UCL Press Podcast

Helen Graham, "Deconstituting Museums: Participation’s Affective Work" (UCL Press, 2024)

What is the future of museums? In Deconstituting Museums: Participation’s Affective Work [https://bookshop.org/a/12343/9781800089129] Helen Graham, [https://ahc.leeds.ac.uk/fine-art/staff/285/dr-helen-graham] an Associate Professor in School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies [https://ahc.leeds.ac.uk/fine-art] at the University of Leeds, considers the current state of the sector and stresses the need for significant change. Drawing on both professional reflections and academic analysis, the book introduces the concept of the museum constitution as a key site for struggle within the institution. It shows the challenge of making participation meaningful, and the scale of transformation needed to reframe museums’ central ideas and activities. Essential reading for both academics and museum professionals, as well as audiences, the book is available open access here [https://uclpress.co.uk/book/deconstituting-museums/] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Anna Shadrina, "The Babushka Phenomenon: Older Women and the Political Sociology of Ageing in Russia" (UCL Press, 2025)

The Babushka Phenomenon: Older Women and the Political Sociology of Ageing in Russia [https://bookshop.org/a/12343/9781800089082] (UCL Press, 2025) by Dr. Anna Shadrina examines the social production of ageing in post-Soviet Russia, highlighting the role of grandmothers as primary caregivers due to men’s traditional estrangement from family life. This expectation places grandmothers, or babushkas, in a position where they prioritise childcare and housework over their careers, making them unpaid family carers reliant on the state and their children. Dr. Shadrina situates older Russian women’s experiences within the post-Soviet redefinition of the nation, analysing their portrayal in popular media and biographical narratives of women aged 60 and over in Russia and the UK. It addresses class and racial disparities, noting how some women outsource family duties to less qualified women, and emphasises age as a significant but overlooked axis of social inequality. From a feminist perspective, the book explores citizenship as both a status and a practice of inclusion and exclusion. By focusing on older women’s rights to participate in private and public spheres, it discusses the new social inequalities that emerged after the USSR’s collapse. Despite prioritising others’ interests, older Russian women actively engage in economic citizenship, though their struggles for recognition are often excluded from formal economy and politics. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book [https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/securing-peace-in-angola-and-mozambique-9781350407930/] focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher [https://newbooksnetwork.com/category/special-series/new-books-with-miranda-melcher], wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Ilan Kelman, "Antarcticness: Inspirations and Imaginaries" (UCL Press, 2022)

Antarcticness: Inspirations and Imaginaries [https://bookshop.org/a/12343/9781800081468] (UCL Press, 2022) edited by Ilan Kelman Antarcticness joins disciplines, communication approaches, and ideas to explore meanings and depictions of Antarctica. Personal and professional words in poetry and prose, plus images, present and represent Antarctica, as presumed and as imagined, alongside what is experienced around the continent and by those watching from afar. These understandings explain how the Antarctic is viewed and managed while identifying aspects that should be more prominent in policy and practice. The authors and artists place Antarctica, and the perceptions and knowledge through Antarcticness, within inspirations and imaginations, without losing sight of the multiple interests pushing the continent’s governance as it goes through rapid political and environmental changes. Given the diversity and disparity of the influences and changes, the book’s contributions connect to provide a more coherent and encompassing perspective of how society views Antarctica, scientifically and artistically, and what the continent provides and could provide politically, culturally, and environmentally. Offering original research, art, and interpretations of different experiences and explorations of Antarctica, explanations meld with narratives while academic analyses overlap with first-hand experiences of what Antarctica does and does not – could and could not – bring to the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Thomas Kador, "Object-Based Learning: Exploring Museums and Collections in Education" (UCL Press, 2025)

