New Books in Interpretive Political Science

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Session Description

This roundtable showcases recent research in interpretive political science, bringing together authors of new books in a conversation that will shed light on new directions in interpretive methods and methodologies. The books discussed utilize a variety of qualitative-interpretive methods, and address a range of substantive topics. The conversation will not only reveal the central themes and arguments of each text, but will also result in a larger discussion about the new directions suggested by each of these books. Among the topics covered will be the different ways each text examines a policy issue from a critical perspective, and what the responses to each text suggest for future directions in critical policy-related work.

Samantha Majic’s Lights, Camera, Feminism? Celebrities and Anti-trafficking Politics (UC Press, 2023) argues for an understanding of celebrities as multilevel political actors whose activism is shaped and mediated by a range of personal and contextual factors, with implications for feminist and democratic politics.

Farah Godrej’s Freedom Inside? Yoga and Meditation in the Carceral State (Oxford, 2022) sheds light on the promises and pitfalls of self-care programs inside prisons, exploring the potentials for both challenging and reproducing systemic injustice.

Sarah Marusek’s Law, Space, and the Vehicular Environment: Pavement and Asphalt (Routledge 2022) addresses phenomena such as travel, political protest, public memory, and community governance, exploring the paved medium of asphalt as a complex surface for legality that constitutively frames order against disorder.

Renee Cramer’s Birthing a Movement: Midwives, Law, and the Politics of Reproductive Care (Stanford, 2021) examine the interactions of law, politics, and activism surrounding midwifery care, arguing midwives and their clients engage in various forms of mobilization to facilitate access to care, autonomy in childbirth


Osman Balkan’s Dying Abroad: The Political Afterlives of Migration in Europe (Cambridge 2023) offers a moving and powerful account of migrants' end-of-life dilemmas, vividly illustrating how they are connected to ongoing political struggles over the stakes of citizenship, belonging, and collective identity in contemporary Europe.

Daniel T. Kirsch’s Sold My Soul for a Student Loan: Higher Education and the Political Economy of the Future (Praeger 2019) explores the history of consumer debt in the United States, the history of federal policy toward higher education, and political action in response to the issue of student debt.

Sub Unit

• Related Groups / Interpretive Methodologies & Methods

Chair

• Farah Godrej University of California, Riverside

Presenters

• Samantha Ann Majic CUNY-John Jay College

• Farah Godrej University of California, Riverside

• Sarah Marusek University of Hawaii, Hilo

• Renee A. Cramer Dickinson College

• Daniel T. Kirsch Northern Virginia Community College

• Osman Balkan University of Pennsylvania