Public Scholarship & Engagement

(selections)

July 13, 2026

Professor McIntosh’s work on Trump’s language is extensively quoted in Les Echos.

Mar 9, 2026

Janet McIntosh’s Kill Talk is cited in Casey Ryan Kelly’s discussion of Pete Hegseth’s rhetoric in The Independent.

Feb 3, 2026

McIntosh is quoted on the power of profanity in “How Did the F-bomb Take Over Politics?” by Leah Eichler, Globe & Mail.

Dec 24, 2025

Professor McIntosh tells the Washington Times that Trump’s verbal framing of issues “encourages Americans to harden their hearts against those he considers outsiders.”

Dec 2, 2025

David Livingstone Smith discusses some of Prof. McIntosh's findings in his substack "Dehumanization Matters."

Nov 2025

Professor McIntosh discusses Donald Trump and the Epstein revelations with Le Devoir.

Sept 19, 2025

On Janet McIntosh’s Kill Talk: Language and Military Necropolitics

Doug Anderson, Vietnam veteran and poet, reviews Janet McIntosh’s book Kill Talk in CounterPunch.

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Book cover titled "Kill Talk: Language and Military Necropolitics" by Janet McIntosh, featuring an illustration of a human head with a military helmet that has the words "BORN TO KILL" written on it.

Aug 20, 2025

Wiki Observatory excerpts portions of Kill Talk

(This article was reprinted in CounterPunch, LA Progressive, Rozenberg Quarterly, NationofChange, Asia Times, and New Zealand News.)

Wiki Observatory logo with a simplified white telescope icon on the left and the words 'Wiki Observatory' in bold white letters on a black background.
Book cover titled 'KILL TALK' with a subtitle 'Language and Military Necropolitics' by Janet McIntosh. The cover features an illustration of a human head with a helmet labeled 'BORN TO KILL' and exposed brain structures.

Aug 2025

Professor McIntosh appears with Vietnam veteran Doug Anderson on WHMP News Talk to discuss Kill Talk.

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Book cover titled 'Kill Talk' with a subtitle 'Language and Military Necropolitics' by Janet McIntosh, featuring an illustration of a human head with a military helmet labeled 'Born to Kill' displaying a silhouette of a soldier and barbed wire.

July 9, 2025

Janet McIntosh is interviewed about Kill Talk by John Armenta for New Books Network

(56 min audio in link)

Black background with yellow text reading "NEW BOOKS" and white text reading "NETWORK". Small white book icon at the bottom left.
Book cover titled "Kill Talk" with the subtitle "Language and Military Necropolitics" by Janet McIntosh. The cover features a black and gray graphic of a human head with a military helmet labeled "Born to Kill", blending human anatomy with military imagery.

Summer 2025

Janet McIntosh discusses Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s enthusiasm for kinetic and verbal brutality in Brandeis Magazine

The image features a solid blue background with the word 'Brandeis' written in white serif font.
Book cover titled 'Kill Talk: Language and Military Necropolitics' by Janet McIntosh, featuring an illustrative profile of a human head with exposed brain, wearing a helmet with the words 'Born to Kill' written on it, against a textured black background.

May 12, 2025

Norma Mendoza-Denton interviews Janet McIntosh about Kill Talk for the CaMP (Communication, Media, Performance) Anthropology website

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Book cover titled "Kill Talk: Language and Military Necropolitics" by Janet McIntosh, featuring a stylized illustration of a human head with the words "Born to Kill" on the helmet.

Feb 24, 2025

Professor McIntosh interviews Alex Pillen about her book Endurance: Speaking Kurdish in a Warped World, on the CaMP Anthropology website

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Book cover titled 'Endurance: Speaking Kurdish in a Warped World' by Alex Pillen, featuring abstract blurred lights and jewelry against a dark background.

Nov 12, 2024

Nick Turse interviews Professor McIntosh for his article in The Intercept about the racist arm patches worn by U.S. military personnel during its shadow war in Yemen.

Nov 4, 2024

McIntosh’s The Edge of Islam is discussed as one of psychologist Susan Gelman’s picks for “The Best Books on Essentialism,” for Five Books.

Sept 28, 2023

Janet McIntosh was the late Barbara Ehrenreich’s research assistant and friend for over two decades. She joins Cornel West, Bernie Sanders, Jia Tolentino, Alissa Quart, Frances Fox Piven, Matthew Desmond, and Tom Lewandowski in a tribute to Ehrenreich at the Center for Brooklyn History.

May 20, 2023

McIntosh’s work on Trump’s language is mentioned in discussion of a Chinese propaganda campaign in The Diplomat.

Nov 3, 2022

Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz interview Janet Mcintosh about the “Let’s Go Brandon” phenomenon, QAnon, and alt-right language on the podcast Recall This Book

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A store sign reading 'Let's Go Brandon' with clown-style socks, a T-shirt, and a bomb-shaped keychain hanging from a clothesline against a blue sky.

Sept 16, 2022

An AP report about the way Trump amplifies QAnon conspiracy theories quotes Janet McIntosh. (Reprinted in PBS Newshour, The Week, npr.org, Huffpost.com, The Independent, The Globe and Mail, Tulsa World, Fox 10 Phoenix, New Zealand Herald, and more).

Summer 2022

Brandeis Magazine features an interview with Professor McIntosh about QAnon’s communication style

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Jul 18, 2022.

Professor McIntosh is quoted on “moral injury” in Knowable magazine.

Jan 7, 2022

A Chicago Tribune Op-Ed about the “color-coded and racially charged” language of January 6th quotes Janet McIntosh.

Feb 24, 2021

An article about presidential language in The New York Times quotes Professor McIntosh.

Jan 21, 2021

BrandeisNow interviews Professor McIntosh about Trump’s language of insurrection on January 6th.

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Oct 20, 2020

Janet McIntosh writes about how Trump uses “coded language” to speak to his base.

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Former President Donald Trump speaking at a rally, standing behind a podium with the presidential seal, in front of a crowd holding signs and wearing red hats.

Aug 6, 2020

Scientific American quotes Professor McIntosh’s work on language ideology.

May 20, 2020

Janet McIntosh writes for the Fifteen Eighty Four blog about the way Trump maps Covid-19 onto immigrants, in a post titled “The ‘Invisible Enemy’: Language, Trump, and Covid-19.”

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Jun 14, 2018

The New York Times cites Janet McIntosh’s work on Swahili and neighboring societies.

Feb 2, 2018

Europe Now profiles Professor McIntosh’s research and teaching in “Language, Affect, and Everyday Experience in Post-colonial Africa: An Interview with Janet McIntosh.”

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Aug 1, 2017

McIntosh discusses “5 Books I Assign to Make the Strange Familiar and the Familiar, Strange” on the Political Theology Network’s “Books We Love.”