In Object-Based Learning: Exploring Museums and Collections in Education [https://bookshop.org/a/12343/9781787354296] (UCL Press, 2025), Thomas Kador provides a concise overview of some of the most important approaches to material culture and object analysis in plain and easily understandable language that is equally accessible to undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as lecturers. Click here [https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10212322/1/Object-Based-Learning.pdf] for an open access version of this book. This book is organised in a clear and easy-to-follow way, each chapter is filled with practical case studies, exercises and several diagrams to illustrate important arguments and approaches. The succinct and practically focused discussion of the main issues relating to exhibiting objects and curatorial practice, brings together diverse but complementary topics such as the history of collecting, understanding audiences, accessibility, digital media, technologies and ethics. Each chapter includes learning objectives, questions and exercise boxes, case studies and further readings and resources. This conversation references Bridget Whearty's New Books Network interview about Digital Codicology; click here [https://newbooksnetwork.com/digital-codicology#entry:202216@1:url] to listen. Thomas Kador also mentions the website Closer to Van Eyck, available here [https://closertovaneyck.kikirpa.be/]. Thomas Kador is Associate Professor in Creative Health at UCL Arts & Sciences, where he leads the Masters (MASc) in Creative Health programme. Prior to this, he was Teaching Fellow in Public and Cultural Engagement with UCL's Museums and Collections, with a particular focus on Object-based Learning (OBL), working across the UCL collections. With a background spanning chemical engineering and cultural heritage (archaeology and museums), Thomas is particularly interested in the relationship between culture, nature and health. He has published widely on object-based learning, student wellbeing and experiential learning spaces, has been instrumental in delivering UCL's Object-based Learning Laboratory and in developing the world's first MASc in Creative Health postgraduate taught programme. Jen Hoyer [https://jenhoyer.info/] is Technical Services and Electronic Resources Librarian at CUNY New York City College of Technology [http://www.citytech.cuny.edu/]. She is co-author of What Primary Sources Teach: Lessons for Every Classroom [https://www.abc-clio.com/products/a6435p/] (2022) and The Social Movement Archive [https://litwinbooks.com/books/6722/] (2021), and co-editor of Armed By Design: Posters and Publications of Cuba’s Organization of Solidarity of the Peoples of Africa, Asia, and Latin America [https://www.commonnotions.org/buy/armed-by-design] (2025). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Jovana Diković, "The Laissez-Faire Peasant: Post-Socialist Rural Development in Serbia" (UCL Press, 2025)

What if rural progress isn’t about government intervention but about the self-reliance and ingenuity of peasants themselves?  The Laissez-Faire Peasant: Post-Socialist Rural Development in Serbia  [https://bookshop.org/a/12343/9781800087590](UCL Press, 2025) subverts conventional wisdom on rural development by shifting the focus from state-led planning to the agency of peasants themselves. Rejecting the notion that rural populations are passive victims of top-down policies, Jovana Dikovic presents a compelling ethnographic study of three Serbian villages, where autonomy and local cooperation drive economic and social resilience. She introduces the concept of the “laissez-faire peasant”—a figure who thrives outside rigid government schemes, shaping rural development on their own terms. By examining the friction between state policies and the everyday strategies of rural communities, Dikovic uncovers how peasant autonomy not only resists external intervention but fosters sustainable and self-sufficient growth. The first in-depth study of contemporary Serbian peasantry, this book reframes rural life as a site of innovation rather than stagnation. An area of interest for scholars of post-socialist transitions, rural development, and economic anthropology, The Laissez-Faire Peasant provides a new lens on how rural communities survive and adapt in a rapidly changing world. The Laissez-Faire Peasant: Post-Socialist Rural Development in Serbia was published in the UK by UCL Press (2025), and in the United States by University of Chicago Press (2025). The Laissez-Faire Peasant is also available online open-access through UCL Press. Guest: Jovana Dikovic (she/her), is an economic anthropologist, publicist, and head of Sustainable Development and Inclusive Growth at the Center for Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability, School of Management, Fribourg. Host: Jenna Pittman (she/her) is a Ph.D. student in the Department of History at Duke University. She studies modern European history, political economy, and Germany from 1945-1990. Scholars@Duke here [https://scholars.duke.edu/person/Jenna.Pittman] Linktree here [https://linktr.ee/jennapittman] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]