Students of Humanities
Students of Humanities
Podcast Description
Students of Humanities is a series designed to highlight the podcasts our students have made as part of their BA and MA programmes. In "Gender and Race in Historical International Relations" students of the eponymous course (part of the Global Order specialisation of the MA International Relations programme) discuss books related to issues of gender and race.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
Explores themes of gender and race with a focus on literature that highlights diverse perspectives. Specific episodes include 'The Unwomanly Face of War' discussing Soviet women's experiences in WWII and 'Americannah' which delves into migration and identity through Chimamanda Adichie's work.
Students of Humanities is a series designed to highlight the podcasts our students have made as part of their BA and MA programmes.
In “Gender and Race in Historical International Relations” students of the eponymous course (part of the Global Order specialisation of the MA International Relations programme) discuss books related to issues of gender and race.
In this episode, Franek Dziduch (rMA Cultural Analysis at UvA) and Ollie Köhn-Haskins (rMA Comparative Literary Studies at UU) discuss the strengths and shortcomings of satirizing European cultural elites. How does one effectively criticize Europe’s narratives of Otherness, identity, and class? To search for an answer, Dziduch and Köhn-Haskins delve into Sister Europe (2025) by Nell Zink, examining how stylistic devices centered on distance rather than identification, illustrate Europe’s failure to reckon with its fascist and colonial history. The episode also features postcolonial scholar Sandra Ponzanesi (UU), who reflects on what needs to happen to facilitate a dialogue that, rather than remaining a performative gesture, actively decolonizes Europe from its imperial legacies.
References
Primary works
Zink, Nell. Sister Europe. Random House, 2025.
Secondary works
Ahmed, Sara. Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others. Duke University Press, 2006.
Cline, Jake. “In ‘Sister Europe,’ Witty Conversation Is Action Enough.” The Washington Post, 24 March 2025, www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/03/24/nell-zink-sister-europe-review/. Accessed 15 February 2026.
Dowling, Sarah. Translingual Poetics: Writing Personhood Under Settler Colonialism. University of Iowa Press, 2018.
Fisher, Mark. Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? Zero Books, 2009.
Garner, Dwight. “One Exhilarating, Excruciating Night in Nell Zink’s Berlin.” New York Times, March 2025.
Gilroy, Paul. “Foreword: Europe Otherwise.” Postcolonial Transitions in Europe, edited by Gianmaria Colpani and Sandra Ponzanesi, Rowman & Littlefield, 2015.
Kaiser, Marie and Thomas Böhm. “Nell Zink: ‘Berlin in der amerikanischen Literatur ist einfach so eine Art erweitertes Berghain.’” Die Literaturagenten, radioeins rbb, n.d., www.radioeins.de/programm/sendungen/literaturagenten/_/nell-zink-ueber-ihren-neuen-roman–sister-europe-.html. Accessed 13 May. 2026.
Kornbluh, Anna. Immediacy, or the Style of Too Late Capitalism. Verso Books, 2024.
Park-Ozee, Dakota. “Satire: An explication.” HUMOR, vol. 32, no. 4, 2019, pp. 585-604.
Peirson-Hagger, Ellen. “Sister Europe by Nell Zink Review – Ramshackle Wanderers in Berlin.” The Guardian, 20 April 2025, www.theguardian.com/books/2025/apr/20/sister-europe-by-nell-zink-review-ramshackle-wanderers-in-berlin. Accessed 15 February 2026.
Ponzanesi, Sandra, and Gianmaria Colpani. Postcolonial Transitions in Europe. Rowman & Littlefield, 2015.
Additional audio:
Politics and Prose. “Nell Zink — Sister Europe.” YouTube, Politics and Prose, 21 April 2025, 44 min. 59 sec. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qno-5pUDJO4&t=2139s. Accessed 13 May 2026.
Featured guest:
Sandra Ponzanesi is Full Professor and Chair of Media, Gender and Postcolonial Studies at the Department of Media and Culture Studies, Utrecht University. Her expertise is gender and postcolonial critique from a comparative and interdisciplinary perspective.
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