Stephanie Porras on Book Reviews

My guest today is Stephanie Porras, professor of art history at Tulane University. Stephanie is the author of multiple books, including, most recently, The First Viral Images: Maerten de Vos, Antwerp Print, and the Early Modern Globe (Penn State UP, 2023). And, she is the former reviews editor of The Art Bulletin, the flagship journal for art history in the US. So, I wanted to talk to Stephanie about book reviews.

Book reviews are one of the most common forms of publication for authors, very much including early-career authors, and they’re also part of a larger set of practices of reviewing that includes peer reviews and tenure letters. I felt Stephanie would be the perfect person to ask about how to write and read a review as she has herself been the author of many reviews; she teaches students how to write them; she’s commissioned an enormous number of them; and, as a book author, she has read many reviews of her own work.

Mentioned:

Karin Wulf, "How to Gut a (Scholarly) Book in 5 Almost-easy Steps," and her follow-up post.

Sylvia Houghteling, The Art of Cloth in Mughal India.

Kathryn Renton, Feral Empire.

Emily Wilbourne, Voice, Slavery, and Race in Seventeenth-Century Florence.

Email us at podcast@textformations.com.