(Un)Box the Soap Podcast

Symposium call for papers: https://asca.uva.nl/shared/subsites/amsterdam-institute-for-humanities-research/en/events/2027/03/supply-chain.html?origin=puxViJXMR4qLMjgCvCIKgA Supply Chain Criticism reading list: Campbell, Alexandra, and Jeff Diamanti. 2025. "Supply Chain Criticism: Seam, Interval, Hold."  Social Science Information . Advance online publication.  https://doi.org/10.1177/053...

In this episode, Shane and Lou sit down with Drs Diego Semerene and Misha Kavka of the Queer Analysis research group, a collective at the University of Amsterdam that analyses queerness through a psychoanalytic lens. They discuss the (often problematic) legacy of psychoanalysis as it approaches issues of queerness, as well as the specificity of queer psychoanalysis here at the University of Amster...

In this episode, Fern sits down with Aileen Ye, a filmmaker, writer and curator based in The Netherlands. Aileen’s practice explores contemporary subcultures, the body as a site of resistance, and the sociopolitical forces that shape visibility and expression. We discuss the power of movement, from diasporic club culture, to re-connecting with the land, and having dance parties in your bedroom. Ho...

In this episode of Unbox the Soap , hosts Anna and Shane interview Dr. Zay Dale from the University of Canvas to discuss his ongoing research into the politics of textiles in American slave narratives. Drawing from his article in the ASAP Review , Zay explains how fabrics such as osnaburg, cotton, and wool historically functioned as both tools of dehumanization and as sites of radical resistance....

In this episode, we sit down with Ren Ewart, a PhD candidate at the University of Groningen, to reflect on their 2021 piece for Soapbox Web, “Can you fix this for me? Knotted writing, textiles and language” , and discuss their current research project, “Tracing repair, needlework, mending in and beyond the museum.” Ewart's research attends to the various sites in which textile maintenance occurs t...

After a short break, Unbox the Soap returns with an episode on absence, featuring Marija Cetinić and Tessel Vaeneboer discussing their contributions to Soap Box Journal ’s latest issue On the Uses of Absence (6.0). The conversation explores the concept of sex negativity through feminist theory, psychoanalysis, and aesthetics, from feminist celibacy movements to filmic abstraction in Lars von Trier...

This instalment of Unbox the Soap has emerged from an rMA tutorial on Queer Ecologies. In those sessions, we explored how queerness, ecology and negativity intersect and interact, sometimes in complimentary and contradictory ways. This episode features Franek Dziduch, Richard-Josephine Weichert and Nia Daskalova, who introduce, discuss and analyse three objects: Zuzanna Ginczanka’s poem “Explanati...

The newest episode of (Un)Box the Soap Podcast features five performative readings loosely connected to the theme of flixbus poetry, or, more broadly, exploring the topic of contemporary travel. The works submitted unfold across two episodes. You can listen to the first one here. In the second episode, we invite you to listen to ‘Internationale Bussy’ by Luke Worthy, ‘Munster to Trento, March 4th,...

The newest episode of (Un)Box the Soap Podcast features four performative readings loosely connected to the theme of flixbus poetry, or, more broadly, exploring the topic of contemporary travel. The works submitted unfold across two episodes. In the first episode, we invite you to listen to ‘Familial Landscape’ by Haoran Zhi, ’Flixbus Chronicles’ by Elis Lipinski, and ‘Lake’ by Elia Meregalli. Fin...

In this episode of (Un)box the Soap Podcast , we voyage into the obscure territories of the Eastern European folk horror genre. We discuss three films from countries that no longer exist: the Soviet Viy (1967), the Yugoslavian Leptirica (1973), and the Czechoslovak Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970). Continuing our witchy fascinations from the last episode, we explore how feminine representati...

In this episode of (Un)Box the Soap Podcast we will take you on a journey through magic, herbal medicine, tarot cards, and other witchy things! We had the pleasure to talk with Lara Senske (@cosmia.absurd), a professional tarot card reader and a drag performer, and Fedora Boonaert, art historian and designer who specializes in herbs and scents. Witches have been, and still are, everywhere, but for...

In our second episode of (Un)box the Soap Podcast, we continue our journey through the swamps and examine how this porous ecosystem manifests in culture.  Whether it's through watching the film La Ciénaga , listening to swamp-pop, walking through the streets of London, or examining the history of the Great Dismal Swamp Maroons, we explore the swamp’s potentiality of creating new meanings, seei...

Hello and welcome to the first episode of the (Un)Box the Soap Podcast! Anticipating the release of the fifth edition of our journal, we would like to invite you to the realm of swamps. How does the swamp speak? What can we hear when we tune in to its sounds? What are the things we can learn about and from the swamp, and how can it inform ourselves, as well as the world we inhabit? Can our engagem...