November 5th @ 7pm ET
Guests:
- Robert Asen, author of School Choice and the Betrayal of Democracy: How Market-Based Education Reform Fails Our Communities
- Michele Kennerly, editor of A New Handbook of Rhetoric: Inverting the Classical Vocabulary
- Stephanie R. Larson, author of What It Feels Like: Visceral Rhetoric and the Politics of Rape Culture
- Mary E. Stuckey, author of Deplorable: The Worst Presidential Campaigns from Jefferson to Trump
Moderated by Ryan Peterson, PSU Press Acquisitions Editor
Image, Object, and Meaning in the Medieval and Early Modern Worlds
Friday, October 8th @ 1pm ET
Guests:
- Andrew R. Casper, author of An Artful Relic: The Shroud of Turin in Baroque Italy
- Theresa Earenfight, author of Catherine of Aragon: Infanta of Spain, Queen of England
- Elina Gertsman, author of The Absent Image: Lacunae in Medieval Books
- Benedek Láng, author of The Rohonc Code: Tracing a Historical Riddle
Moderated by Janice North, PSU Press Marketing and Sales Coordinator
Perspectives on Sensory History
Thursday, September 2nd @ 4pm ET
Guests:
- Nicholas Hammond, author of The Powers of Sound and Song in Early Modern Paris
- Ryan McCormack, author of The Sculpted Ear: Aurality and Statuary in the West
- A. Joan Saab, author of Objects of Vision: Making Sense of What We See
- Mark M. Smith, author of A Sensory History Manifesto
Moderated by Kathryn Yahner, PSU Press Acquisitions Editor
See the presentation here.
Humor in America
Friday, June 18th @ 4pm EDT
Guests:
- James E. Caron, author of Satire as the Comic Public Sphere: Postmodern “Truthiness” and Civic Engagement
- Christopher J. Gilbert, author of Caricature and National Character: The United States at War
Moderated by Ryan Peterson, Acquisitions Editor
See the presentation here.
Comics in Scholarship
Thursday, May 20th @ 4pm EDT
Guests:
- Ken Koltun-Fromm, author of Drawing on Religion: Reading and the Moral Imagination in Comics and Graphic Novels
- Scott T. Smith and José Alaniz, editors of Uncanny Bodies: Superhero Comics and Disability
- Susan Merrill Squier and Irmela Marei Krüger-Fürhoff, editors of PathoGraphics: Narrative, Aesthetics, Contention, Community
Moderated by Kendra Boileau, PSU Press Assistant Director and Editor-in-Chief
See the presentation here.
Magic in History
Friday, April 30 @ 4pm EDT
Guests:
- Michael D. Bailey, author of Origins of the Witches’ Sabbath
- Allegra Iafrate, author of The Long Life of Magical Objects: A Study in the Solomonic Tradition
- Frank Klaassen and Sharon Hubbs Wright, coauthors of The Magic of Rogues: Necromancers in Early Tudor England
- Marla Segol, author of the forthcoming book Kabbalah and Sex Magic: A Mythical-Ritual Genealogy
Moderated by Claire Fanger, author of Rewriting Magic: An Exegesis of the Visionary Autobiography of a Fourteenth-Century French Monk.
See the presentation here.
New Books in Assyriology from Eisenbrauns
Friday, March 5th @ 1pm EST
Guests:
- Elena Devecchi, author of Middle Babylonian Texts in the Cornell Collections, Part 2
- Grant Frame, author of The Royal Inscriptions of Sargon II, King of Assyria (721–705 BC)
- Gina Konstantopoulos and Shana Zaia, editors of the forthcoming volume As Above, So Below: Religion and Geography (RAI)
- Frauke Weiershäuser and Jamie Novotny, authors of The Royal Inscriptions of Amēl-Marduk (561–560 BC), Neriglissar (559–556 BC), and Nabonidus (555–539 BC), Kings of Babylon
Moderated by , Eisenbrauns Acquisitions Editor
See the presentation here.
Africana Religions
Friday, February 19th @ 4pm EST
Guests:
- Danielle N. Boaz, author of Banning Black Gods: Law and Religions of the African Disapora
- Michael Muhammad Knight, author of Metaphysical Africa: Truth and Blackness in the Ansaru Allah Community
- Oludamini Ogunnaike, author of Deep Knowledge: Ways of Knowing in Sufism and Ifa, Two West African Intellectual Traditions
- Adriaan van Klinken, author of Kenyan, Christian, Queer: Religion, LGBT Activism, and Arts of Resistance in Africa
Moderated by Sylvester A. Johnson, Africana Religions series editor
See the presentation here.
