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In Conversation: An OUP Podcast

In Conversation: An OUP Podcast

Auteur(s): New Books Network
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Interviews with Oxford University Press authors about their booksNew Books Network Art Monde Science Sciences sociales
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  • Matthew Moran et al., "Coercing Syria on Chemical Weapons" (Oxford UP, 2025)
    Mar 14 2026
    In 2012, US President Barack Obama stated that the Syrian government’s use of chemical weapons on its population would cross a red line that would require the US government to reconsider its approach to the civil war then underway in Syria. Syria subsequently used such weapons, creating a policy dilemma for the United States about how to respond to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's violation of the red line.In Coercing Syria on Chemical Weapons (Oxford UP, 2025), Matthew Moran, Wyn Q. Bowen, and Jeffrey W. Knopf examine efforts by the United States, sometimes acting with France and the United Kingdom, to respond to Syria's possession and use of chemical weapons over the course of its civil war. In particular, they focus on US strategy during the presidencies of Barack Obama and Donald Trump, which relied heavily on coercion, including deterrent and compellent variants. As the authors show, policies directed at the ruling Assad regime in Syria attempted to deter chemical weapons attacks and to compel Syria to give up its chemical arsenal with mixed outcomes. Drawing on the existing literature on deterrence and coercive diplomacy to identify three propositions — concerning credibility, motivations, and assurances — the book explains the mixed record of coercive success and failure and examines how effective coercive strategies were at different points and why.Drawing on the most significant attempt in the post-Cold War era to deter the use of a weapon of mass destruction, this book offers theoretical and practical lessons for both security studies scholars and policymakers. Our guest is Professor Jeff Knopf, a Professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS), where he serves as chair of the M.A. program in Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies. Our host is Eleonora Mattiacci, an Associate Professor of Political Science at Amherst College. She is the author of "Volatile States in International Politics" (Oxford University Press, 2023).
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    38 min
  • Fatimah Williams, "Options for Success: A PhD's Guide to Navigating Career Transitions and Thriving in Your Next Professional Chapter" (Oxford UP, 2025)
    Mar 13 2026
    Options for Success: A PhD's Guide to Navigating Career Transitions and Thriving in Your Next Professional Chapter (Oxford UP, 2025) is a transformative, step-by-step guide designed for early to mid-career academics exploring career paths beyond faculty roles and into careers in industry. This book speaks directly to PhDs asking "What's next?" as they consider their career options beyond the faculty. Blending narrative, practical workbook exercises and real-life examples, Options for Success empowers readers to reimagine their career expectations, navigate the complexities of career transition, and align their professional paths with their personal values and goals.At the heart of this guide is the Options for Success framework, a seven-step process that takes readers through the phases of career change-from Detox, making mental and emotional space for new opportunities, to Onboarding, integrating into new roles with insight into workplace dynamics. With tools like the Ecosystems and Economies framework and Professional Profile Pillars, readers can inventory their skills, evaluate their core strengths, and identify careers that align with their values. The Translational Power of Action Verbs exercise encourages academics to shift from a "knowing lens" to a "doing lens," while the Power Story Method helps them translate their achievements into impactful stories that resonate with potential employers.The book also addresses the "messy middle" of job searching, equipping readers with strategies to maintain momentum and resilience through self-care practices and targeted skills building. Unlike traditional career guides, Options for Success is rich with templates, scripts, and sample materials, from hybrid CV-résumés to informational interview guides and bios, offering readers the practical support they need to articulate their unique value effectively.Career transition stories from PhDs across disciplines illustrate the real-world application of these principles across a range of fields and roles, showing diverse pathways into impactful, fulfilling careers. Written in a coach's voice-approachable, empathetic, and filled with generative questions-Options for Success feels like having a personalized career coach, guiding readers to explore, evaluate, and act with confidence. Options for Success is an essential companion for any PhD ready to transition beyond the faculty and into new professional possibilities. Fatimah Williams, Ph.D., is an executive coach, speaker, and founder of Professional Pathways. A cultural anthropologist with over 15 years of consulting experience, she has advised organizations like the National Institutes of Health, the Urban League, and more than 30 colleges and universities on leadership development, organizational strategy, and career growth. Her thought leadership appears in both academic and popular outlets, including The Chronicle of Higher Education and Essence. A former career services leader at the University of Pennsylvania, she also has served on the board of the University of Virginia Alumni Association and the advisory council of the Zimmerli Art Museum. She is the author of three books, Be Bold, Professional Pathways Planner, and her newest book, Options for Success, published by Oxford University Press, which guides PhDs through career transitions and the messy middle of reinvention. Reighan Gillam is Associate Professor in the Department of Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies at Dartmouth College. Her research examines the ways in which Afro-Brazilian media producers foment anti-racist visual politics through their image creation. She is the author of Visualizing Black Lives: Ownership and Control in Afro-Brazilian Media (University of Illinois Press).
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    50 min
  • Katelyn E. Stauffer, "The Politics of Perception: How Beliefs About Women’s Inclusion Shape Democratic Legitimacy in the U.S." (Oxford UP, 2025)
    Mar 12 2026
    Katelyn Stauffer, Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Georgia, has an excellent new book focusing on how voters and citizens perceive the legitimacy and functionality of political institutions, especially when they think there are women elected to those institutions. The Politics of Perception: How Beliefs About Women’s Inclusion Shape Democratic Legitimacy in the United States (Oxford UP, 2025) weaves together a number of different threads to reach some interesting conclusions about women in elected office and the trust that voters have in those elected offices and institutions. Stauffer starts the research trajectory with a framing around representation, and how the different kinds of representation within elected bodies connects to how voters think about those bodies themselves and whether they trust them and think they are effective. This opens the path to bring in the question of gender, and how voters’ or citizens’ perceptions of how many women are in legislative bodies also connects with how much trust those same citizens have in those representative bodies. The Politics of Perception explores both accurate perceptions as well as misperceptions about governmental institutions, and this is also where the research is truly fascinating. Part of what the research indicates is that, perhaps unsurprisingly, the American public does not actually know a lot about politics or about how political institutions operate. At the same time, many citizens hold strong opinions or thoughts about politics, which generally are at odds with the lack of knowledge. This is also bound up with stereotypes that voters consider in terms of male and female elected officials and how they work within institutions. The Politics of Perception interrogates all of these misperceptions, unpacking the truth or reality versus the ideas that individuals hold about office holders and the political institutions in which those office holders work. Stauffer also discussed how she was able to build on a comparative politics approach, since parliamentary systems are, by their nature, collective institutions, and this approach helped to provide another theoretical framework for the analysis. The Politics of Perception: How Beliefs About Women’s Inclusion Shape Democratic Legitimacy in the U.S. is an important and useful book for many different scholars: those who study American government and politics; scholars of gender and politics, especially in the United States; comparative political scientists; and political theorists exploring issues of representation and democracy. We discussed the Ghost Bookstore in Athens, Georgia as a bookseller that can order The Politics of Perception for readers in Georgia or elsewhere. Lilly J. Goren is a professor of political science at Carroll University in Waukesha, WI. She is co-host of the New Books in Political Science channel at the New Books Network. She is co-editor of The Politics of the Marvel Cinematic Universe Volume I: The Infinity Saga (University Press of Kansas, 2022), and of The Politics of the Marvel Cinematic Universe Volume II: Into the Multiverse (University Press of Kansas, 2025) as well as co-editor of the award winning book, Women and the White House: Gender, Popular Culture, and Presidential Politics (University Press of Kentucky, 2012). She can be reached @gorenlj.bsky.social
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    35 min
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