Author Live Talk Series from University of Michigan Press
University of Michigan Press is proud to announce our inaugural series of virtual author talks. Beginning in June and running throughout the summer, U-M Press will host weekly conversations with prominent scholars in political science, classical studies, history, musicology, and more under the Author Live Talk Series banner. Audiences will be treated to compelling stories on topics including history's enduring lies, the migration of music across time and place, and the satire of Roman epic poet Lucretius.
Attendance is free for all events, but please register in advance to make sure you receive the session link and password ahead of the talk.
Currently scheduled author talks:
We are now Friends with England and with all Mankind: Kochin and Taylor on forming An Independent Empire
June 4, 2020, 11:00 AM EDT
Authors Michael S. Kochin and Michael Taylor discuss the international diplomacy that forged a new nation, bringing to light the often-overlooked intellectuals, spies, diplomats, and statesmen whose actions and decisions shaped the first fifty years of the United States.
Registration Closed. Recording on YouTube at umichpress.
How to Recognize a History Zombie: Peter Hoffer shines a light on Zombie History
June 11, 2020, 11:00 AM EDT
Unlike the zombies of popular films and novels, history zombies -- the false truths that shape the world -- are hard to spot, and harder still to kill. Author Peter Charles Hoffer will offer a case study of the lies we tell ourselves about the past.
Registration Closed. Recording on YouTube at umichpress.
Satire is Not for the Faint-hearted: T. H. M. Gellar-Goad talks Laughing Atoms, Laughing Matter
June 18, 2020, 11:00 AM EDT
Is the De Rerum Natura a serious work of persuasion, or did the Roman epic poet Lucretius intend it as satire? Well, that would be an embarrassing error. T. H. M. Gellar-Goad introduces his case for a more lighthearted Lucretius in what is sure to be a lively discussion of his book Laughing Atoms, Laughing Matter.
Registration Closed. Recording on YouTube at umichpress.
Till One Day the Sun Shall Shine More Brightly: Derek Pollard on the Poetry of Donald Revell
June 25, 2020, 11:00 AM EDT
Derek Pollard, editor of Till One Day the Sun Shall Shine More Brightly, the latest volume in the Under Discussion series collecting essays on prominent poets, discusses the subject of his book, the extraordinarily influential Donald Revell in this virtual author talk.
POSTPONED - rescheduling details to come
The Mobile Art of Music: Danielle Fosler-Lussier presents Music on the Move
July 9, 2020, 11:00 AM EDT
How have migration and colonialism shaped the forms and styles of music? Danielle Fosler-Lussier discusses the ways music moves throughout the world and how it is altered in its travels. Music on the Move is available in an open access edition via Fulcrum.
Registration Closed. Recording on YouTube at umichpress.
Death Disco: Mimi Haddon in Conversation with Janette Beckman What is Post-Punk?
July 16, 2020, 11:00 AM EDT
How to define the eclectic music of the late 1970s and early '80s? How does it fit in with, or react against, punk, new wave, dub, and disco? Mimi Haddon and photographer Janette Beckman discuss the retronymic "post-punk" and how we should consider acts like Wire, PiL, Joy Division, the Raincoats, and Pere Ubu.
Registration Closed. Recording on YouTube at umichpress.
Not a Revolution: Sound Streams author Andrew Bottomley on the progression from radio to streaming music and podcasts
July 23, 2020, 11:00 AM EDT
Andrew Bottomley will explore how the internet-radio convergence has strengthened, rather than overturned, the art of audio broadcast.
Registration Closed. Recording on YouTube at umichpress.
"Are These Not Great Artists?" Kyle Barnett discusses Record Cultures
July 30, 2020, 11:00 AM EDT
Kyle Barnett examines how the dramatic technological and cultural changes of the 1920s and '30s shaped the rise of jazz, blues, and country music as small, regional record labels took risks on local styles.
Registration Closed. Recording on YouTube at umichpress.
Framing in Gun Policy: Melissa K. Merry on America's Warped Narratives
August 13, 2020, 11:00 AM EDT
Wherever you fall on the gun debate, there's a good chance your view is flawed in important ways. Melissa K. Merry, author of Warped Narratives: Distortion in the Framing of Gun Policy, illuminates how both gun control activists and Second Amendment advocates focus on atypical scenarios in their attempts to shape law and culture.
Registration Closed. Recording on YouTube at umichpress.
i used to love to dream: A. D. Carson discusses his mixtap/e/ssay with J. Griffith Rollefson
August 20, 2020, 11:00 AM EDT
A. D. Carson's "i used to love to dream" represents a new medium for hip hop scholarship -- the music itself. Carson discusses his "mixtap/e/ssay," recently released in a free open access format on Fulcrum, with Critical Excess author J. Griffith Rollefson.
Registration Closed. Recording on YouTube at umichpress.
We hope to see you at these exciting virtual author talks!