Women & Art Practice
Friday, January 29th @ 4pm EST
Guests:
- Babette Bohn, author of Women Artists, Their Patrons, and Their Publics in Early Modern Bologna
- Megan Brandow-Faller, author of The Female Secession: Art and the Decorative at the Viennese Women’s Academy
- Jessica Gerschultz, author of Decorative Arts of the Tunisian École: Fabrications of Modernism, Gender, and Power
- Rebecca VanDiver, author of Designing a New Tradition: Loïs Mailou Jones and the Aesthetics of Blackness
Moderated by , PSU Press Executive Editor
See the presentation here.
New Books in Archaeology from Eisenbrauns
Wednesday, November 11th @ 1pm EST
Guests:
- Suzanne Richard, editor of New Horizons in the Study of the Early Bronze III and Early Bronze IV of the Levant
- Bezalel Porten, coauthor of Textbook of Aramaic Ostraca from Idumea
- Daniel M. Master, coauthor of Ashkelon 7: The Iron Age I
Moderated by , Eisenbrauns Acquisitions Editor
See the presentation here.
New Books on Biblical and Akkadian Literature from Eisenbrauns
Thursday, November 12th @ 4pm EST
Guests:
- Phyllis A. Bird, author of Harlot or Holy Woman?
- Mary L. Conway, author of Judging the Judges
- Alan Lenzi, author of An Introduction to Akkadian Literature
- Philip Zhakevich, author of Scribal Tools in Ancient Israel
Moderated by , Eisenbrauns Acquisitions Editor
See the presentation here.
Rhetoric in America: Then & Now
Thursday, October 22nd @ 7pm EST
Guests:
- Stephen Howard Browne, author of The First Inauguration: George Washington and the Invention of the Republic
- William Keith and Robert Danisch, authors of Beyond Civility: The Competing Obligations of Citizenship
- Lisa A. Flores, author of Deportable and Disposable: Public Rhetoric and the Making of the “Illegal” Immigrant
Moderated by , PSU Press Acquisitions Editor
See the presentation here.
Medieval & Early Modern Women in Politics & Power
Friday, September 25th @ 7pm
Guests:
- Tracy Adams and Christine Adams, authors of The Creation of the French Royal Mistress: From Agnès Sorel to Madame Du Barry
- Silvia Z. Mitchell, author of Queen, Mother, and Stateswoman: Mariana of Austria and the Government of Spain
- Mariah Proctor-Tiffany, author of Medieval Art in Motion: The Inventory and Gift Giving of Queen Clémence de Hongrie
- Gail Orgelfinger, author of Joan of Arc in the English Imagination, 1429–1829
Moderated by , PSU Press Executive Editor
See the presentation here.
Animals & the Anthropocene
Friday August 28th @ 4pm
Guests:
- Marcus Baynes-Rock, author of Crocodile Undone: The Domestication of Australia’s Fauna
- Louise Green, author of Fragments from the History of Loss: The Nature Industry and the Postcolony
- Susan McHugh, author of Love in a Time of Slaughters: Human-Animal Stories Against Genocide and Extinction
- Deborah Nadal, author of Rabies in the Streets: Interspecies Camaraderie in Urban India
Moderated by Nigel Rothfels, general editor of the series >Animalibus: Of Animals and Cultures
See the presentation here.
Pennsylvania Stories: Community & Activism in the Keystone State
Thursday, July 30th @ 4pm EST
Guests:
- William Burton and Barry Loveland, authors of Out in Central Pennsylvania: The History of an LGBTQ Community
- Robert P. Wolensky, editor of Sewn in Coal Country: An Oral History of the Ladies’ Garment Industry in Northeastern Pennsylvania, 1945–1995
- Dennis B. Downey and James W. Conroy, editors of Pennhurst and the Struggle for Disability Rights
Moderated by , PSU Press Acquisitions Editor
See the presentation here.
New Books in Early American Studies
Friday, June 19th @ 1pm EST
Guests:
- Alexander Ames, author of The Word in the Wilderness: Popular Piety and the Manuscript Arts in Early Pennsylvania
- Wendy Bellion, author of Iconoclasm in New York: Revolution to Reenactment
- Cecile Fromont, editor of Afro-Catholic Festivals in the Americas: Performance, Representation, and the Making of Black Atlantic Tradition
- Bethany Wiggin, editor of Babel of the Atlantic
Moderated by , PSU Press Acquisitions Editor
See the presentation here.
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